In a rush to prove the Margaret Thatcher axiom correct, California is about to make a push to show how quickly a state can burn through other people’s money. The Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is collecting signatures to get a billionaire wealth tax on the state’s November ballot. Given that an outrageous percentage of Californians already live off the labor of others, it’s unlikely that there will be a sudden outbreak of respect for the property rights of the obnoxiously rich on the left coast. I predict the measure will make it on the ballet and receive enthusiastic support from the lower and middle classes.
The wealth tax calls for a one-time (yea, right) 5 percent tax on the total net worth of California’s 215 billionaires. So, if Daddy Warbucks has all his moola tied up in a 1-billion-dollar factory to employ his fellow Californians, he’s going to have to take out a mortgage, or sell off the business to write a $50 million check to the Golden State looters. He’ll be expected to do it with a smile, or be called a Nazi profiteer.
But it wouldn’t be a leftist idea if it didn’t come with a healthy dose of unintended consequences. In this case, the looters didn’t intend for the billionaires to feel targeted just because they’re trying to confiscate their wealth. The looters forgot that the guys who own jets, ships, and multiple homes, don’t find it particularly hard to leave any place where they’re unappreciated.
As soon as the tax measure was proposed, Cali’s wealth creators heard the alarm bell loud and clear, and started moving towards the exits in a calm and orderly fashion. The SEIU-UHW shut that down with a quick fix. Rev 1 of the bill made the tax retroactive to January 1, 2026. If Papa Deep Pockets was still living in California as of New Year’s Day of this year, he’ll still owe the tax, even if he’s no longer a resident when it passes in November. Problem solved.
Naturally, rev 1 created another unintended consequence. “Calm and orderly” turned into a “panicked stampede” for the eastern border. Over a trillion (with a “T”) bucks of communist wealth has left Cali in just the last month. Google cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were among the first to show the Golden State their backsides before the ball dropped on Times Square. They moved over $500 billion to flyover country themselves.
But I don’t think the Google Bros understand how communism works. They helped vote the state into this mess; they don’t get to simply book a one-way U-Haul out of it. The Workers Paradise of California isn’t going to let enough of “their money” to keep a Somalian voter block fluid for a decade, just move to Texas. Especially when it’s easy to prevent. They’ll just change “2026” to “2025” on that retroactive date line in the bill. Problem solved … again.
In fact, as long as they’re working on rev 2 of the bill anyway, why not make it retroactive to September 9, 1850 – the day the California Republic became California state? That way any billionaire who has ever lived in the state of fruits and nuts, will need to tally up their net worth and carve off a tidy 5 percent to pay for having once smugly called themselves Californians.
I’m not a lawyer and don’t claim to understand the legal ins and outs of all of this. I have no idea if retroactive taxes are legal, but somehow, making people subject to taxes enacted after they left the state sounds real “third world” to me. I’m sure there will be enough lawsuits to pay a few thousand attorneys’ green fees for a few years.
Cali will eventually shop around for a friendly judge and find one in the nation’s capital. Jeb Boasberg, a judge who doesn’t understand the law, will surely want the case and decide that his jurisdiction extends to the mid-Pacific somewhere. When he hears that the Donald thinks the tax is “uncool,” he’ll arrive at the unbiased opinion that it is “way cool.”
After Boasberg has his say, Ketanji Brown Jackson, a justice who doesn’t understand the law either, will write an opinion which nobody will understand, but will affirm the legality of California’s new revenue stream. Justices Sotomayor and Kegan will write their own opinions in support of the tax, because they’ll have no idea if they agree with Brown Jackson’s opinion or not. It’s anybody’s guess how the conservative block of the Supreme Court will vote. Chief Justice Roberts will probably need to do an informal poll before he votes.
If by some chance, the courts decide that we must comply today with laws written tomorrow, it will turn everyone into a future potential felon – but it will also open a universe of possibilities (i.e. intended consequences). The opportunities to correct sins of the past will be limitless.
Just imagine a law being passed in 2029, and signed by President Vance, requiring all elected officials to forfeit any wealth in excess of their salaries, which they’ve accumulated while in office. We could make it retroactive to June 21, 1788, and call it the “HDTPSGR (How Did These Public Servants Get Rich?) Tax.”
About a nanosecond after filing their 1040 on April 15, San Fran Nan and Ilhan Omar would both be headed to The Big Apple to score some of that free communist tenement housing. I’m sure a few Republicans would get caught up in the scramble for affordable housing too, but I’d file that under “feature” rather than “bug.”
Author Bio: John Green is a retired engineer and political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He spent his career designing complex defense systems, developing high performance organizations, and doing corporate strategic planning. He is a contributor to American Thinker, The American Spectator, and the American Free News Network. He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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