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The proponents of a California billionaire tax didn’t just lose their campaign to impose a first-in-the-nation tax on wealthy people’s assets. They also appear to have lost a campaign that will make it harder for them to try again in the future.
Proposition 42, which prohibits new taxes on personal property such as business holdings, intellectual property and financial assets, is leading by a wide margin at 54% with nearly 60% of anticipated votes counted. It was one of two measures that tech billionaires placed on the ballot in an effort to cancel out the wealth tax.
Its apparent passage puts proponents of Proposition 40 — who have vowed to keep pushing for a tax on the wealthiest residents — at an immediate disadvantage.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says Prop. 42 will make it harder for state lawmakers to raise taxes in the future and potentially reduce state revenue, though it’s hard to say how much.
And for the many California Democratic leaders who said they wanted the wealthy to pay more taxes but didn’t like how Prop. 40 was written, Prop. 42 will prevent them from considering a differently written asset tax.
Proponents of…
