SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Labor union organizers announced Monday that their initiative to impose new taxes on California’s wealthiest residents has gathered enough voter signatures to advance to the November ballot.
The measure, championed by Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West, would establish a temporary 5% levy on individuals with assets exceeding $1 billion who maintained California residency as of January 1, 2026. Organizers project the initiative could raise $100 billion, with proceeds primarily designated to replace anticipated federal healthcare funding reductions for lower-income residents.
“California’s health is at stake,” said Liz Perlman, executive director of a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major labor union. “Hospitals are closing and people will die. Why? So billionaires can get another tax cut that they don’t need.”
While the California Secretary of State must still authenticate the signatures before officially certifying the ballot placement, supporters report gathering more than 1.5 million voter signatures — significantly exceeding the approximately 875,000 required threshold.
Should the initiative reach voters in November, political observers anticipate one of the state’s most expensive ballot campaigns and expect nationwide scrutiny as a gauge of public sentiment toward wealth taxation. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has already made campaign appearances in California promoting the proposal.
However, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and prominent Silicon Valley executives strongly oppose the measure, arguing it will prompt an exodus of the state’s highest earners. California derives nearly half its personal income tax collections from the top 1% of wage earners, and some wealthy residents have already acquired out-of-state properties as a precautionary measure.
“After playing with matches since October the SEIU has succeeded in lighting a ‘Tax the Rich’ wildfire by getting enough signatures,” said David Lesperance, a tax consultant who’s advised some of his wealthy clients who left California because of the proposal. “The many billionaire targets of their efforts have already responded by executing fire escape plans by relocating to other states.”
Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser leading the opposition political committee, criticized the measure’s design and warned of severe budgetary consequences for the state.
“Enacting a so-called wealth tax in just one state wouldn’t target a small group — it would impact all 40 million Californians,” he said in a statement. “This proposal trades a short-term revenue bump for long-term losses.”
According to an Associated Press analysis of Forbes magazine’s 2025 global wealth rankings, at least 25 billionaires either reside in California or maintain substantial state connections. However, establishing their official residency status versus occasional visitor classification may become contentious, given that many own multiple properties across different states.
The initiative comes as President Donald Trump’s recent tax and spending legislation is projected to reduce nationwide Medicaid and federal food assistance funding by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.
