US Politics

‘Class warfare’: Wealth tax the latest measure by California Democrats to squeeze the rich

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference held at Unity Council career center in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., on Monday, May 10, 2021. 

A new wealth tax being pushed by California Democrats is the latest of several recent measures in the Golden State to tax the rich — and not the last one in the works.

Last week, Democrat Assemblyman Alex Lee introduced a bill in California that would impose an annual 1.5% tax on those with a “worldwide net worth” above $1 billion, starting as early as January 2024.

As early as 2026, the threshold for being taxed would drop, and those with a worldwide net worth exceeding $50 million would be hit with a 1% annual tax on wealth, while billionaires would still be taxed 1.5%.

The legislation is a modified version of a wealth tax approved in the California Assembly in 2020 that the Democrat-led state Senate declined to pass.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS CONSIDER WEALTH TAX — INCLUDING FOR PEOPLE WHO MOVED OUT OF STATE

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference held at Unity Council career center in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., on Monday, May 10, 2021. 
(Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

The current version just introduced includes measures to allow California to impose wealth taxes on residents even years after they left the state and moved elsewhere.

According to experts, the wealth tax is one of several proposals in the state to target high-income earners.

“The wealth tax California Democrats are now pushing is the sort of class warfare that California voters rejected last year when they voted down Proposition 30, a tax hike on high earners that, like the proposed wealth tax, was touted as a way to make the rich pay higher taxes,” Patrick Gleason, vice president of state affairs at the Americans for Tax Reform, told Fox News Digital.

Proposition 30 was a 2022 ballot measure that would’ve raised the state’s top income tax rate — already the highest in the nation at 13.3% — beyond 15%. About 58% of voters rejected the tax hike.

Despite the resounding defeat, however, another effort to raise California’s top marginal tax rate has already made it onto the ballot for the 2024 election. The measure, officially titled the California Pandemic Early Detection and Prevention Initiative, would raise the top marginal state income tax rate from its current level to 14.05% on earnings above $5 million. The new top rate would remain in effect for 10 years.

The proposed tax hike made it to the ballot with the help of Guarding Against Pandemics, a nonprofit founded and led by Gabe Bankman-Fried, the brother of former FTX CEO…

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