Laura J. Nelson & Paul Kiernan, The California Campaign to Introduce a First-of-Its-Kind Billionaire’s Tax (Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2025)

“It may get a lot more expensive to be a billionaire in California. 

A ballot initiative proposed by a healthcare workers’ union would take aim at the Golden State’s richest residents with a one-time, 5% tax on net worth over $1 billion. This would mean pursuing assets like stocks, artwork and intellectual property rights, rather than income.

The proposal represents an unprecedented effort to tax modern wealth, but it is far from assured. Supporters need about 875,000 signatures, and their plan could face serious challenges as it advances. Taxing vast fortunes that exist largely on paper could also pose significant logistical challenges.

“It would be the first-in-the-world tax like this on the superwealthy,” said Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has advised the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West on the wealth-tax plan. He said he hoped that the tax “would be an example for the world, to be imitated in many places.”

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