Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Thursday, June 18, 2026

WHY I'M VOTING YES ON THE CALIFORNIA BILLIONAIRES TAX — AND YOU SHOULD TOO

 

WHY I'M VOTING YES ON THE CALIFORNIA BILLIONAIRES TAX — AND YOU SHOULD TOO

A Confession, a Grudge, and an Ulterior Motive

Published: June 18, 2026 | Big Education Ape

Let me be upfront: I don't hate billionaires. I actually voted for one in the California jungle primary. Tom Steyer — hedge fund titan turned climate warrior turned the only candidate in the governor's race with a specific, structural plan to fix public education. He lost, in part because the other billionaires spent enormous sums to make sure he did. Which, if you think about it, tells you everything you need to know about why we're here.

Today, the California Secretary of State confirmed what progressives hoped and Silicon Valley feared: the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act has officially qualified for the November ballot. Cue the dueling press releases, the nine-figure ad war, and the ritual performance of tech founders discovering, with great theatrical anguish, that California has a government.

Buckle up. This is going to be expensive, loud, and — if we're lucky — transformative.

The Political Zebra Problem

Here's something that took me a while to understand. Remember the Rockefeller Republicans? Those genteel, country-club conservatives who believed in small government but weren't actively trying to dismantle the New Deal with their bare hands? When the Tea Party and then MAGA swept through the GOP, those folks didn't disappear. They migrated.

They became what I now call Libertarian Democrats — a difference without a distinction. A political zebra: striped with just enough mainstream Democratic language to get invited to the right dinner parties, but fundamentally committed to small government everywhere except the parts of government that protect their particular oligarchy.

They'll nod along with climate policy. They'll post the right things about democracy. They'll even fund the occasional charter school in a low-income neighborhood and call it philanthropy. But the moment you suggest that their accumulated wealth should contribute proportionally to the society that made it possible? Suddenly they're Ayn Rand in a Patagonia vest, warning darkly about "capital flight" and "chilling innovation."

Here's the core philosophical conflict, stripped bare: Democracy is one person, one vote. Their preferred system is one dollar, one vote. And baby, the dollars have been voting early, often, and with devastating precision for decades.

What the Tax Actually Does (And What It Doesn't)

Before we get to the screaming, let's look at what the measure actually proposes — because the details matter and the opponents are counting on you not reading them.

The SEIU United Healthcare Workers West initiative targets California's approximately 200 billionaires with a one-time 5% tax on worldwide net worth exceeding $1 billion, payable over five years. Here's the breakdown:

What's INWhat's OUT
Stocks, bonds, business ownershipDirectly held real estate
Art, intellectual property, collectiblesStandard retirement accounts
Private company equity (with deferral option)Roth IRAs up to $10 million
Assets held through LLCs/corporationsOut-of-state personal property (270+ days)

Where does the ~$100 billion go?

  • 90% → Medi-Cal and state healthcare, plugging the $19 billion annual hole left by federal cuts
  • 10% → Split between public education (K-14) and food assistance

The retroactivity clause — locking in residency as of January 1, 2026 — is deliciously pragmatic. It's the legislative equivalent of "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave without paying the tab." The anti-loophole provisions are equally serious: gift clawbacks, trust closures, a married-couple rule that prevents wealth-splitting, and a dependent cap that stops billionaires from parking investment accounts in their children's names. Someone clearly did their homework.

The "Wealth Exodus" Argument (And Why It's Half True)

Let's give the opponents their due, because intellectual honesty is the price of credibility.

The Hoover Institution's NPV model estimates the long-term net impact could actually be negative $24.7 billion if enough billionaires relocate permanently. California's roughly 212 billionaires already generate between $3.3 and $5.8 billion annually in income and capital gains taxes. The Legislative Analyst's Office — the nonpartisan referee in this fight — confirms both the short-term revenue spike and the long-term behavioral drag.

And yes, "pre-passage base erosion" is already happening. Peter Thiel. Travis Kalanick. Larry Page and Sergey Brin have reportedly been adjusting their legal residency like chess pieces ahead of the deadline. The Lake Tahoe enclave across the Nevada border is apparently experiencing a real estate boom that has nothing to do with the skiing.

But here's the thing the opponents conveniently skip: California is already facing a $19 billion annual healthcare deficit thanks to federal cuts under the OBBBA. Rural hospitals are closing. Medi-Cal coverage for 1.6 million residents is threatened. The choice isn't between a perfect tax system and this imperfect one. The choice is between something and nothing, between patching the hole in the boat and watching it sink while debating the optimal hull design.

The Hoover Institution's model also assumes a level of billionaire mobility that may be more theoretical than real. Seventy-two percent of California billionaire wealth is tied up in publicly traded stock — highly visible, hard to hide, and deeply entangled with the California economy that created it. You can change your legal address to a Nevada P.O. box. You cannot move Silicon Valley to Reno.

My Ulterior Motive (And I'm Not Hiding It)

Here's where I come clean. I support this tax not just because healthcare matters — though it does, enormously — but because I have watched 40 years of billionaire-funded "education reform" deliver what can only be described as managed decline, and I want the money to fix what that crowd helped break.

Let's review the scorecard of the Reed Hastings / Walton Family / Eli Broad privatization playbook:

  • California K-12 public school enrollment has fallen below 6 million for the first time since 2000, with projections showing an 11.4% decline by 2031
  • Oakland Unified has only 57% fully credentialed teachers — compared to 92.7% in Garden Grove Unified
  • The late Eli Broad drafted a literal plan to move 50% of all LAUSD students into privately managed charters — not a pilot, a hostile takeover — without consulting the community
  • Ref Rodriguez, the charter movement's LAUSD school board president, lasted four months before being charged with running a straw donor money laundering scheme, his legal defense funded by a single massive donation from Reed Hastings
  • CCSA's political PACs operate under names like "Parent Teacher Alliance" — a billionaire-funded political operation wearing a bake-sale costume

This is what 40 years of "reform" looks like. Not reform. Managed decline.

Now contrast that with what Tom Steyer — the billionaire I voted for, the one the other billionaires spent big to stop — actually proposed:

  • Close a corporate real estate tax loophole worth $22 billion/year, with $11 billion earmarked directly for public schools
  • Universal Pre-K starting at age three
  • Freeze charter expansion, ban for-profit charter models entirely
  • Triple Title I funding to equalize resources for high-poverty schools
  • Full IDEA funding — actually fund special education as Congress promised and never delivered
  • Universal free school meals — because a hungry child is not a learning child
  • Federal 2-to-1 teacher pay match

The man looked at the system he helped build and said: I know how this works. Time to tear some of it down. That kind of self-aware apostasy is rarer than a humblebrag-free tech founder, and it's why the rest of the billionaire class spent so heavily to make sure he never got near the Governor's office.

We've Done This Before

Here's the historical footnote the oligarchy hopes you've forgotten: democracy has fixed income inequality before.


The first Gilded Age — robber barons, railroad monopolies, the whole Monopoly board come to life — ended not because the wealthy had a change of heart, but because progressive taxation, trust-busting, and public investment forced a rebalancing. Post-WWII America taxed the wealthy at rates that would make today's tech founders faint, and it built the broadest middle class in human history.

The current Gilded Age is not a natural phenomenon. It is a policy choice — sustained by a tax code riddled with loopholes, a campaign finance system that converts wealth directly into political power, and a generation of "education reform" that has systematically dismantled the public institutions that once made upward mobility possible.

We can do this again. But the oligarchy has to do its part. And right now, doing its part means paying a one-time 5% tax on wealth that, in most cases, was built on California's infrastructure, California's workforce, California's universities, and California's tolerance for disruption.

That's not tyranny. That's a tab.

The Bottom Line

Is the Billionaire Tax Act a perfect instrument? No. I'd rather see a complete overhaul of both the federal and state tax systems — one that serves everyone, not just the people who can afford lobbyists to write the loopholes. The volatility of California's budget, riding the top 1% like a mechanical bull after three margaritas, is a structural problem that a one-time levy doesn't permanently solve.

But perfect is the enemy of necessary. And right now, necessary means:

  • Keeping Medi-Cal alive for 1.6 million Californians
  • Funding public schools that serve the kids the charter lottery left behind
  • Feeding children who cannot learn on an empty stomach
  • Sending a message that in California, democracy still means one person, one vote — not one dollar, one vote

The billionaires will spend hundreds of millions between now and November to convince you that asking them to contribute is somehow an assault on freedom. They will fund counter-initiatives, hire economists with convenient conclusions, and flood your social media feed with warnings about Nevada's lovely tax climate.

When that happens, remember: these are the same people who have spent decades building a system that serves their needs beautifully, and now expect the rest of us to treat it as sacred scripture handed down from Mount Venture Capital.

Vote yes. Pay the tab. Fix the schools.

The kids have been waiting long enough.



Further reading from Big Education Ape:

SOURCES & LINKS

🗳️ The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act — News & Analysis

🎓 Big Education Ape — Original Source Articles

🏛️ Policy & Economic Analysis Referenced

SourcePositionKey Finding
Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP)Pro-tax~$100B gross revenue over 5 years
UC Berkeley / Emmanuel SaezPro-taxWealth concentration data; tax feasibility
Hoover InstitutionAnti-taxNet NPV impact potentially -$24.7B long-term
UC Berkeley / Enrico MorettiCautionaryStartup chilling effect on venture capital
California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO)NonpartisanShort-term gain; long-term income tax drag of "hundreds of millions/year"

🏫 Education Data Referenced

Data PointSource
Oakland Unified: 57% fully credentialed teachersCalifornia Dept. of Education / Big Education Ape
Garden Grove Unified: 92.7% fully credentialed teachersCalifornia Dept. of Education / Big Education Ape
CA K-12 enrollment below 6 million for first time since 2000California Dept. of Education
Projected 11.4% enrollment decline by 2031CA Dept. of Education projections
Eli Broad's 2015 plan to move 50% of LAUSD into chartersLeaked planning document / Big Education Ape
Ref Rodriguez straw donor conviction, 2018LA County District Attorney / Big Education Ape
Reed Hastings funded Rodriguez legal defenseBig Education Ape reporting

📺 Video Reference

  • Will Billionaires Really Flee a California Wealth Tax? Documentary examining Silicon Valley wealth migration to Nevada tax havens ahead of the November vote

All links verified as of June 17, 2026.

Posted by at