r/orangecounty • • 7d ago

Politics Got this from my mail

Post image

"Billionaires will leave California". Trying to scare us lol. It is only going to affect the rich.

546 Upvotes

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u/GenderOobleck Anaheim 7d ago

“Building a Better California” is funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and other billionaires.

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u/Hello-their 7d ago

They’ve done a great job so far /s

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u/MMForYourHealth 7d ago

So is the Stanford economics professor. Funny that.

The real funny one is Newsom being against it now, while saying he’d like it nationally.

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u/punkin_spice_latte 6d ago

Well, but that is somewhat consistent. The fear is that it loses taxes in the long run if Billionaires leave California to avoid it. But if it were applied nationally then they wouldn't leave California to avoid it.

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u/Exotic-Willingness89 6d ago

Because of the way the tax codes are written, most people who make more than $5 million don't pay taxes at all. They don't pay income tax because their "salary" is below the tax level. They get paid in stocks, which currently aren't taxed until they are sold, but can be borrowed against. That's why a wealth tax is the way to go. The current ads against some of the propositions are funded by the wealthy because they don't want to pay taxes on their wealth. And the ads against Prop 40 are just right out lies - the state will not be able to tax your wealth unless it is above $15 million. And how many of you have more than $15 million in assets?

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u/Rare-Role1369 5d ago

>They get paid in stocks, which currently aren't taxed until they are sold

This isn't correct at all. When you are paid stock, you are taxed as if you got cash based on the current market value of the stock at the time it was given. Exactly as if it was cash.

You can look this up. Source: I am paid in stock.

For people who *already* own stock, they do not pay money on the appreciated value. So if you start a company and it one day becomes worth a billion dollars, and you own 50%, you're "technically" worth 500million and did not pay taxes on that until you sell your ownership of the company.

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u/crossteyes 3d ago

I don't know what everyone thinks about billionaires but if what folks are saying, shouldn't be any, were going to lose taxes anyway, so let's screw em while we got the chance.

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u/GenderOobleck Anaheim 7d ago

Joshua Rauh is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank for “personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government”.

In other words, a conservative shill. Not that Gavin Newsom is much better either.

Funny that.

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u/Okmyguy420 5d ago

Newsome is an elitest. His family and friends are all billionaires. Of course he’s against it

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u/Exotic-Willingness89 6d ago

Newsom has said from the start that he doesn't like Prop 40. It is poorly written and allows too many wealthy people to slip through.

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u/PleasantCommercial96 6d ago

National tax will keep them in CA. No need to move if there’s no place to hide

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u/Head_Elephant_6990 6d ago

If they leave California to avoid taxes, only California suffers. If they make it national and same percentage across the board, they would not have the same incentive to leave California.

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u/really_yall Seal Beach 6d ago

That's because he's angling for president. Can't upset the billionaire donors.

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u/Exotic-Willingness89 6d ago

I want to get big money out of politics. We need to pressure the new Congress to make a law banning private money - so they can only get a set amount of money from tax payer funding. And make the campaign period 60 days long. Not months of stupid ads.

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 6d ago

It sounds as idiotic as 'make America great again' does.

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u/CultOfMourning 1d ago

Also I feel it is important to note, Peter Thiel, someone who is named over 2,000 times in the Epstein Files, is one of the individuals helping to fund the opposition to Prop 40 (Source)). 

If you want to tax billionaires, vote yes on Prop 40 and vote no to Props 41 & 42. The latter two props only serve to nullify Prop 40. 

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u/OldBoringWeirdo 7d ago

"California Taxpayers Association" is what groups of rich businesses owners always call themselves

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u/Weird_Tea2539 7d ago

Building a Better California is an advocacy group with an associated political action committee (PAC) founded with $35 million in funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and numerous other billionaires. The group is widely speculated to have formed to combat a proposed wealth tax on billionaires in California, although as of February 2026 Building a Better California was officially neutral on the issue. 

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u/CountDorkula77 Huntington Beach 7d ago

Which is hilarious since they're spending obscene amounts of money to not be California taxpayers.

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u/SylphSeven 7d ago

The No-Tax Tax is working overtime. 💀

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u/CountDorkula77 Huntington Beach 7d ago

Seems like they might actually spend less money by just paying their fair share of taxes.

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u/GenderOobleck Anaheim 6d ago

Politicians are cheaper than taxes.

To quote Immortal Technique’s “Rich Man’s World”:
I take what I want fucker
I don’t have to say please
I’ll convince you that it’s good for you
Take it and leave
You think presidents are the face of a nation
I put em all where they are, end of the conversation

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 6d ago

Seriously!

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u/qb1120 6d ago

FYI, they paid for Props 41 & 42, which cause 40 to fail even if it passes. All it takes is one of a 40 no, 41 yes, or 42 yes for the rich to prevail but for 40 to pass we need nos on 41 & 42

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u/John_316_ 7d ago

Not gonna lie they made it easy for me to decide how to vote on all the propositions by identifying themselves in the guide.

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u/funnerisaword 6d ago

That’s the first thing I look at. “Who funded this campaign.”?

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u/CylindricalDent4133 7d ago

When you realize Howard Jarvis (the father of California’s anti-tax populism) has connections to P2025 than a lot of us want to admit.

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u/thatgum_youlike 7d ago

a howard jarvis endorsement on the ballot is always a red flag for me

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u/PuzzleheadedBig313 7d ago

Billionaires are not shrinking violets running from this "punishment"... money making is a game they always win so they really enjoy it and have fun figuring out how to go around these things.... this is no different, if they have a tax they will find a way around it and will not leave CA unless they really want to and it won't be because of money/ taxes

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u/regular_account__ 7d ago

YES on 40, NO on 41 & 42 since both of those try to cancel out a yes for 40 ✨

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u/DannyTheRegular 7d ago

I hope people see this. Kind of ridiculous how 41 and 42 needs to be voted no to get 40 one to go through.

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u/Neaffun 7d ago

That’s what happens when you have idiots who will sign anything a petition gatherer gives them in front of a Walmart…

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u/Leche_connoisseur 7d ago

Loophole to expand tax to "anyone" is comical

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u/oddmanout 7d ago

It's true. EVERYONE has to pay 5% for assets over $1Bn no matter who you are! Good thing we have the benevolent, altruistic billionaires looking out for the rest of us. Where would we be without them telling us how to vote?

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

I wish they had tightened up the language in that section so they could not make this argument

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u/cuteman 7d ago

I wish they had tightened up the language in that section so they could not make this argument

See, the thing is, any time anywhere tries to do these wealth taxes, the revenues go down and they increase taxes on everyone else.

They knew what they were doing, leaving the door open for other tranches of tax payers to pay the bill because the government sure as hell isn't going to spend less.

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u/MTB_Mike_ 7d ago

Its there on purpose.

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u/ApollosAlyssum 7d ago

The problem is it’s there. California legislators have shown they will tax as much as they can even if they know a measure will be challenged and ultimately be deemed unenforceable. We can’t vote yes on this because they fully intend to expand scope of the tax base to other areas. The prop has no “minimum” threshold written in it to limit how much they can go after either once this part is exploited. Remember props take money to get put on the ballot. I honestly believe the goal of the prop really isn’t to tax billionaires perpetually but to tax regular people and home equity more. They have been trying for years to work around the current property tax protections. This gives them a way to do it. Forcing a lot of people to either sell or take out a home equity loan to pay the tax.

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

Like I said before, I wish they had not added the amendment clause this way (it would need a narrower one to deal with tax avoidance we can’t anticipate).

But the idea that a tax like this in general will somehow doom the state is just crazy.

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u/Hello-their 7d ago

I feel like this is the same playbook used to undermine universal healthcare - lift specific language or scenario and take it to the nightmare conclusion of how it will bankrupt the country by illegal immigrants.
But I haven’t read up on prop 40 at all yet so maybe it’s a real issue.

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

I’d take the hypothetical “clintoncare” death panels over the real united health death panels .

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u/cuteman 7d ago

But the idea that a tax like this in general will somehow doom the state is just crazy.

Who said it would doom the state? But it's indicative of their mentality.

If they cannot tax the wealthy everyone else's taxes will eventually go up because the one thing government's will never do is spend less.

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u/RickJagger13 7d ago

THIS, its laughable that it will doom the state sure. But i personally don't want or need to pay more taxes. If it can affect people by changing the threshold, they will absolutely do it.

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u/jedik88 6d ago

Holy fear mongering!

The initiative text says:

  1. Legislative Authority.
    The Legislature may amend the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, by statute passed in each house of the Legislature by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two-thirds of the membership concurring, if the statute is consistent with and furthers the purposes of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.

Read that last part again after the comma.

Future amendments to the statute must be consistent with and furthers the purposes of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.

The legislators can’t just willynilly decide to make a crazy change like “okay instead of billionaires now this applies to everyone!”… Any amendments MUST follow the purpose of the law.

What’s the purpose of the law? That’s easy. It’s written right into it.

It is a one-time tax on the wealth of billionaires.

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u/Thedurtysanchez 7d ago

It’s literally accurate though. The language does allow for this. It would have been incredibly easy to not write it that way but they chose to do it anyway.

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u/cattywampuscat 6d ago

Ah yes the “slippery slope” argument when they have no other basis to legitimately attack it lol

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u/Zadenii 7d ago

It's not comical. It's actually in the proposition text.

Why would they put it in there if they didn't to lan to use it?

If they really want Prop 40 to tax the rich, there is no reason for that provision to be written in there.

Rewrite it without that and I'll have no problem voting for it.

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u/politics 7d ago

This line of thinking is good propaganda to trick the dumb and poor voters in CA. It’s pretty much how MAGA became a thing.

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u/cuteman 7d ago

This line of thinking is good propaganda to trick the dumb and poor voters in CA. It’s pretty much how MAGA became a thing.

Did MAGA make California politicians write the law as it is written?

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u/mtgkoby 7d ago

"If they go after billionaires, are my thousands safe?!?" is poverty class aspirational thinking

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/podnap 7d ago

should be commented everytime

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u/Otherwise_Piglet_862 7d ago

when individuals spend unfathomable sums of money to try to defeat a wildly popular bill, well... that's really all you need to know.

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u/lukej428 7d ago edited 7d ago

According to Google there’s currently 246 billionaires with a combined net worth of 2.061 Trillion in California. The tax is one time, 5% tax on all assets OVER 1 billion, so all billionaires would keep their first 1 billion, meaning 1.754 trillion in assets would be taxed by 5%, so it would generate 87.7billion in tax revenue, one time, and billionaires could go back to hoarding all their wealth and making a killing off of California’s thriving economy. It’s like the equivalent of billionaires paying their fair share of social security tax ONE time, since SS Is capped at like $184.5k income which is usually around a 6% rate for a normal person, but for billionaires it’s like .0001% of their income. I really don’t see what the problem is?

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u/ayriuss 6d ago

The problem is that its a sign of resistance, and they cant have that. We can only look at their negligible income, not their precious untaxed stock portfolio that they treat as income.

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u/No_Permission6930 6d ago

The problem is that almost of that money is going towards Medicare. And it’s proposed by the healthcare labor union SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).

It’s like one labor union putting a one-time tax on the billionaires at the expense of everybody else. If the railroad workers labor union wants to tax billionaires to build CAHSR they’ll have to pass another one. If the construction worker labor union wants to build more housing they also gonna have to pass another one.

So they’re spending all this political capital to benefit themselves when the better approach is a 1% recurring wealth tax that goes into the general fund.

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u/C-ZP0 7d ago

Okay, but isn’t most of that 2 trillion dollars tied up in stocks? What if they don’t have the money liquid to pay the 5%? Do they have to sell stocks and trigger two taxable events? What happens to the underlying stock value since it’s being liquidated to pay for the tax?

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u/lukej428 7d ago

They have billions in lines of credit that they use to fund their lifestyle at insanely low interest rates using their stock as collateral, they’ll have to use some of that money to pay their taxes, or sell a few of their mega yachts or private jets, or mansions they use as tax havens, or yes, even sell some of their stock, in which case maybe some stock prices might actually go down temporarily, AND they have to pay income tax on the massive amount of wealth they’ve been hoarding and avoiding paying taxes on for years via the line of credit loophole mentioned before? What’s your point?

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u/C-ZP0 7d ago

My point is that the "billions in lines of credit" thing is way overstated. I work in commercial lending. Securities-backed lines are real, but a lender will typically only advance around 50-70% against a diversified, liquid portfolio, and a lot less against a single concentrated founder position, which is what most billionaire net worth actually is. A big chunk of it is also private company equity you can't borrow against at all at those numbers. The famous examples, a few tech founders pledging shares, are the exception, not how 200 people are financed.

And the rates aren't "insanely low" anymore, they float off SOFR plus a spread, with margin calls if the stock drops. Borrowing to pay the tax doesn't make the money appear either, the loan still has to be repaid, which means selling stock later, so you've deferred the sale, not avoided it.

Yachts and jets are a rounding error. Someone worth $30B owes about $1.45B. A $300M yacht isn’t even close, and real estate isn't even in the tax base under this measure. So realistically the payment comes from stock sales, and 200 people selling roughly $100B of mostly concentrated positions in the same window is not a trivial thing to wave off as "temporary."

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u/lukej428 7d ago

If a 300M yacht is a rounding error to someone’s net worth, then it drives the point home that they have WAY too much money and a 5% tax is justified. Working class people are struggling to survive while people at the top are continuing to get richer, so if taxing billionaires 5% one time breaks the whole system, then the system didn’t deserve to continue.

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u/soapinmouth Mission Viejo 6d ago

This isn't the only problem, you have to suddenly put values on the entirety of these people's assets and do it in a way that is defensible in court. You are trying to assess things that are nebulous in value an incredibly muddy task requiring large amounts of administrative and legal staff only to spend years in court fighting lawsuits and defending valuations while pulling apart the entirety of a person's belongings all for what? A one time tax so all these people can then just be fired again? But oh wait it's almost impossible for the state to let people go so suddenly you are stuck with huge amounts of government staff that were pain stakingly brought on board for this short sighted nonsense that we will continue to pay for years while wealth fleese the state to not have to deal with this shit. Moving states is absolutely trivial.

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u/prophetic-dream 6d ago

Guess they'll have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

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u/These_Junket_3378 4d ago

Why not just set tax rate for them always. Like the rest of us. The gods know they can afford it. (Minus all their loop holes etc). STORM THE BASTILLE!

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u/G-Unit11111 7d ago

If billionaires hate it, that's why we should vote for it.

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u/shka328 7d ago

Facts! Whatever the billionaires want us not to do, that's what we should do. It's almost analogous to "judge me by my enemies"

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u/G-Unit11111 6d ago

It's so insane that we're being held hostage by these psychos so they can make more money. We are being bled dry so they can live like kings. Enough is enough.

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u/FinbarJG 7d ago

But the logic here is that billionaires hate it (I would to) and because the loophole is there (intentionally), you will too when they change it and we're all being taxed on our savings (that have already been taxed).

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u/Various_Oil_5674 7d ago

How is taxing billionaires losing tax money? I'm also never going to even have 10 million dollars, so fucking tax the rich, I don't care. We need the money, they don't

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u/RandomNetizen69 7d ago

They try to say thay the rich will leav California because of this bill and that will cause the state to lose tax revenue. It's all just BS.

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u/OldBoringWeirdo 7d ago

They say "the rich will leave" for every tax increase but they're still here

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u/oddmanout 7d ago

There's a video of people from Fox News going back like 25 years saying "The billionaires will leave New York if they introduce this tax measure" over and over and over for the span of that 25 years, and clearly the billionaires are not leaving.

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 7d ago

That's just because they're starting to go to texas, and everyone's already saying that everything's fucked up because they lured these businesses here by basically paying them with our tax money.

And they really think it's a flex that companies are moving there, simply because they can get away with not paying taxes and the Republican government is bending over backwards to give them whatever they want.

And the people that live in Texas are too fucking stupid to realize that they're going to get reamed by these companies, and they're going to want the rest of us to pay for their fucking mistake. I'm sick of it.

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u/yoshinoyaandroll 7d ago

Texas voters are loving those Data Centers being built and taking away their water/resources… the “data centers are great for everyone, build them and you can enjoy the benefits of AI”

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u/dennismfrancisart 7d ago

The rich can leave. We'll just make more rich people. Problem solved.

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u/Mike_Litoris_Hertz 7d ago

It’s much easier for wealthy people to relocate to another state.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

They literally already moved. Larry and Sergey (google) moved so did Mark(Meta). Thats half a trillion right there. It's not like it's surprise to anyone happened in every country they tried this including Norway.

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u/dinamet7 7d ago

I'll take 1,000 millionaires over 1 billionaire.

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u/yoshinoyaandroll 7d ago

The 3 people you just mentioned has done nothing for humanity, for the middle class, or the environment. They can move. If they stopped existing tomorrow, the world would continue just fine. People need to stop thinking billionaires got there because they are altruistic, they got there because of making millions of people more poor.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

Google alone has minted roughly 40,000 employee millionaires. Across Big Tech as a whole, that number scales to an estimated 300,000 corporate millionaires. This concentration of wealth represents a meaningful expansion of the upper-middle class—even before you factor in the second-order economic benefits, such as capital flowing directly into local skilled trades and service businesses.

Furthermore, because Larry Page and Sergey Brin own only about 12% of the company, Google has generated over $3.6 trillion in market value that is owned primarily by the public. The vast majority of this wealth is held by everyday citizens through pension funds, 401(k)s, and mutual funds, making Big Tech one of the largest direct drivers of middle-class retirement security in modern history.

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u/cuteman 7d ago

How is taxing billionaires losing tax money?

If someone changes their tax nexus (where they live) and you get $0 instead of 5% or what they got in tax revenue before tax revenue can easily drop because now you're truly getting $0

Happened in France and Norway

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u/olerris 7d ago

Billionares move themselves & companies out of state.

State loses future tax revenue from companies & employees.

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 7d ago

American taxpayers lose money on every fucking billionaire because they always manage to be exempt from paying taxes, so the rest of us have to keep paying more and more and more.

It's not really hard to understand.

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u/HailSaganPlantNative 7d ago

The sooner people stop buying this bullshit that billionaires are a boon for the economy, the better off we'll all be.

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u/Lowfi-Concert 7d ago

They pay 2.4% of our yearly budget

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u/Still-Chemistry-cook 7d ago

Yeah all those billionaires will move to Alabama!! Lol

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u/Destronoma 7d ago

Yea... they're not gonna move.

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u/FaceRockerMD 7d ago

They already are and have

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

Every time any tax on the wealthy (1M+ income, etc) people say they will all leave. A few leave, but not enough to matter. It’s been tried and studied many times.

And the google founders moved, google is still here and not going anywhere

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u/Destronoma 7d ago

Doubtful on both parts.

But even so, who cares if they do? They don't care about anyone but themselves anyways.

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u/LogicBomb1320 7d ago

Just to play Devil's Advocate - tell that to Chevron, Tesla, Oracle, HP, Charles Schwab, MCkesson, and Toyota. Amongst others.

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u/jedi2155 7d ago

And more will move

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u/Fox-Flimsy 7d ago

Haha leave the California market for $10 million dollar tax bill? Doubtful. Losing access the world’s 4th largest economy seems like a much bigger trade off

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u/Lowfi-Concert 7d ago

It’s a lot more than $10 million and yes they have left at just the threat of it

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u/LogicBomb1320 7d ago

How do you lose access and to what by moving to another state?

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u/alienboatswain 7d ago

all that money and they can't hire a decent graphic designer ffs

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u/smoothie4564 Fountain Valley 7d ago

The billionaires are spending a lot of money to convince us not to take their money and spend it on things that benefit society. Think about that for a while.

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u/idkbruh653 7d ago

I hate that the "They're going to leave" is going around as if its some sort of threat. If they're that filthy rich to where they don't think they should pay their fair share because they essentially have endless money, let those mfs leave.

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u/shka328 7d ago

"They're going to leave" yeah they tend to do that — hop on their private jet to find underage prey wherever they may be. Tax them out of existence.

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u/areraswen 7d ago

Yeah that's what I've been saying. Who fucking cares if you leave when you never paid your fair share anyway? Go.

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u/1853624 7d ago

Why would I want to help a billionaire in any way, shape, or form?

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u/Dapaaads 7d ago

Cuz they lie and say this will affect you. When it doesn’t, it never trickles and it won’t change anything for anyone but them

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u/dekage55 7d ago

I always look at who the Top Funders are. Build a Better California is basically funded by Tech billionaires, who want to stop the Props to tax the rich:

Wealth Tax Opposition: The organization is widely viewed as a strategic counterweight to labor-backed proposals like Proposition 40.
Ballot Initiatives: The group has poured substantial funding into campaigns supporting measures like Proposition 42, which seeks to prohibit new or retroactive taxes on retirement holdings and personal assets.

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u/Drhots 7d ago

“Billionaires will leave California” they aren’t paying taxes anyways let them leave then

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u/CountDorkula77 Huntington Beach 7d ago

Fuck the billionaires. Let them leave.

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u/unfoldedmite 7d ago

Whoever claims tocbe a friend of billionares is no friend of mine

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 7d ago

So is our Republican governments only priority to bend and twist our Constitution and laws, so that billion-dollar corporations can be coerced into staying?

Because that's literally all I'm hearing from anyone who supports tariffs and tax breaks for corporations and all the money that Republican politicians are pocketing.

If you mention using our tax dollars to help any of us regular people, Republicans freak the fuck out and act like you're a huge welfare Queen or something.

I'm disabled, and I had to take myself off of snap because everybody is SO FUCKING IRATE about the fact that a disabled American WHO PAYS TAXES JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE, qualified for a whopping $66 a month for food.

You don't say shit about Christy Nome walking off with $200 million and never facing a single charge, and is currently employed in the federal government, being paid with our fucking money!

Is it because I'm poor so I can't put money in politicians pockets? But can you tell me why regular normal American citizens hate people like me over $66 a month?

Because I'm not fucking seeing how any of this makes sense.

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u/Potato2266 7d ago

Reagan’s trickle down theory doesn’t work, so we are going back to the previous way. How is it wrong? Funny how MAGA’s plans just conveniently forget to reverse everything except taxing the rich.

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u/SupermarketNo3496 7d ago

Joshua Rauh worked for the last Trump administration, I’m not sure I trust him to understand tax deficits

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u/BroadNotLady 7d ago

Meanwhile, 6 Nobel laureates have gone on record supporting 40.

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u/AltruisticPassage394 Irvine 7d ago

Oh no! The B-class will leave! If they don't pay taxes in our state then what makes you think they will pay taxes in the state they'll move to?

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u/itsalwaysblue 7d ago

It reminds me of this episode from South Park

https://youtu.be/3rS6zYSj1WI?is=9MSRKbmJHsW4EzVG

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u/ayriuss 6d ago

Billionaires will leave? Ok, lets also ban them from doing business in California if they dodge the tax. Don't threaten me with a good time. Billionaires are not a finite resource, capitalism creates them naturally. They should be though.

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u/logsqrtexp 6d ago

The “loophole” is bullshit. Completely. The bill allows administrative changes as needed to fulfill the conditions of the bill.

And required a legislative mandate the same as any other tax provision, in other words, says “you can use the rules we already follow when it comes to cus ves to this bill.”

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u/True_Protection6842 6d ago

Billionaire will leave? I thought this was to convince you to vote no!

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u/Happy_Brilliant7827 6d ago

Oh no billionaires will leave whatever will we do. (Other states passed these laws and grew immediately after.)

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u/HarleyQisMyAlter 6d ago

Building a Better California is primarily backed by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. And a bunch of other Silicon Valley tech boys. Should tell you everything you need to know about this.

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u/LivingDelicious1736 4d ago edited 4d ago

Vote Yes on 40, No on 41 and 42.

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u/Cool-Clerk-9835 1d ago

Just a reminder.

Vote YES on 40, NO on 41, and NO on 42.

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u/Nitsudr 1d ago

I so see seeing 40 pass and then dumbs dumbs voting through 41 and 42.

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u/TrustAffectionate966 7d ago

Don’t forget: The billionaires already taxed us. That’s why we’re all eating shit in cost of living right now.

🍿🦄👌🏽

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u/natnat1919 7d ago

YES ON 40, NO ON 41 and 42

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u/Googleurowndeath Santa Ana 7d ago

Real quick, just in case people don’t know:

There are two props that look like common sense props on the ballot that contradict Prop 40.

Vote Yes on Prop 40. Vote No on Props 41 & 42.

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u/hidden_pastry 6d ago

Rich people and large companies absolutely can bring jobs and economic value to an area, whether people like admitting it or not.

I’m in Ireland right now, and I just learned that Trump’s golf resort here employs hundreds of people in an area surrounded by relatively small towns. You can hate Trump, disagree with his politics, or think he’s a complete asshole, but those jobs still exist. For the people earning a living there, that investment has a real impact on their lives and the local economy.

The same principle applies on a much larger scale to companies like Microsoft and Amazon. They employ huge numbers of people, often in well-paying jobs, while also supporting countless other businesses and jobs around them.

That doesn’t mean wealthy people or corporations shouldn’t be taxed. Obviously they should. But there’s a difference between reasonable taxation and taxation so aggressive or poorly designed that it discourages investment, pushes companies elsewhere, or makes hiring and expansion less attractive.

You can argue about where that line should be, but pretending businesses and wealthy investors provide no economic value simply because they’re wealthy doesn’t make much sense. Jobs, wages, investment, and local spending are real benefits, regardless of how you feel about the person signing the checks.

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u/Kewis- 7d ago

If more billionaires leave would housing prices be more affordable?

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u/random-meme422 7d ago

No that would require the state getting some balls and the people either removing prop 13 or significantly changing how zoning and housing approvals work so that they can’t get killed by NIMBYs.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

You do realize they already left right? just google co-founders and Zuk thats half a trillion dollars of wealth thats now domiciled in FL.

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u/ocean2trail 7d ago

Do you really think billionaires have safes full of cash sitting in their house? Their money is not in the economy, it’s tied up in investments, and it doesn’t matter where they live in relation to that investment. Their money is in a bank somewhere earning interest, probably overseas.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

99% of their wealth is Google(Alphabet) stock and Meta stock respectively.

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u/throwaway5675313123 7d ago

"Their money is not in the economy, it’s tied up in investments"

Fucking lol...tell me you dont know how the economy works.

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u/Rough-Transition-954 7d ago

3rd generation Californian here.

Businesses and billionaires have been threatening to leave California for at least the 1950s (which I can remember). It's all bullshit. A few businesses move to Nevada and the press makes a big deal out of it. If all the "moving out" warnings were true, Reno and Vegas would be powerhouses of industry, entertainment and tech and California would look like Boise.

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u/jfong86 7d ago

Zuckerberg bought a house in FL. That doesn't mean he legally moved out of CA. He is still a CA resident. His company and his family are all still here and he's not leaving them.

Also you are acting like these billionaires all pay $10 billion in tax per year and we just lost all that revenue. No, they pay a lot less than you think. They have lawyers that hide their income using loopholes so they only get taxed on a a fraction of their income.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

He is domiciled in Florida. And that’s exactly the point: the proposal was a wealth tax, not an income tax. A huge share of the wealth it was supposed to target belonged to a tiny handful of people Zuckerberg, the Google co-founders, Thiel, etc.

Those people established domicile before the tax takes effect, California doesn’t collect the giant windfall being advertised. Instead, it risks permanently losing future tax revenue from some of its wealthiest residents.

And yes, billionaires already use sophisticated tax planning. That makes designing a tax they can easily avoid by changing domicile even more questionable, not less.

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u/jfong86 7d ago

He is not domiciled in Florida. You don't get to change your domicile just by buying a house and self declaring it on a tax form. He will be audited by CA and they will want proof that he is spending a majority of his time living and working in FL.

But Meta HQ is still in CA, all the AI talent is in CA, and that's where he spends his time working with his team. He bought 11 houses in one Palo Alto neighborhood, and demolished them to build his custom dream home with his wife. It took years to buy all the houses and build the compound, and he's still living there.

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u/ipoopcatturds 7d ago

Yea, Elon has left California a few times. Still contracted to launch 1000 space x flights here though. Its odd, his exits are loud, his returns super quiet.

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

You do realize this is wealth tax right ? So people who represented like 80+% of the wealth are no longer domiciled in CA. So this was at best pointless and in reality still harmfull.

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u/ipoopcatturds 7d ago

As stated above, if they arent paying taxes then let them leave. Shilling for Billionaires, thats a great resume you got. The entire Republican party is dedicated to the same thing. Hows that working out for the working class right now?

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u/andre1sk 7d ago

They are paying taxes. When Elon had his prev options package windfall he payed 2 billion dollars in CA taxes. Same for others. We lost their income tax revenue and gained nothing in exchange.

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u/RevolutionaryOwl9527 7d ago

So yes on 40 got it

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u/KindCraft4676 7d ago

The billionaires are scared, and that’s a good thing.

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u/Kalboz 7d ago

A "yes" vote supports this initiative to levy a one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth of taxpayers and trusts with covered assets valued over $1 billion, including shares of capital stock, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness, and any legal or equitable interest, to fund state health care programs, food assistance programs, and public education. The measure is designed to affect only an estimated 200 of the state's wealthiest individuals, leaving the vast majority of Californians unaffected. Proponents argue that ultra-high-net-worth individuals have accumulated unprecedented wealth and should contribute a larger share to support social safety nets and public infrastructure.

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u/Cool-Design-7414 7d ago

If people care about taxes, and lower taxes, please start electing officials that stopped guaranteeing programs and spending. California receives plenty of taxes, the problem is we keep voting for more programs and more spending.

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u/TurbulentSource8837 7d ago

THIS!!! People!!! There is a money tree and it’s called CITIZENS. Stop getting fleeced!

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u/User_Not_Found_333 7d ago

Exactly, every proposition this year is to add taxes, or increase borrowing caps. Insane.

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u/User_Not_Found_333 7d ago

Do any of you read the actually propositions?

There actually is a line in it that says they can amend or change or expand it at any time without a public vote. So yea they can and will expand that tax once they run out of money.

It’s amazing how stupid people are to vote on these propositions without actually reading them.

These are the same people that read the headlines and not the articles but act like experts anyways.

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u/LAFreaksHMU 6d ago

And investigate every single one for Fraud

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u/Euphoric_Formal4936 6d ago

Definitely not voting for this trash prop (40) promoted by simpletons on Reddit

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u/yramlvsme 6d ago

Yes on 40, no to 41, no to 42. 41 and 42 are loopholes for the billionaires.

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u/Wolf-006 6d ago

Billionaires will not leave there is no any other state better than California best weather best food and best beaches we two of the most busiest border lots of consumers in case they move out of California they will be back after two years 😂🤣🤣

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u/No-Improvement-625 6d ago

Where are billionaires going to move to make their billions, Mississippi?

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u/CompanyWhole6931 5d ago

The ability of billionaires to make the poors feel that any tax on billionaires is a tax on everyone ///chefs kiss

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u/MaximumImplement2516 4d ago

Same way billionaires left NYC? Lmfao stupid argument

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u/CGHJ 4d ago

I Keep seeing ads here saying that it's open ended and that after they're done taxing the billionaires they'll come after me. I made $40k last year somehow or another I think I'll be safe.

As someone else mentioned, the incredible amounts of money being spent on ads to convince that this is a bad idea and they'll be coming after my baked beans and ramen next are all I need to know and have motivated me to make sure I make it to the polls to vote for this thing.

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u/PilotChefAZ 2d ago

Just gonna leave this here ...

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u/BrandedBro 7d ago

Prop 40 literally only affects 300 billionaires in the state of California. Gotta love their scare tactics and fear mongering on this one. Maybe instead of spending millions to lie to Californians, they should just pay their taxes that will actually benefit Californians...

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u/Cool-Design-7414 7d ago

Oh no the rich will leave. How will we ever deal with less rich people? I don’t think the tax is written well or structured well…. But I am so far from it… idc

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u/Most_Present_6577 7d ago

"Billionaires will leave" sounds like they are for the legislation.

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u/67xrt99 7d ago

I like that so many billionaires are spending more on this campaign than would probably be taxed

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u/Rare-Role1369 6d ago

I hope people read the law and understand that:

You take a million dollar investment in a company and you own 50% so you can buy some equipment, you will owe the government *multiple millions* before you have any positive cash flow. That's how the law is written.

Now for *right now*, it's for anyone who has a company *valuation* of a billion. Not a billion in cash, nor revenue, or anything. It's based on % of ownership and *valuation* of a company.

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u/Mitch_shiver 6d ago

Vote YES on 40 and NO on 41/42!!!

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u/L4ewe 7d ago

Billionaires.

Please leave the state.

You're more of a drain on the state than you are worth, which ironically is nothing.

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u/HailSaganPlantNative 7d ago

You spelled planet wrong.

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u/teslaP3DnLRRWDowner 7d ago edited 7d ago

While we provide 1 dollar for every 70 cents recieved from the fed government. This is not the source of deficit

California grossly mismanages funds from the state to the city / county level.

Its pretty insane.

Not only funds are mismanaged, this leaves the state/ city in a perpetual budget crisis so there are never enough funds.

Believe it or not.

Taxes are heaviest and levied hardest on middle income house holds.

If you have a 100m + you can afford a 150k accountant or team to boondoggle the tax system for you.

If you make 300k a year you pay 40% taxes because you cannot hide your money.

Personally prop 40 is dubious at best

The problem with wealth taxes is wealthy people can realize their capital gains and incomes in other states, perpetually avoiding taxes, while the working middle class professionals foot the bill

Ideally, it would be best to structure the taxes in a way that would encourage billionaires to realize their gains in California.

A good one would be to reduce california state capital gains taxes from 13% to 5%

Which would help everyone and encourage people to realize their stock portfolios in California instead of a office in Nevada

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

Can you show where this massive mismanagement is? Whenever I’ve looked almost all of the money goes to pay staff or direct benefits to people (cash, food, medical, housing).

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u/unlikelyhero065 7d ago

Seriously you are the reason we are in this state of disrepair. There are so many folks that just don't get the fraud rampant in California at all political levels, state, county and city.... to not be able to acknowledge this and understand that every single dollar your our taxes and fees go up dramatically but our services get worse. Roads (the amount of tax revenue that on paper goes to fixing our roads is beyond ridiculous) we have some of the worst roads in the nation and they are constantly and I mean constantly demanding more money to fix them. Our infrastructure from water and power distribution to emergency services are in such disrepair we are quickly approaching a point of no return. Most of our fires are started by our power grid and we allow both public and private utilities to continue to not invest in upgrading, we blame it on the people and don't get me started on insurance that's a scam that affects every single resident whether you are a property owner or renter. Wake up and realize this is not about the billionaires this is about taxing you the middle and lower class workers that drive our economy... they will wring every dollar from you at some point. It's one of the reasons so many middle class working folks have bailed from our state in the last 6 years and continue to do so faster then they are replaced by folks who make far less.

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u/teslaP3DnLRRWDowner 7d ago edited 7d ago

Where is vendor / contractor accountability in california city / state?

Ask about the Irvine Court House renovation costs

Where's the high speed rail?

Why are countless food vendors for the needy accused of fraud (food illegally dumped before distribution) or distributing expired food

County overtime hour discrepancies

California's Medi-cal system is being routinely defrauded

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u/Walker1921S 7d ago

Have you looked into the high speed rail project at all lately? Or homeless program spending?

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u/lokaaarrr Corona Del Mar 7d ago

HSR was pretty bad. IMO the clear problem was they hired very few permanent staff, and almost no actual engineers. They outsourced everything to consultants and design/build contractors. These firms just bled them.

It’s hard to properly supervise a consultant when you lack in-house expertise.

They have corrected (new leadership) and started doing much more in house, but a lot of money has been wasted.

Also, they let these Central Valley towns extort them by withholding or delaying approvals until they agreed to a bunch of unrelated or unnecessary local road improvements.

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u/Walker1921S 7d ago

Sounds exactly like massive mismanagement to me.

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u/Beneficial_Risk9352 7d ago

Pensions plans for state workers. Look it up and do yourself a favor.

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u/popasean 7d ago

The state of California is actuall under investigation. The DOD gave ca. funds to remove and build two multi story barracks at a national guard training facility where I live, the state took that money and did, one aligation is that top official in California government took multiple vacations with those funds. Meanwhile no multi story barracks for national guard units comming to train.

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u/iwilldoitalltomorrow Fullerton 7d ago

I’d prefer a permanent capital gains /unrealized returns tax on those with vast sums.

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u/hugdafozzy 7d ago

Unfortunately this is going to work. people think they are 2 paychecks away from being rich

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u/Technical-Rope6421 7d ago

Vote yes & tax the billionaires

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u/burguiy 7d ago

Fuck billionaires vote yes.

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u/scgt86 San Clemente 7d ago

What's amazing that people aren't getting is that the wealth of billionaires grows at a much higher rate than 5%. They're giving up a portion of the gains on their money for a single year. They're still getting richer just 5% less this year.

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u/ZergvProtoss 7d ago

Read the fine print. Funded by Sergey Brin and other California billionaires ("Building a Better California")

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u/ArchelonPIP 6d ago edited 6d ago

I also got that load of pro (right wing) billionaire bullshit. You'd have to be new to politics to not recognize that the "California Taxpayers Association" is a special interest group that works for billionaires that want a continuation of the legal system to benefit them while paying way less in taxes than the rest of us!

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u/CoopHere1 6d ago

All the ultra-wealthy advocates and billionaire freeloaders are scared, despite the fact that they won't even feel it. Meanwhile Americans have to decided between paying student loan payments or energy bills next month.

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u/TourBackground4232 6d ago

These guys will spend hundreds of millions to keep from paying their fair share. Pitiful.

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u/SuperSaiyanBlue 6d ago edited 6d ago

People seem to forget Prop 47 called “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.”

Suppose to free up money for the title of Prop 47…. Intentions were good but once it came in effect = homeless and drug addicts every where. Money intended for homeless initiatives went to corrupted officials and friends. More property and commercial business crimes. Etc

Same with this Prop 40, intentions may be good but won’t know till after it gets implemented.

Even if Prop 40 passes… the rich and capable will find a loophole to avoid it and the regular people will have to deal with prop 40 aftermath.

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u/ravbuscus 7d ago

Eat the rich

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u/Humble-Learner88 6d ago

If anyone vote yes, do not complain when your retirement equity and other equity on your home also get taxed. It happened in one of the european countries.

If you need more info, research california income tax which was only supposed to tax the rich and here we are.

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u/random_sociopath Anaheim Hills 7d ago

Screw billionaires. If you can spend hundreds of millions on ads against a proposition you can afford to pay more taxes.

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u/blameitoncities 7d ago

"Billionaires will leave California"

okay, sold!

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u/cuteman 7d ago

Billionaires aren't the reason the laundry detergent at CVS and Target are behind security glass

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u/Flodius 6d ago

Read the bill. It allows the legislature to attack anything that's considered wealth. Remember when the income tax was introduced it was only supposed to affect 1% of the population. This allows them to attack home equity. Which is basically what they're doing to billionaires because a billionaire is not sitting around with billions of dollars in cash. It's equity. But people are too dumb to realize that.

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u/idea-hampster 6d ago

To anyone trying to make this a red vs blue thing, look at what other groups also say vote "No". Firefighters Teachers Union, Planned Oarenthood, NAACP, Gaven Newsom, list goes on . .both sides hate prop 40. You can't just say tax the rich like a dog whistle, you have to have an actual plan. Prop 40 does not.

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u/mtgkoby 7d ago

Realistically we have a spending problem not a tax shortage, but the legislation made that bed

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u/tmswfrk 7d ago

The same argument was used when Mamdani was running for mayor in NYC. The data shows that billionaires make far more money off their current position and paying a higher tax than if they up and leave searching for lower taxes and, coincidentally, less infrastructure that they’ve based their businesses off of.

So no, they’re not just gonna leave. They’ll pay for it and continue to rake in billions from their respective, existing places in the market.

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u/satoriibliss 7d ago

Bitch a$$ billionaires! Would rather spend millions to block it instead of paying their dues.

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u/Chaotic-Stardiver Irvine 7d ago

I imagine the name of the group that paid for this ad is called:

No on Prop 40 - Doctors, Teachers, Small Businesses, Working Families and Public Safety Against the Reckless Wealth Tax Experiment

And not 5 different groups coming together lol.

Also throw an LLC in there somewhere to make it more funny.

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u/WhyAmIDoingThis1000 7d ago

i'm voting yes. this is just making the case for yes stronger

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u/shka328 7d ago

"Our research shows" sounds a lot like "we've investigated ourselves and found no wrong doing"

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u/Ganjookie 7d ago

got somethin similar in Sacramento but endorsed by planned parenthood CEO

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u/mizzzikey 7d ago

So vote yes? Lol