California voters reject 5% wealth tax on billionaires
Proposition 40 would have raised an estimated $100bn for healthcare, but opponents spent hundreds of millions to defeat it.
California voters have rejected Proposition 40, a one-off 5% levy on the net worth of the state's richest residents, according to projections by US broadcasters. CNN and CBS News called the result on Monday, almost a week after polling day; California, the most populous US state, counts its ballots slowly, Euronews reported.
The measure would have applied to about 200 billionaires and raised an estimated $100bn, most of it earmarked for public healthcare, according to campaigners' figures cited by Euronews and the South China Morning Post. SCMP reported that the money would have offset federal funding cuts designed to pay for tax breaks enacted last year under President Donald Trump.
With roughly 60% of ballots counted on Wednesday, the "No" side led by 55.6% to 44.4%, Euronews reported.
Opponents spent hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the measure, among them Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and argued it would drive the super-rich out of California, according to Euronews. France 24 reported that the outcome handed a victory to tech leaders who funded the campaign against the proposition and marked a setback for progressives seeking to tax the ultra-rich.
Senator Bernie Sanders and other progressives championed the measure as an antidote to economic inequality and a potential model for the rest of the country, SCMP reported.
Gavin Newsom, the outgoing governor of California, had said he would vote against it, Euronews reported. Newsom is widely expected to run for the White House in 2028.
Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, said in a statement sent to AFP through the International Capital Tax Commission before the projections were called: "Significant changes rarely move in a straight line." He added: "Prop 40 put a tax on billionaire wealth on the ballot in the United States for the first time."
California has voted on a wealth tax three times before this decade and turned it down each time, Euronews reported. The state would be the world's fourth-largest economy if it were a country, and the gap between its richest and poorest residents is wide, Euronews said.
The proposition shared the ballot with last week's midterm elections, which brought sweeping gains for the Democrats and heavy losses for Trump's Republicans, according to Euronews.
How the reports differ
France 24 led on the money behind the campaign, reporting that tech leaders poured hundreds of millions of dollars into defeating the measure and casting the result as a setback for progressives. Euronews carried detail the others did not: it named CNN and CBS News as the broadcasters making the call, quoted the economist Joseph Stiglitz and noted that outgoing governor Gavin Newsom had said he would vote against. SCMP named Senator Bernie Sanders as a champion of the proposition and gave the $100bn healthcare figure, and it alone tied the revenue to federal cuts paying for Trump's tax breaks. Reuters and CBC News reported the defeat without further detail.
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