‘The World Is Watching’: Top Economist Rips Newsom for Working to Tank Billionaire Wealth Tax

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‘The World Is Watching’: Top Economist Rips Newsom for Working to Tank Billionaire Wealth Tax

 

“You have chosen to protect California’s billionaires at the expense of Californians’ health,” said Gabriel Zucman.

 

By Jake Johnson- Common Dreams - Jun 22, 2026

 

A world-renowned economist and expert on wealth inequality castigated California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday for working to kill a proposed tax on billionaire fortunes in the Golden State, warning that the Democratic leader and likely 2028 candidate appears bent on handing President Donald Trump “an unexpected ideological and political victory.”

 

Gabriel Zucman, a research professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed to a recent Bloomberg story detailing Newsom’s “last-ditch pressure campaign” to prevent a healthcare union-led initiative from appearing on California voters’ ballots in November. Last week, organizers announced that they had collected the number of signatures required to get the initiative—a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of California billionaires—on the ballot ahead of the June 25 deadline.

 

In a lengthy thread posted to X on Monday, Zucman wrote that he is “shocked” by Newsom’s “efforts to defend Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg at the expense of Californians’ health,” referring to two of the state’s most prominent billionaires. Thiel has donated millions to an industry group looking to defeat the ballot initiative, which would use revenue from the wealth tax to offset the impacts of federal Medicaid cuts approved last year by Trump and congressional Republicans.

 

“Yet you are now devoting all your energy to preventing this ballot initiative from taking place and denying Californians the opportunity to express their democratic will this November,” Zucman wrote. “You have chosen to protect California’s billionaires at the expense of Californians’ health.”

 

By stridently opposing the proposed billionaire tax in California, the economist warned, Newsom is lending credence to “familiar conservative arguments against taxing great fortunes: the threat of capital flight, tax avoidance, harm to growth, etc.”

 

Full at:

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gavin-newsom-billionaire-wealth-tax?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=9a49b4fc22-Top+News+%7C+Mon.+6%2F22%2F26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4eec7e0923-d49d6e120c-600929558