Author: Chloe Amarilla

Overview This article looks at what’s potentially good and bad about Proposition 40, “One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative,” on the November 2026 ballot, and explains why it may be more difficult to implement than its proponents understand.[1] This is not the first wealth tax that has been proposed in the U.S., nor the first in California. Like other tax-the-rich proposals, Proposition 40 promises a lot ($100 billion for healthcare, food assistance, and education) — but nearly everything underneath that promise is still an open question. Can California actually collect the money, what would...

Overview In the past two years members of California’s Assembly twice tried to advance tax bills (AB 2088 and AB 310) that were designed to capture revenue from wealthy residents who fled the state to avoid the other income tax increases in those bills.[1] Both would have imposed a tax (levied annually for 10 years) on a California resident who leaves the state. This article argues that such an exit tax has grave legal defects that should prevent a state from imposing a wealth-based exit tax on its former residents. Analysis The two bills employed distinct approaches to capturing revenue...