Gavin Newsom urges a national 'billionaires' tax' while fighting one in California

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom , called for a national “billionaires tax” on Friday as he fights a ballot measure targeting the ultra-wealthy in his home state. Newsom, who is expected to run for president in 2028, published his proposal the day after California officials certified a ballot proposal to levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1bn. The proposal, called the California Billionaire Tax Act, was brought by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and would fund the state’s healthcare, education and food assistance programs. The proposal has received more than 1.55m signatures, but has spurred intense pushback from the state’s richest residents as well as several other prominent labor unions. Newsom strongly opposes the measure, arguing it will hurt the state’s economy. In his Substack post on Friday, Newsom expanded on his opposition and framed it as an ineffective solution. “I understand the anxiety driving the wealth tax proposal in California . But I’m voting no because this measure dedicates almost all of the revenue it raises to a single category of state spending,” Newsom wrote. Newsom argued that a state-level billionaire tax would be easily dodged by wealthy people who are able to move their assets to other states. Already, several billionaires, including Google co-founder Larry Page, have either threatened to leave California or made efforts to cut ties with the state. …