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The ultra-rich are spending one million dollars a day fighting California’s proposed billionaire tax
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
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politics
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It's a GOP talking point when in bad faith and when also resisting billionaire taxes, but in good faith it's the way we used to do it when we used to tax billionaires appropriately. I'd support it at the state level too but I'm not in California I'm in NY and we have a lot of billionaires here too and arguably better infrastructure.
Wyoming has the most billionaires per capita is the only reason I mentioned it specifically. Wyoming residents won't benefit from a California Billionaire tax, and they have one of the worst gaps between rich and poor, and the worst infrastructure for those residents. Billionaires don't actually have to move like us poors, they just buy second houses and claim residency.
edit: since some GOP use it as a talking point, run with it and trap them into reenacting the high billionaire tax we once had.
I don't disagree that we need something federally, but that isn't going to happen any time soon, by design. The best we can do is tax them in the states where they actually spend most of their time.
Wyoming has the most billionaires per Capita, sure. But they aren't spending most of their time there, for most of them, it's just spending portions of winter in Jackson Hole. Wyoming residents need to tax them too, but they won't, because they're some of the most anti-tax populations in the US. They won't suddenly realize that they're never going to be billionaires and will continue to vote against their own interests.
The tax code shouldn't be based on residency claims, if you have a house somewhere, you should have to pay the taxes of that area. It's only fair.
Don't let the idea of them being more mobile prevent them from being taxed at all. That's all this talking point serves. "They'll just move, guess we should do nothing" is a bad line of thinking. Honestly, they already aren't paying their fair share, so who gives a shit if they just leave. I'm all for it. But they won't leave.
yeah, a one-time state-level tax in no way precludes raising future state or federal tax rates again. It's not a get out of jail free card that avoids future taxes on their excessive wealth.