Prop. 40, 41, 42 = One “YES” and two “NOs”

VOTER GUIDE – QUICK LINKS:

• HOME: Quick Voting Guide
  FEDERAL LEGISLATORS: 24th Congressional Dist. * 26th Congressional Dist. * 32nd Congressional Dist.
• STATE LEGISLATORS: Assembly, 38th Dist. * Assembly, 42nd Dist. * Assembly, 46th Dist.
• STATE OFFICES: Governor * Lt. Governor * Secretary of State * Controller * Treasurer * Attorney General * Insurance Commissioner * State Board of Equalization * Superintendent of Public Instruction
• JUDICIAL: Judicial Offices
• COUNTY EDUCATION: Superintendent of Schools * Ventura County Board of Education Trustees (* Ventura County Community College District Trustees *
• CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTS: Fillmore USD * Las Virgenes USD * Moorpark USD * Oxnard USD * Pleasant Valley School District * Rio School District * Santa Paula USD * Simi Valley USD * Ventura USD
• CITY COUNCILS: Camarillo * Moorpark * Ojai * Oxnard * Port Hueneme * Santa Paula * Simi Valley * Thousand Oaks * Ventura
• SPECIAL DISTRICTS: Antelope Valley -East Kern Water Agency * Bell Canyon Community Service Dist. * Camarillo Health Care District * Conejo Rec. & Park District * Fillmore-Piru Memorial District * Oxnard Harbor District * Pleasant Valley Rec. & Park District * Rancho Simi Rec. & Park District * Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency * United Water Conservation District
• PROPOSITIONS: TLDR * Prop. 1 * Prop. 2 * Prop. 3 * Prop. 4 * Prop. 5 * Prop. 37 * Prop. 38 * Prop. 39 * Prop. 40 * Prop. 41 * Prop. 42 * Prop. 43 * Prop. 44 * Prop. 45
• LOCAL MEAURES: Measures
• VOTING:
  • Fast voter facts/Know your rights
  • Ballot Box and Voting Center Locations

A NOTE BEFORE YOU DIVE IN!: “…we should all be proud to live in the first state in the country, actually in the world, that will have the chance to fight back against authoritarianism and oligarchy by taxing billionaire wealth!  Let’s all vote YES for this with JOY and appreciation to be able to start turning the tide away from concentrated power and toward the people.  We have so much we need to rebuild and repair in our country.  Let this be the first joyful step on that journey!  😊”

YES! – Proposition 40 – The Tide is Turning!!!

EXPLAINERS: Billionaires got a huge tax cut! And we got a huge Medi-Cal/Medicare cut to pay for it! 
The 1%’s windfall harms our state, our health care system, and the 99% who helped fund it.
Make these whiny villain-aires pay their share!

• The money behind the “NO” on 40 campaign
• Why billionaires should pay taxes on wealth!
• Wait! If billionaires don’t have taxable income – what do they live on?
• We’ve been told that billionaires will run away from California. Is this true? (NO.)
• Why you have to vote “NO” on their scam bills – Prop. 41 and Prop. 42!
• What will the billionaire tax cuts do to Americans’ health care nationally?
• Why did Prop. 40 come into being?
• What will happen to CA’s health care system if Prop. 40 doesn’t pass, (or if the billionaire-supported Propositions 41 and 42 get more votes?)
• How many people in my own community are at risk?
• Which hospitals near me are at risk of closing?
• What can I do to fight back? See who’s on our side, and look at the opposition.
• CALL TO ACTION: Write to Jodi Hicks, CEO of the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.
• More random interesting facts on villain-aires.

Slideshow Explainer Cartoon!

(Note: Sliders may not appear on phones. Just slide left like normal.)

The money behind the “NO” on 40 campaign

Why billionaires should pay taxes on wealth!

For all us visual learners, we’ve posted our favorite video explainers – Watch one video or more for the answer!

Here’s a short intro film (2:25 minutes) to get used to the concept of taxing billionaires.

(https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hDhO5oEDvPI?sttick=0)

(inequality.org) In a brief report, “California’s Billionaire Wealth Surge: Meet the 22 California Billionaires Opposing Prop 40 Billionaire Wealth Tax,” we identified 22 California billionaires who are active funders and outspoken opponents of Prop 40. Together they have given over $150 million to oppose the initiative — with more rolling in every day.  These 22 include a prince, several private jet flying chums of Jeffrey Epstein, and a bunch of crypto and tech bros designing the AI future for the rest of us.

On January 1, 2025, these 22 billionaires had a combined wealth of $439.8 billion. By September 1, 2026, their wealth had grown to $722.1 billion. 

In a little under 20 months, their combined wealth increased $282.6 billion, a gain of over 64 percent.

Just to be clear, these “snowflake billionaires” are whining, wailing, and donating money to fight a tax that would effectively require them to part with one-eighth of the wealth they’ve gained since January 1, 2025.

This one’s a little longer (6:34 minutes) and introduces us to the the economist Gabriel Zucman, who helped SEIU craft this bill.

This one by Patriotic Millionaires (36:29) is more in-depth and features features global economist Gabriel Zucman, SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan, and Tax the Greedy Billionaires Campaign Direct Igor Volsky. (For those who’d rather read, we’ve included a partial transciption below in our random resources section.)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puVLZhBYpTU)

Here’s a great one (about 17 minutes long) on the whole damned system of wealth extraction by villain-aires!

(https://youtu.be/ihIJZ8HHNhY?si=TIukmhyqF0qljBZA)

Wait! If billionaires don’t have taxable income – what do they live on?

Watch (https://youtu.be/WYHV_wc784M)

They’re required to pay income taxes — but here’s the catch. You and I pay taxes on all the money we earn and on the gains from assets we sell. Billionaires don’t take much taxable “income,” and they sidestep capital-gains taxes by borrowing against their stocks, houses, and yachts — then using those loans to buy even more houses, yachts, and maybe a business or two, all while their fortunes keep growing untaxed year after year. It’s a clever scheme. Some might even call it socialism for the ultra-wealthy.

What makes it worse: the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” handed California’s billionaires billions more in tax breaks while gutting Medi-Cal — putting health coverage for as many as 1.6 million Californians at risk and leaving the rest of us to cover the bills.

We’ve been told that billionaires will run away from California. Is this true? (NO.)

Why you have to vote “NO” on their scam bills – Prop. 41 and Prop. 42!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0czT0OVwmU&list=UU0VTA6PQH7nKKgRO8ptMatQ&index=2)

What will the billionaire tax cuts do to Americans’ health care nationally?

50,000 people will die prematurely EVERY YEAR due to the loss of health care access. To put that in perspective – it’s equivalent to over SIXTEEN 9/11 tragedies.

Note: Deeper cuts will occur AFTER the midterms, because if they happened before, GOP legislators would be afraid of stepping foot in their districts.

Why did Prop. 40 come into being?

This video is a short primer on its creation by SEIU’s Dave Regan.

This is a longer (25 minutes) deeper dive of the video above. According to data from the Office of the Governor of California, the law is projected to strip health insurance from up to 3.4 million Californians and slash $22 billion to $30 billion in annual federal Medicaid (Medi-Cal) funding. 

What will happen to CA’s health care system if Prop. 40 doesn’t pass, (or if the billionaire-supported Propositions 41 and 42 get more votes?)

Catastrophic effects of the Big Billionaires Bill on California – Some of this is already in-progress:

• Shutting down hospitals: It doesn’t matter how good your own insurance is if you can’t find an open hospital is an emergency where every minute counts. Hospitals and physicians face billions in new uncompensated care costs, raising concerns over service reductions, job losses (projected up to 217,000 lost healthcare jobs), and potential rural clinic or hospital closures.
  • 16 hospitals needed direct state bailouts or distressed loans to avoid immediate shutdown. 
  • 83 facilities face severe vulnerability driven by high Medicaid/low-income patient mixes and multi-year negative profit margins. 
  • 9 hospitals have already completely closed across California since 2020. 
  • 40 maternity units shuttered statewide over the same timeframe, leaving 12 counties completely lacking hospital delivery services
• Coverage Losses: Up to 3.4 million to 3.8 million Californians are at risk of losing their Medi-Cal or subsidized health coverage. Allowing the ACA premium tax credits to expire, nearly 2 million face premium hikes of up to 66%, making coverage unaffordable for many.
• Staffing losses: more than 400 hospitals and health systems in California have already laid off more than 3,400 healthcare workers. Industry groups warning that up to 145,000 jobs remain vulnerable to ongoing federal budget adjustments. 
• Funding Slashes: The bill cuts roughly $30 billion per year in federal Medi-Cal funding for the state, trimming up to $128 billion from California’s broader healthcare system over a decade.
• Planned Parenthood closures: Targeted nonprofit providers like Planned Parenthood by cutting them off from $300 million in Medicaid funding. Numerous PP centers closed down, and were rescued by a $230 million state grant. They presently serve 1.2 million annual visits. (Weirdly, PP cornered themselves into opposing this bill because it is a one-time 5-year plan, versus something more permanent.)
• New Hurdles & Work Rules: Cut at least $22 billion in federal Medicaid funding by imposing burdensome job loss penalties on low-income adults, including strict monthly work or community service requirements (80 hours a month) for many adult enrollees and introduces tighter redetermination cycles and copays.
• Punishes states like California that care for everyone: Slashes state funding to cover undocumented residents for non-emergency benefits by at least $4 billion annually
• Prevents current funding mechanisms: Stops provider taxes and certain other payments that support hospitals and providers across California, that would result in the loss of billions of dollars
• Cuts SNAP: Cut federal funding for SNAP in California by at least $2.3 to $4.9 billion annually, with at least 250,000 recipients likely to lose this benefit
• Student Loan cuts: The bill also imposes multiple cuts on student loan programs, including capping medical school government borrowing at $200,000, which will create barriers for those wanting to attend medical school and exacerbate existing physician workforce shortages. 

How many people in my own community are at risk?

Here are your neighbors immediately at risk!:

(calbudgetcenter.org) Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program is a lifeline that provides free or low-cost health coverage to over one-third of the state’s population — including children, pregnant individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities.This is a section of their table, which shows how many people in each congressional district rely on Medi-Cal, how many adults could lose coverage due to work requirements, and the level of Medi-Cal spending.

Find your Representative	Children	Seniors	People with a Disability	ACA Expansion Adults	Total # people (includes other catagories)	Medi-Cal Expenses
24 – Rep. Salud Carbajal	72,100	20,100	15,000	83,600	243,400
26 – Rep. Julia Brownley	64,800	20,800	12,700	75,100	217,400
27 – Rep. George Whitesides	89,400	27,400	23,000	99,900	296,300
32- Brad Sherman	47,600	32,500	11,400	87,300	218,200
TOTALS FOR ALL CA	4,013,200	1,579,000	968,200	4,956,700	14,477,700	$183.81 BILLION

(See the full chart on how many people, including children and seniors will suffer so our villian-aires can buy another yacht. Download the PDF )

Which hospitals near me are at risk of closing?

Here are the local hospitals at risk:

(VCStar) The report – “The Big Ugly Threat to Safety Net Hospitals” by Public Citizen researcher Eileen O’Grady – finds the hospitals considered most vulnerable are those that rely heavily on Medicaid (Medicaid/CHIP/low-income program payer mix of 20% or higher, and have posted negative profit margins over multiple years.

• Santa Paula Hospital:
  • Status: Slated to close by 2030.
  • Reasoning: County officials cite a multi-million dollar budget shortfall driven by federal Medicaid funding cuts, declining patient numbers, and costly mandated state seismic upgrades that make retrofitting the 1963 building impractical.
  • Replacement Plan: The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted to replace the full hospital with a medical office building and an expanded-access care center providing urgent care and preventive services, though local residents and nurses have raised concerns over the loss of a full emergency room.
• Adventist Health Glendale – Glendale (shares service area with Adventist Health Simi Valley)
• St. John’s Regional Medical Center – Oxnard
• Ventura County Medical Center – Ventura

The study reported that even when hospitals don’t close, financial pressure can show up first as

• Service reductions (for example, obstetrics/maternity care, inpatient capacity, specialty clinics)
• Staff layoffs or hiring freezes
• Longer wait times and more transfers to distant facilities

What can I do to fight back?

EASY – VOTE! Vote “YES” on 40 and “NO on 41 and 42!

			Chris Murphy – US Senator, Connecticut
			Jose Solache – State Assembly District 62
			Brenda Miller – Assembly District 79
	Richard Barrera – San Diego Unified School District Board Member

		Friends Committee on Legislation of California	San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Associatio
		Service Employees International Union California

WHAT BILLIONAIRE INFLUENCE DOES: (sludge) “The influence of ultra-wealthy donors makes it harder to advance popular policies such as addressing inequality, imposing wealth taxes, strengthening worker protections, raising the minimum wage, ensuring health care for all and strengthening white collar law enforcement,” Public Citizen writes.

NEWSOM: OK, we figured Newsom would stick up for his billionaire friends. But we were surprised by the “NO” from Planned Parenthood. SERIOUSLY, WTH?


PLANNED PARENTHOOD? WTF?: We know some of our favorite organizations are on the “NO” side, mostly because THEY WANTED TO TAX BILLIONAIRES FOREVER, not just for 5 years. Us too, but you know what? SEIU got off their butt and did the work to create this chance to change everything, and they didn’t. Get over yourselves and join in, people! Join in the call to action below!

	Name (Company)	Donations (Information from https://voteyeson40and3.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2026/09/California_Billionaire_Report_9-23-2026.pdf)	Estimated Wealth
	Sergei Brin (Google/Alphabet)	Has given $102 million to defeat Prop. 40 and advance ballot measures to undermine Prop 40 and ban California from taxing ownership of financial assets and business interests.	$253B
	Peter Thiel (Paypal/Panantir)	Donated $3 million to the political arm of the California Business Roundtable, a group aligned with the campaign to defeat Prop. 40; that PAC later contributed $450,000 to Golden State Promise, a No on Prop. 40 committee. HIs wealth has increased 120.27% in the last 20 months.	$32.6B
	Chris Larsen (Ripple)	Donated $5 million from Ripple to “NO on 40” and $12 million to “Building a Better CA,” a PAC to support “NO on 40.”	$12.6B
	Eric Schmidt (Google/Alphbet)	Donated $15.4 million to “NO on 40” and $15.4 million to “Building a Better CA,” a PAC to support “NO on 40.”	$12.6
	John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins)	Donated $30 million to effort against Prop. 40.	$21.9B
	Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures and Sun Microsystems)	He gave $12 million to the opposition efforts against Prop. 40 and publicly opposed it.	$13.8B
	Michael Moritz (Sequoia Capital)	He gave $7.5 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$8.1B
	Stewart Resnick (The Wonderful Company)	He gave $4.5 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$5.4B
	Max Levchin (Affirm and PayPal)	He gave $2 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$2.0B
	Tony Xu (DoorDash)	He gave $2 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$2.0B
	Patrick Collison (Stripe)	He gave $22 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$17.5B
	Marco and Kim DeGeorge (Alo Yoga):	Kim DeGeorge gave $500,000 to the opposition effort and $1.9 million to the California Business Roundtable’s anti-Prop. 40 campaign.	$3.6B
	Ronald Conway (SV Angel)	He gave $100,000 to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$1.5B
	Mark Pincus (Zynga)	He gave over $1 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$1.4B
	Prince Alex von Furtsenberg (Arrow Investments)	He gave $200,000 to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	N/A
	Douglas Leone and Patricia Perkins-Leone (Sequoia Capital)	They gave $250,000 to theopposition effort against Prop. 40.	$11.8B
	Jed McCaleb (Stellar Development Foundation)	He gave $1 million to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$3.9B
	Parker Conrad (Rippling)	He gave $34,645 to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	$3.4B
	Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn and Greylock Partners)	He publicly opposed Prop. 40.	$2.7B
	Palmer Luckey (Oculus and Anduril)	He publicly opposed Prop. 40.	$5.0B
	Larry Page (Google/Alphabet)	He publicly opposed Prop. 40.	$274.0B
	Don Hankey Hankey Group)	He publicly opposed Prop. 40.	$8.2B
	Dan Tierney (Getco)	He gave $200,000 to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.
	Michael Wheeler (“Angel” investor)	He gave $100,000 to the opposition effort against Prop. 40.	±$19 million. Not subject to this tax.

Executive branch officials Xavier Becerra, former secretary of health and human services (D) David R. Henderson, former member of the Council of Economic Advisers (1982–1984) David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (R) U.S. representatives Kevin Kiley, CA-03 (2023–present) (I)[38][a] Sam Liccardo, CA-16 (2025–present) (D)[135] Katie Porter, former CA-47 (2019–2025) (D)[136] Statewide officials Josh Fryday, chief service officer of California (D) Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor of California (D) Fiona Ma, treasurer of California (2019–present) (D) Gavin Newsom, governor of California  (D)] State legislators Patrick Ahrens, AD-26 (2024–present) (D)[138] David Alvarez, AD-80 (2022–present) (D)[107] Anamarie Avila Farias, AD-15 (2024–present) (D)[138] Josh Becker, SD-13 (2020–present) (D)[107] Marc Berman, AD-23 (2016–present) (D)[107] Catherine Blakespear, SD-38 (2022–present) (D)[87] Christopher Cabaldon, SD-03 (2024–present) (D)[107] Ian Calderon, former assembly majority leader (2016–2020) from AD-57 (2012–2020) (D)[57] Lisa Calderon, AD-56 (2020–present) (D)[138] Laurie Davies (politician), AD-74 (2020–present) (R)[139] Carl DeMaio, AD-75 (2024–present) (R)[140] Mike Gipson, AD-65 (2014–present) (D)[107] John Harabedian, AD-41 (2024–present) (D)[138] Gregg Hart, AD-37 (2022–present) (D)[107] Robert Hertzberg, former senate majority leader (2019–2022) from SD-18 (2014–2022) (D)[141] Jacqui Irwin, AD-42 (2014–present) (D)[138] Corey Jackson, AD-60 (2022–present) (D)[107] Stephanie Nguyen, AD-10 (2022–present) (D)[138] Blanca Pacheco, AD-64 (2022–present) (D)[138] Sharon Quirk-Silva, AD-65 (2012–2014) and AD-67 (2016–present) (D)[107] Michelle Rodriguez, AD-53 (2024–present) (D)[138] Gloria Romero, former senate majority leader (2005–2008) from SD-24 (2001–2010) (R)[137][b] Blanca Rubio, AD-48 (2016–present) (D)[107] Kelly Seyarto, SD-32 (2022–present) (R)[143] Catherine Stefani, AD-19 (2024–present) (D)[138] Henry Stern, SD-27 (2016–present) (D)[107] Tony Strickland, SD-19 (2008–2012) and SD-36 (2025–present) (R)[144] Tom Umberg, SD-34 (2018–present) (D)[107] Scott Wiener, SD-11 (2016–present) (D)[145] (switched from neutral)[99] Local officials Chad Bianco, sheriff-coroner of Riverside County (2019–present) (R)[58] Matt Dorsey, San Francisco supervisor from the 6th district (2022–present) (D)[146] Mara Elliott, former city attorney of San Diego (2016–2024) (D)[87] (switched from support)[87] Daniel Lurie, mayor of San Francisco (2025–present) (D)[147] Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose (2023–present) (D)[42] Michael Tubbs, former mayor of Stockton (2017–2021) (D)[137] Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayor of Los Angeles (2005–2013) (D)[42] Individuals Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager[148] E.J. Antoni, economist[149] Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times columnist[150] Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase[151] Bruce Bialosky, columnist[152] Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google[153] Rick Caruso, founder of Caruso (D)[23] Ron Conway, venture capitalist (D)[154] Mark Cuban, businessman (I)[148] Ray Dalio, investor (I)[155] John Doerr, investor (D)[156] Andy Fang, co-founder of DoorDash[91] Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes (R)[157] Rene Haas, CEO of Arm Holdings[158] Magnus Henrekson, economist[159]

Steve Hilton, former director of strategy to the prime minister of the United Kingdom (2010–2012) (R)[58] Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn[160] Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist[161] Arthur Laffer, economist[162] Chris Larsen, business executive[163] Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril Industries[91] Michael Moritz, venture capitalist[156] Dan Newman, political consultant[91] Timothy Noah, journalist[164] Kevin O’Leary, businessman[165] Larry Page, co-founder of Google[164] Chamath Palihapitiya, entrepreneur (R)[166] Joel Pollak, California Post opinion editor (R)[167] Jesse Powell, co-founder of Kraken[166] Joshua D. Rauh, economist[168] Douglas Schoen, political consultant and commentator[169] Garry Tan, venture capitalist (D)[170] Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir (R)[171] Mauricio Umansky, realtor and TV personality[172] George Will, writer (I) Labor unions Building and Construction Trades Council of California[73] California Police Chiefs Association[174] California Professional Firefighters[175] California State Council of Laborers[174] California Teachers Association[74] United Domestic Workers Organizations Association of California School Administrators[174] Bay Area Council[176] California Chamber of Commerce[177] California Children’s Hospital Association[178] California Dental Association[179] California Farm Bureau[180] California Hospital Association[181] California Medical Association[73] California Republican Assembly[182] National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleCalifornia Hawaii State Conference[151] California School Boards Association[14] California Society of Certified Public Accountants[183] California State Sheriffs Association[175] California Taxpayers Association[113] California YIMBY[76] Cato Institute[184] Equality California[151] GrowSF[185] Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association[186] Indivisible Marin[187] Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California[73] Reform California[112] United Health Centers of San Joaquin Valley Political parties American Independent Party[189] California Republican Party[190] Libertarian Party of California[191] San Francisco Democratic Party[146] Newspapers and media California Post[192] Inland Empire Community News[193] La Opinión[194] Los Angeles Times[62] National Review[195] San Fernando Valley Sun[196] The Bakersfield Californian[197] The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle[198] The Wall Street Journal[60] The Washington Post[61] 12 Southern California News Group-owned newspapers:Daily Breeze Inland Valley Daily Bulletin[200] Los Angeles Daily News[201] Orange County Register[202] Pasadena Star-News[203] Press-Telegram[204] Redlands Daily Facts[205] San Gabriel Valley Tribune[206] The Press-Enterprise[207] The San Bernardino Sun[208] Whittier Daily News[209] The San Diego Union-Tribune[2

CALL TO ACTION: Write to Jodi Hicks, CEO of the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

Props 41 and 42 are Opposed by: the California Democratic Party, ACLU, and others

Resources and Random Facts on Billionaires

Let’s look at the billionaires more closely.

(https://www.facebook.com/reel/1507120841259447)

What do wealthy people who aren’t douchebags think about Proposition 40? (Partial transcript from the Patriotic Millionaires video)

“So, to give you an overview, there is a number. It is called the Gini coefficient. It goes from 0 to one. If the Gini coefficient is at one, one person owns everything. Nobody else has anything. If the Gini coefficient at zero, everybody has an equal amount of stuff. This number in the United States of America is currently 0.49. Historians and economic experts know that you have a threat, a vulnerability to authoritarianism as soon as you cross the point 0.4 threshold, we are well past that threshold. We have created a game of economic jenga where we are pulling from the bottom, pulling from the middle, loading it on the top, and the whole society is in the process of falling down..

…Now, Prop 40 would be, if it passes in November, the first ever billionaire wealth tax enacted anywhere in the world. If it passes, I am 100% certain that many other states will look to it and they will say great, you know, we can get a hundred billion dollars by taxing just a handful of massively undertaxed billionaires. They did it in California.we have to do it in Washington state in Massio sets and so on and then it would pave the way ultimately for a federal wealth tax and it would also vastly accelerate the movement that has started recently in a number of other countries, like France, like Brazil, like Spain, in particular Netherlands, towards some form of taxation of the wealth of the super rich.

 That is why the whole world is watching what is happening with Proposition 40 in California. This is an incredibly important matter for the state of California. The revenue at state, the government revenue is extremely significant and important for the future of the state. It is extremely important for the economic and political future of the United States. And frankly, it is very important for the future of our planet. So, thank you very much uh for your support for this incredibly important initiative.

And so, Gabriel, I just want to drive a little bit home here. You say the world is watching…Tell me why the world cares.The world cares because this inequality crisis, this explosion of extreme wealth is happening everywhere. It’s true that it’s been more extreme in the US and within the US in California than in other countries, which is probably why this movement, this global movement to tax the super rich might start in California. But this is a global phenomena. You know, it has been a defining feature of the global economic evolution of the last of the of the last few decades and everywhere people have a feeling that some of the solution to that problem has to involve a wealth tax but they have concerns. Some of them sometimes know these are these are for very self-sserving reasons but sometimes these are genuine concerns about the practicality about the physibility about the effectiveness of a wealth tax and so I think that if a state like California does it and demonstrate very practically that it’s indeed possible to make those billionaires pay more tax and you know what it’s not going to be the end of the world, the sun will keep rising in the morning.

Then all over the world, people will say, “Look, we have a demonstration that this is doable. We know it’s necessary now. We know it’s doable.” And so it would have an enormous ripple effect everywhere in the world.

Dave [SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan], I’m going to turn to you. You and your union brought this to the ballot. Can you tell us why you decided to bring it to the ballot? What the discussions were like behind bringing it to the ballot? And then I also want you to talk about the specific structure of this ballot initiative because that was one thing I didn’t know when I saw y’all a couple weeks ago in San Francisco. It is brilliantly constructed. So talk me through those. Why’d you do it? How’s it constructed? What problem is it going to solve?

Sure. And so thank you Erica. And you know, good afternoon everybody. Thank you, Gabriel. Always good to to be with you. So, I’m going to try to be um as concise as I can and to do all the things that Erica has asked me to do. So, the first thing is you know, just as context and background, I’m the president of a healthcare workers union called SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. We have about 125,000 members in California who predominantly work in the hospital industry and the health system industry, but we also have people who work at clinics and other types of providers. A little over a year ago when President Trump signed the one big beautiful bill and I know people here, this is a sophisticated audience are familiar withIt that piece of legislation was the largest ever defunding of America’s health care system, primarily Medicaid, which is also the largest health insurance program in America with over 80 million people who are covered, and the legislation over the next decade will take $1 trillion out of the US health care system. In California, the amount that will be defunded over the next 5 years is about $100 billion. Andeven in California, that is an enormous amount of money and it will create a funding hole of about $25 billion a year in the California state budget once it’s fully effectuated. There is also, by the way, one of the unique things about the one big bill and its effect on health care is thereis complete consensus in California, including among policy experts, the governor, legislative leaders, that whenwe get through the end of calendar 2027, we will be at a place where up to three and a half million people are going to lose healthc care coverage. The state budget will be defunded by $25 billion a year. We will continue to see an acceleration and a closing of hospitals, federally qualified health centers, and emergency rooms. And at the same time, because the insurance companies intend to claw back the the defunding, over 20 million California consumers are going to be paying higher premiums, deductibles, and co-pays to to pay for alesser uh type of health care coverage going forward. All of that is stipulated to. All of that is agreed upon. And yet there was no solution.

Our union worked very hard to oppose the one big bill that President Trump passed. We were not successful obviously in doing that. There were four members of the California congressional delegation, one of whom a man by the name of David Valadeo in the Bakersfield area who literally has the congressional district in the country with the highest number of Medicaid beneficiaries.and he voted for the big bill as did uh all of the members of the Republican delegation in California and almost 100% across the country. After that happened, we had a conversation inside our organization, what are we going to do about this? Like, this is real. I don’t think people fully appreciate, particularly those outside of the health care industry, you know, how devastating this is going to be. All of the worst cuts were backloaded until after the midterm elections, very cynically so. and so, you know, we had a conversation among the leadership of our organization. There’s obviously a ballot proposition mechanism in California and we said this is the only tool that we have left um and so from July 4th until about mid-October, we had 90 days to come up with a solution and to to figure out how could we capture you know for a reasonable period of time the kinds of resources you need to to not have our health care system implode. Working with a number of Gabriel’s colleagues including Emanuel Siz uh Professor Darien Shansky from the UC Davis Law School, Brian Galley from UC Berkeley and a man by the name of David Gamage from the University of Missouri along with analysts and researchers. We created a working group and we were trying to come up with something that we thought would have a realistic chance of passing the ballot in November of 2026 because there was, you know, no other solution available. We went through about three iterations – we started out with something that was around unrealized capital gains. We poll tested all of this with registered and likely voters in California and we ended up…finally arriving at the version that we’ve now qualified for the ballot on November 3rd of this year. And as Erica alluded to, the structure of the tax, it’s a one-time emergency 5% tax on the net worth, the worldwide net worth of California’s roughly 250 billionaires.

These 250 people um collectively hold about $2.4 trillion wealth. 7 years ago, California billionaires had $700 billion in wealth. Today, it’s $2.4 trillion and growing literally every single day. Even if you assume a 10% evasion factor, a one time 5% tax will yield a little over a hundred billion dollars and provide a five-year solution. and then we have to come up with a permanent solution, you know, to this problem. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about why did we do a one-time tax instead of a permanent tax? And the thing that really happened is when we were going through the 3-month period trying to figure out what to do, it wasvery clear to us that the leading argument from opponents of this was that it will cause billionaires to leave the state of California. We don’t think that’s true, but nonetheless, we wanted to take that issue off the table to the extent possible. and a five-year solution was enough time that we thought, you know, we can then come up with a durable permanent solution. And it also tested a little bit better with voters than did the initial ongoing tax. So for those reasons, we made the decision to do one time 5%. Every billionaire uh in the state will have the option of paying it as a one-time 5% lump sum or they can elect to pay 1% a year over 5 years individual discretion. There are protections for people who are in the startup phase of tech companies, for instance, the founders who are not yet liquid. There’s a whole deferral mechanism. We’ve also built into the measure an expedited legal process because we do think this is going to be challenged. And so part of the measure, if it passes, Prop 40, it goes right to the California Supreme Court, bypasses the lower courts, and then the only stop after that would be the United States Supreme Court. As the lawyers tell me that when the US Supreme Court takes up a case from a state supreme court, you can only reverse on much narrower and more technical grounds. We are completely confident that we are on solid legal ground here. There is nothing legally innovative about the tax. It’s a 100 year body of settled law. The only thing unique about is about it is that it applies exclusively to billionaires…”

• (chcf.org) How Massive Federal Cuts Will Create Unprecedented Challenges for Medi-Cal Patients and Providers
• (Calbudgetcenter.org) H.R. 1 Cuts to Medi-Cal Impact Californians in Every Legislative District
• (calmatters.org) California nearly achieved universal healthcare. Now, millions are losing coverage California’s uninsured rate could nearly double by 2030, with the sharpest losses hitting Black, Asian, and Latino residents in Southern California. A new documentary reveals the human toll behind the numbers, including families navigating Medi-Cal amid immigration raids and looming benefit cuts.
• (calbudgetcenter.org) Billionaire Tax Explained: What Proposition 40 Would Mean for California Implications of the One-Time Billionaire Wealth Tax for Californians
• (lao.ca.gov) How Will the Changing Landscape Affect California’s Health Care System?
• (economicsecurityproject) H.R. 1 is a Healthcare Heist
• (Calmatters) If you are lucky enough to have insurance, you are NOT EXCUSED from the fallout.
  • the tax cuts Trump gave billionaires will make your insurance premiums (estimated $500/yr for average family) and deductibles increase.
  • Emergency rooms will close, and the ones that survive will be more crowded.  More than half of the state’s hospitals already operating at a loss.
  • More expensive services like labor and delivery will be first on the chopping block.
  • Service inside medical facilities will suffers, as California hospitals have already laid off more than 3,000 workers.
• (protectourcare) Nationally, over 1,100 hospitals, clinics and health centers are at risk, reducing services or shutting down entirely.
• (Calmatters) Trump’s gift to his friends strips $30 billion in federal money from CA’s budget. Considering that our taxes support a number of other states, this is injury on top of insult.
• (Stat) Medicaid cuts could result in more than 16,000 preventable deaths annually nationally.
• (NBER.org) Total California income tax paid by billionaires sums up to 1.6% of their wealth gains over the period 2019-2025. Using Securities and Exchange Commission data from Alphabet, Meta, Oracle, and Nvidia since 2004, we estimate the trajectory of wealth, income, and taxes paid by the top 4 California billionaires—Page, Brin, Zuckerberg, Ellison (through 2020), and Huang (since 2021)—focusing on their business wealth. This group alone holds nearly $1 trillion in business wealth, about 40% of total California billionaire wealth.)
• Resources:
• (NBER.org) California Billionaires: Wealth, Taxes, and Wealth Tax Revenue Estimates.
• (CMAdoc.org) ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will devastate access to care, CMA warns