Klox

The proposed wealth tax is a one time tax, not annual. For someone with over a billion dollars, they can live wherever they want to already. They are in California for particular reasons – spouse, family, friends, businesses located in California. They will not go anywhere. And if they do, then be gone. That also means not “pretending” to live somewhere else while being present in California for 364 days.

The idea that we only tax annually is also an absurd notion. Society needs to progress our taxation structure, not fear the 0.0003%.

Sorry, I’m not buying that race to the bottom mentality. The proposed law includes part-time residence because we know billionaires aren’t just going to stop living in California, even if they pay suits to play shell games and make it seem like they’ve left on paper. The state should exhaustively audit the hell out of them. Zuckerberg himself has spent hundreds of millions buying property. Good luck moving that out of the state.

It’s not a terrible idea, it just isn’t sufficient. A lot of reforms gets pushed through states first before going national (gay marriage, marijuana, healthcare, etc.). Billionaire wealth tax in California is exactly what we need as a first step.