ENLIGHTENMENT: Should California Have a Wealth Tax?

Hi, this is Vanessa, your ENLIGHTENMENT salon host.

I’ve been reading lots of headlines about the proposed California "Billionaire Tax Act" initiative, which aims to charge a one-time 5% tax on California residents who have over $1 billion in assets, and use that revenue to fund healthcare and education.

Gavin Newsom is against it, saying a wealth tax would stifle the innovation California is known for. Bernie Sanders is for it, saying it’s a matter of economic fairness.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley moguls like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page are eyeing the exits and buying mansions in Miami. And the healthcare workers’ union that’s sponsoring the Billionaire Tax Act has until April to collect the nearly 900,000 signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. If they succeed, we will be voting on this.

So, should we have a wealth tax in California, and across the U.S.? Will it make our currently “rich getting richer” economy more fair and socially stable? Or will it damage California’s economy and dry up government spending on healthcare and education?

To answer these questions — and to help me decide whether I’m on Team Bernie or Team Gavin — I invited two economic/public policy experts — one who helped draft this Billionaire Tax Act Initiative, and another who is somewhat skeptical of it — to come discuss wealth taxes, their pros and cons, how they work elsewhere, and their future in California and the U.S.

GUESTS:

• , Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis
• , professor of public policy and administration at California State University, Sacramento

Please bring your questions — nothing is too dumb, too small or too big to ask.

Tickets are $10. Drinks and snacks will be offered, but please feel free to BYO.

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