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After a contentious debate, California’s proposed “billionaires tax” appears headed for a ballot referendum.
The Guardian reported on the 27th (local time) that the Service Employees International Union’s Western healthcare division collected roughly 1.5 million signatures to advance the measure.
Campaigners needed 875,000 valid signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot. Their petition drive, launched earlier this year, surpassed that threshold by a wide margin.
Organizers will submit the petitions to election officials, who will verify them and decide by late June whether to place the measure on the November ballot. If approved, voters would decide in November.
Under the proposal, Californians with a net worth of 1 billion USD (approximately 1.33 trillion KRW) or more would pay a one-time tax equal to 5% of their assets. The union estimates the levy would raise roughly 100 billion USD (approximately 133.33 trillion KRW) to help fund Medicaid.
California is home to more billionaires than any other U.S. state.
But the tax push has prompted some wealthy residents to sell assets and relocate out of state.
Forbes reports that Google co-founder Larry Page closed or moved 45 California companies last year and relocated his residence to Miami, Florida.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has purchased properties in Florida and Nevada, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also bought a home in Florida.
Other tech figures, including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, have said they plan to sell California real estate or leave the state.
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