Gavin Newsom reportedly recruited Planned Parenthood to help him fight his own party's tax plan.
That's how bad California's billionaire tax is – the governor is cutting backroom deals to kill it before November.
And Ron DeSantis just explained why even that might not be enough to stop what comes next.
The Fine Print Sacramento Doesn't Want You to Read
The SEIU – the union that spent $24 million collecting signatures – marketed this as a one-time, 5% hit on billionaires only.
What they didn't advertise: a clause tucked into the measure that gives the California legislature power to lower the wealth threshold and add new asset categories with a simple majority vote – no return trip to the ballot box required.
Read that again.
Voters approve a "billionaire tax."
Sacramento lawmakers can then expand it to millionaires – or anyone with significant assets – without asking voters again.
DeSantis put it plainly on X: "Once the camel's nose is under the tent and government is empowered to confiscate property it will do so."
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2067648183849599205?s=20
He's not speculating.
That is the exact mechanism written into the ballot measure itself.
What Stanford Already Proved
The Hoover Institution at Stanford University ran the numbers before a single vote was cast.
The results were brutal.
Six billionaires – Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Don Hankey, Steven Spielberg, and David Sacks – publicly departed California before the January 1, 2026 residency deadline.
Those six took nearly 30% of California's aggregate billionaire wealth with them – avoiding an estimated $26.7 billion in taxes combined.
The Hoover scholars estimate the tax would collect approximately $40 billion in revenue – less than half the $100 billion proponents promised.
https://twitter.com/nettermike/status/2067406774421057728?s=20
And after accounting for the permanent loss of income tax from departing billionaires, California would end up worse off by an estimated $25 billion.
The tax designed to fill a budget hole would dig a bigger one.
"One-Time" Is the Oldest Lie in Sacramento
California has done this before.
Three years ago Gavin Newsom killed a wealth tax proposal, calling it "dead on arrival."
Three years before that, an earlier wealth tax died without a single vote.
Each time the political pressure built back up, the proposals came back bigger.
The author of the current billionaire tax has already admitted publicly that the "one-time" levy could become permanent – citing the history of other temporary California taxes that were simply renewed again and again.
"If and when this passes, it will not be limited to billionaires," DeSantis warned.
That's not a prediction about the future.
https://twitter.com/EytanWallace/status/2067656079543353786?s=20
That's a description of how the California government has operated for decades.
What Comes Next
Europe ran this experiment for thirty years.
Country after country adopted wealth taxes – and then quietly scrapped them when the money never materialized, the wealthy moved, and the paperwork costs ate through whatever was collected.
California is not immune to basic economic reality.
The Hoover Institution found that all 20 California billionaires they interviewed already have quiet departure plans in place if the measure passes.
Mark Zuckerberg has already purchased property outside the state.
When the revenue falls short – and it will – the legislature will use that fine print provision to expand the tax.
Down to millionaires.
Down to anyone with a home, a retirement account, or a small business they spent their life building.
DeSantis knows how this ends.
The question is whether California voters will listen before they find out the hard way.
Sources:
- Joshua Rauh et al., "The Net Present Value of the Billionaire Tax Act," Hoover Institution, March 4, 2026.
- "California's Proposed Billionaire Tax Will Cost the State an Estimated $25 Billion, Hoover Study Finds," Hoover Institution, March 5, 2026.
- "New Hoover Institute Study Tears Apart California's Billionaire Tax," Americans for Tax Reform, April 1, 2026.
- "California's 'Billionaire Tax' Could Reach Far Beyond Billionaires," RealClearPolicy, May 8, 2026.
- Joshua Rauh et al., "New Hoover Paper Challenges Fiscal Rationale for California Billionaire Wealth Tax," Hoover Institution, May 27, 2026.
- Titus Wu, "Ron DeSantis Issues Dire Warning on California Billionaire Tax," New York Post, June 18, 2026.
