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A billionaires’ tax pushed by radical leftists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders on California’s ballot next month — and with “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ready to take the idea national — a furious, freak alliance of enemies has formed to try to kill it.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is locking arms with furious Republicans, Hollywood elites, and Silicon Valley tech titans to crush the Golden State tax hike before it starts.
Proposition 40 would slap a one-time 5% surtax on the wealth of California billionaires and send most of the money to healthcare, to be paid beginning in 2027 in up to five annual installments.
If the tax scheme passes by referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot, it has the potential to kickstart the debate in Congress, or it could even get copied in other high-wealth states.
Sponsored by the powerful Service Employees International Union and United Healthcare Workers West, it is also backed by democratic socialist Sanders (I-Vt.) and comrade Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who represents Silicon Valley.
It’s also gotten a boost from advisors to radical leftist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and its top individual donor is Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff to Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who gave $201,000. Those two lawmakers, plus Sanders, are behind efforts in Congress to try to tax billionaires’ wealth.
“It’s a blueprint for direct democracy in the states to retake their power and address some of the actions by Congress,” said Robert Dempsey, San Francisco-based political director of the Sanders-linked Our Revolution, which is pushing the proposal, venting about 2025 Medicaid cuts.
“When leaders don’t lead, the people will hold them accountable. This transcends partisanship,” he warned.
A Mason-Dixon poll last month found support for the measure leading 48% to 39%, with 14% undecided. The proposal has since come under a barrage of attack ads — not only from potential White House hopeful Newsom — but from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and Republican Steven Hilton.
Becerra called it “sketchy” and Hilton called it an “insider swamp game” that endangers the economy. The “no” votes were leading by 50-35 in a Manhattan Institute poll early this month.
Newsom has argued that a wealth tax could put California at a disadvantage as some billionaires consider leaving the state. He has instead voiced support for a national approach to taxing billionaire wealth, while arguing that state lawmakers — not a ballot initiative — should decide how California spends its money.
There are already multiple bills in the hopper in Congress to go after billionaires and the rich, with versions by Sanders and Khanna that resemble Prop 40, one by Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) to tax “ultra-millionaires,” and more sure to follow with a new crop of DSA lawmakers set to join the House.
Also trashing the proposal are Planned Parenthood and the powerful California Teachers Association union, since it directs the estimated $100 billion money haul toward healthcare instead of schools.
Billionaire Google cofounder Sergey Brin has spent more than $100 million blasting the proposal on the airwaves.
Pollster Brad Coker of Mason Dixon was perplexed that 19% of Republicans supported Prop 40 in his longtime firm’s poll.
“I just couldn’t explain it,” he told The Post.
One theory: the Democratic opposition playing out on California airwaves could be causing a reaction. “What if these guys are voting for it because the Hollywood crowd’s objecting to it all of a sudden,” he said.
Coker also cautioned that voters who remain undecided late in a ballot campaign tend to break against initiatives — a pattern that could pose a challenge for Proposition 40.