“He’s showing California his true colors,” Debru Carthan, vice president of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW)—which is leading the campaign for the California billionaire tax—said in response to Newsom’s endorsement of Proposition 42. “He’d rather millions of children and families lose their healthcare than ask a couple hundred billionaires to finally pay their fair share.”
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But critics have described Prop 42 as a “poison-pill measure” whose supporters are fearmongering about a nonexistent threat to retirement savings in an effort to defeat the proposed billionaire tax, revenue from which would be used to fund healthcare, food aid, and education in the state.
“Its true target is Prop 40,” the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote of the Newsom-backed measure. “Prop 42 papers over its real purpose by cynically appealing to middle-class worries about retirement security. Reject this appalling tactic and disincentivize its further use by voting no.”
Newsom has opposed the idea of a wealth tax on California’s billionaires from the proposal’s inception, pitting him against major unions, the California Democratic Party, and prominent national progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Gavin Newsom please stop doing politics already, we all hate you and can see right through your shallow bs.
Then the state legislature can extract the money through, I dunno, actual taxes. Prop 40 was written by some university professors and got on the ballot because enough people signed a petition for a “wealth tax”. The wealthy, along with corporations, absolutely need to pay more in taxes. But a “one time” (how will that phrasing play in future attempts at properly taxing them!?!) siphoning of money (a mere 5%) will be a quick fix that’ll be gone within a year if the measure even survives the lawsuits.