In the US, debates over taxing wealth arise when the accumulation of riches becomes exorbitant. Voters in the Golden State will decide on Tuesday on an unprecedented 5% wealth tax targeting billionaires.
Page F133From§Eachthe evening edition — 3 November 2026
THE CANCEL-OUT
Newsom endorses measure to cancel billionaires' tax, then asks for a billionaires' tax break of his own
As it ran on the front
On the ballot Tuesday, California voters decide Proposition 40, a one-time 5 percent tax on the wealth of roughly 250 residents who together hold an estimated $2.3 trillion. Backers say the tax could raise up to $100 billion, with about 90 percent going to healthcare and the rest split between education and food assistance.
Three weeks earlier, on October 11, Governor Newsom reconciled against that same ballot. He endorsed Proposition 42, a measure built not to raise a dollar but to retire Prop 40 before it collects one — canceling out the billionaire tax and barring any future tax on financial assets, retroactively, if voters approve both.…
…(cont) Two days later, on October 13, the filing tightened. Prop 42 bars retroactive taxes "for any" measure like Prop 40 — the cancellation isn't incidental. It's built to survive the vote that created it.
By October 31, the numbers stopped matching the names attached to them. A poll taken over the summer found California Democrats favored the billionaire tax by more than four to one. Working against it anyway: the party's own — Newsom, his likely successor Xavier Becerra, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Then Tuesday, with ballots still being counted, a new line landed in the same ledger.
Set the two asks side by side. One column asks about 250 billionaires for a one-time 5 percent cut of $2.3 trillion, split — backers say — mostly toward healthcare. The governor spent October working to zero out the first column. He spent Election Day asking to open a new one.
That's the gap, hon. Not what the treasury doesn't have. What it has — and who the outgoing governor decided, in his last weeks on the job, shouldn't have to put any of it in.
“They tell you there's no money for healthcare — then the same governor spends three weeks killing the one tax that would raise $100 billion for it, and spends his last week in office asking for a new tax break for the richest studios in Hollywood. Same billionaires' column, different line item, same answer: no for you, yes for them.”
“Governor Newsom's just protecting California jobs — the film industry needs incentives to stay competitive here, that's good economic policy, nothing to do with the other measure. Okay, it is the same week he's trying to cancel the billionaire tax, that timing's not great, but incentives aren't a tax break, they're — well, they're a tax break. Did I say that? Scratch that.”
The receipts
Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton are facing off in California's race for governor as locals also vote on what would become the country's first billionaire tax. CBS News' Kris Van Cleave breaks it down.
California is the most unaffordable state for normal, everyday residents, but Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is spending his final days in office trying to secure massive tax breaks for Hollywood billionaires. Newsom, who will leave office in January as the state’s term-limited governor (and will almost certainly run for president in 2028)…
As voters across the United States cast ballots on November 3, Californians are weighing whether to approve a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires in the state. The tax would apply to roughly 250 Californians who now hold an estimated $2.3 trillion in wealth. Supporters say the wealth tax could raise up to $100 billion, with…
The unprecedented measure has enormous potential nationwide. The clash exposes the party’s corporate-progressive divide Midway through this summer, a high-quality poll found that Democrats in California were overwhelmingly in favor of the upcoming ballot measure for a one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth. The ratio was more than 4 to 1.
· Newsom Endorses Ballot Measure That Would Cancel Out Billionaire Tax—and Ban Future Wealth Taxes from the morgue, 11 Oct 2026
· Newsom backs California ballot measure that cancels out billionaire tax proposal from the morgue, 13 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.