In Reason magazine, Veronique De Rugy examines California’s proposed tax on wealth and warns that it could make the state poorer. She writes:
Proponents claim the tax would raise $100 billion. Rauh’s team found that billionaires have already been voting with their feet: Larry Ellison left California in 2020, and six others, including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, departed between the proposal’s announcement and Dec. 31, 2025—the day before the liability would take effect.
These departures alone reduce the measure’s supposed tax revenue by nearly 40 percent before a single dollar is collected. Once migration patterns uncovered in the academic literature are applied to quieter departures, expected revenue falls to only $40 billion.
Do California’s small businesses and boutiques really want to see billionaires flee the state? When a state already has among the highest taxes in the country, and it still can’t balance its budget, it doesn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. California needs to shrug off its radical spending politicians and reduce its budget.
Action Line: If you’re looking to escape your high-tax state, begin your search for a better America with Your Survival Guy’s 2026 Super States. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
P.S. Read more about California’s proposed wealth tax here:
