California Union Goes to the Ballot to Shakedown Billionaires

SEIU (the Service Employees International Union) is at it again. After failing three times to use California ballot initiatives to shake down dialysis providers, the union is now turning its ballot warfare to a new target: California’s 200 or so billionaires.

SEIU is sponsoring the “2026 Billionaires Tax Act”. The measure, recently listed on the Attorney General’s website, would impose a one time 5% tax on individual wealth exceeding $1 billion.

Although the tax would be levied based on 2026 net worth, it would apply to billionaires who resided in California in 2025, so theoretically it could not be avoided. Of course, billionaires are well equipped to defend themselves in court, so the constitutionality of this unprecedented tax will be rigorously tested.

Proponents assert that the measure would not cause billionaires to flee the state because of the one-time nature of the tax. Unlike federal wealth taxes floated by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the SEIU tax would not be applied each year.

But critics on X were quick to spot the flaw in that logic: if the state could impose a wealth tax once, it could do so again and again. So, yes, billionaires would leave if this measure passed. Indeed, they might leave simply if this gets on the ballot given SEIU’s relentless as shown by the 2018, 2020, and 2022 measures directed at the dialysis providers.

And, since billionaires provide a disproportionate share of California’s general revenue, an exodus could prove to be a budget nightmare. The billionaire tax would be placed in a special fund, 90% of which would be devoted to healthcare spending and the rest to K-12 education.

If some billionaires leave, the state’s general fund will have less money to support law enforcement, corrections, higher education, and other spending priorities funded by SEIU’s billionaire tax.

Of course, that is less of a concern to SEIU. The new revenue will flow to healthcare providers that will in turn offer more jobs to SEIU members. They, in turn, will pay more dues to SEIU so that leadership can concoct the next ballot measure shakedown.