California Democrats Chase Away Tax Payers

California Democrats are continuing to give America a view of what happens when leftists are put in charge of a governmental body. California Democrats are supporting a ballot initiative to put a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of any billionaire living in California. This tax would be on the entire net worth of the taxpayer, no matter where the assets are located.

Why are the Democrats proposing this tax? The Democrats have complete control of the budget in California and they have run up billions of dollars in deficits. They have nearly a trillion dollars of unfunded pension obligations. These financially inept politicians have entered into costly labor contracts with government employees that include huge pension obligations that have no realistic hope of being paid to the employees.

Instead of making tough decisions to curtail spending in  an attempt to balance the budget, the politicians are taking a long shot gamble to grab 5% of the net worth of 200 individual billionaires.

An intelligent observer of this strategy can foresee the result. The billionaires subject to the tax will leave the state. They did not amass their wealth without developing financial acumen. When they see the state demanding they pay $50 million up to $1 billion of their wealth, many will exercise their option to leave the state. They will move to more taxpayer friendly environments in Texas and Florida.

These billionaires were willing to live with California’s high taxes and woke regulations because they loved the beauty of the state and because, at one time, it was a well run state. Today, the schools are a mess, safe streets are a distant memory, and incompetent Democrat officials have allowed whole cities to burn to the ground.

Many of the billionaires are admitting that this “Billionaire Tax” is the tipping point that has pushed them to leave the state. Sadly, for hard working Californians this is going to be a financial nightmare. As these billionaires leave the state, the taxes they would have  paid every year will no longer be collected by the State of California. This lost tax revenue is a huge amount. The cities, counties and state budget that benefitted from these taxes will have to look elsewhere for the lost revenue.

Guess who will be stuck paying the bill for this lost revenue. The Democrat politicians will be forced to raise taxes on ordinary Californians. This is the “socialist spiral” we have seen around the world. Taxes are increased. Those that can leave will leave for better tax environments. The ordinary hard working citizens have to foot the bill.

Remember, the man in charge of this mess, Gavin Newsom, wants to be your President.