California Democrats just told Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra to take a hike. In a narrow, messy vote that required last-minute switcheroos, the state party endorsed Proposition 40 — a one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of roughly 200 billionaires living in the state as of January 1, 2026.
The measure, pushed hard by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, claims it will rake in about $100 billion to paper over federal healthcare funding cuts. Ninety percent of that money would go to healthcare programs. The rest would land on food assistance and education. Supporters wave it around as emergency medicine for Medi-Cal. Critics see something simpler: a radical wealth grab that treats private property like a public piggy bank.
Newsom has fought this thing for months. He warned that a state-only wealth tax would put California at a competitive disadvantage because the ultra-rich can — and will — simply leave. He pushed instead for a federal version so no one could escape. Becerra, the Democratic nominee to replace him, also said no.
On Friday he reaffirmed his opposition while backing Proposition 3, which would lock in an existing income tax surcharge on high earners for education. Both men know the numbers. California already leans heavily on its top earners for income tax revenue. Chase enough of them out and the whole progressive tax machine starts coughing.
That did not stop the party’s grassroots. The resolutions committee recommended support. Then the executive board, meeting in San Diego, failed to clear the 60 percent threshold on the first try. Two delegates flipped. The final tally hit 61 percent — 145 to 90 among the 235 present. Cheers broke out. The divide inside the party is now public and raw.
Labor is split too. Teamsters California and AFSCME California are on board. The California Teachers Association, United Domestic Workers, and others are not. SEIU California stayed neutral. Police chiefs and laborers have lined up against it. Even some of the usual progressive allies see the danger of lighting a match near the state’s most mobile wealth.
This is not abstract theory. California has already watched high earners and companies head for lower-tax states. Sergey Brin and other tech heavyweights have poured money into competing measures designed to blunt Prop 40 if it passes. The threat is real because the tax is not a simple income surcharge. It reaches into total net worth — stocks, private businesses, real estate, art, the works. Pay it in 2027 or stretch it over five years at a premium. One time only, they promise. Until the next emergency.
Scripture does not celebrate envy dressed up as justice. Luke 12:15 records Jesus saying, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
The progressive left keeps treating the accumulation of wealth as a moral offense rather than the result of risk, innovation, and work. California’s problem is not a shortage of billionaires. It is a government that spends with abandon, regulates with zeal, and then acts shocked when the productive class starts looking for the exit.
Newsom’s sudden conversion to a national wealth tax looks like political cover more than conviction. He spent years protecting the state’s competitive edge. Now the party base is forcing the issue and daring the establishment to catch up. Becerra is stuck opposing a measure popular with the activists who will decide his future. The endorsement gives Prop 40 official party muscle for mailers and messaging heading into November.
Voters will decide whether California becomes the first state to impose this kind of wealth tax. If it passes, expect more departures, less investment, and the same old cycle of demanding more from whoever is left. Class warfare makes for good applause lines at party conventions.
It makes for poor long-term policy in a state already struggling to keep its economic engine running. The delegates who flipped those last votes may feel righteous today. The rest of California will live with the consequences.
