California voters reject Proposition 40, a one-time wealth tax on billionaires

California voters rejected Proposition 40, a proposed one-time 5% tax on the net worth of any Californian worth more than $1 billion. With all precincts reporting as of Monday evening, 52.8% of voters opposed the measure, according to the secretary of state. That is about 5.9 million votes. Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed the measure. In a June Substack post, he said the revenue would go almost entirely to health care and nothing would go to housing, child care, public safety or public universities. He still supports a national wealth tax on people with a net worth over $100 million. The California Teachers Association, the California Medical Association and firefighters' groups also opposed the measure. Tech executives spent heavily to defeat it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent over $100 million of his own money to help defeat the proposal. The measure would have taxed billionaires living in California on or before January 1, 2026, and opponents had warned that it could drive wealthy residents out of the state.

The result came during a Democratic-leaning election in which several progressive candidates won, including Nithya Raman, who was elected Los Angeles mayor.