United States: Zucman-inspired billionaires tax rejected in California

The project was directly inspired by the Zucman tax, but it was rejected. California rejected by referendum a proposed tax on the wealth of billionaires defended in particular by the French economist Gabriel Zucman. The count was not yet completely completed on Monday when the major American media declared the matter heard almost a week after the election: “Prop 40” failed to obtain the majority of votes, reported CNN and CBS News.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the proposed tax was rejected in the vast majority of counties in the state but received support from voters in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Helping to finance the health system The text provided for taking, once, 5% of the net wealth of the approximately 200 billionaires of this state, the most populous in the United States. The sum taken was to help finance the public health system on which half of Californians depend, weakened by President Donald Trump's federal cuts.

The proposal was submitted to voters on November 3 during the midterm elections marked by a large Democratic victory. Its supporters hoped to inspire other regions of the United States, at a time when anger is growing over the worsening of inequalities and the dizzying increase in the fortunes of tech giants like Elon Musk. Exodus of the ultra-rich Popular at its launch, the tax project quickly seemed doomed to failure at the polls, despite the significant left-wing vote and the Democratic victory in the mid-term elections.

Opponents of “Prop 40,” including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, insisting that the tax risks being made permanent and causing an exodus of the ultra-rich. Outgoing Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was also opposed. His successor Xavier Becerra, widely elected at the head of this Democratic bastion, for his part said he was in favor of fairer taxation of the richest while also rejecting the measure.

In the past, several initiatives aimed at taxing large fortunes had failed in California without reaching the polls.

Machine-translated from French