The SEIU declares war on California’s tax base – Latest News
Unions generally destroy complete industries once they demand more than corporations can afford.
In California, the union demanding a “billionaire tax” would possibly simply destroy the state itself.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is one of the nation’s strongest unions, representing authorities staff. Its California department is the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
Its president, Dave Regan, is the principal organizer behind the “2026 Billionaire Tax Act,” which stated this week that it has collected twice the quantity of signatures essential to qualify for a statewide vote.
Though the California secretary of state has but to review and approve the initiative, it seems just like the “billionaire tax” shall be on the poll on Nov. 3.
The SEIU is one of the nation’s strongest unions representing authorities staff. San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Images
We don’t know how a lot the union spent to put the tax on the poll. That shall be launched by the secretary of state when it has formally accredited the initiative.
What we do know is that the union doubtless spent a large quantity, each in arduous money and employees time, with expenditures drawing on varied union funds.
The SEIU’s motivation is straightforward: 90% of the money that might be collected by the “billionaire tax” could be designated for health care spending. In different phrases, it advantages the union and its members immediately.
The SEIU is pursuing that money, however latest disclosures of important fraud in California health care packages, together with Medi-Cal, the native model of Medicaid.
After the Trump administration began analyzing fraud in hospices, California Attorney General Rob Bonta jumped into the act and found $267 million of Medi-Cal fraud within the hospice program. Bonta said that during the last decade, such fraud amounted to $1.5 billion.
We can all think about what the actual fraud degree is, throughout all of the state’s public health packages.
The SEIU doesn’t care. It is focusing on the state’s wealthiest residents, earlier than making sure funds already offered for health care are correctly spent.
In impact, the unions are attacking California’s tax base. An unknown quantity of billionaires have already relocated out of the state. Some have carried out it very publicly — amongst them Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison, and Peter Thiel. The quantity of wealth that left with them is within the ballpark of $1 trillion. (That represents $50 billion in misplaced income beneath the proposed new tax.)
The SEIU’s motivation is straightforward: 90% of the money that might be collected by the “billionaire tax” could be designated for health care spending. In different phrases, it advantages the union and its members immediately. AFP by way of Getty Images
It is the undisclosed departures which will do the actual harm. We don’t learn about them, and won’t know for some time.
Most of these leaving have a residence in different states, together with states with no income tax, and have been working additional time with their legal professionals and accountants to make sure their official residence isn’t in California.
To evade California residency, they could should show that they’ve a driver’s license from one other state; that they get their medical care there; and even that they attend a home of worship there.
(My money is on the tax professionals versus the California bureaucrats on that situation.)
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We are already seeing the devastating outcomes of the SEIU’s gambit, regardless of whether or not the billionaire tax truly passes.
In 2024, California collected $129 billion in personal income tax. The high 1% pay 40% of that. The state stands to lose annual revenues of $13 billion if simply 25% of these people vacate.
That doesn’t embody the income from the companies and workers they’re taking with them, which might simply hit $25 billion within the first 12 months.
The SEIU has estimated that a “one-time” 5% tax on wealth will produce $100 billion in income. You don’t should be a financial wizard to understand that may by no means occur.
Dave Regan, is the principal organizer behind the “2026 Billionaire Tax Act” membersunited4strength.org
That is as a result of each time we’re informed that a “new source” of income will produce a claimed quantity, the true quantity is rarely even close to what they project.
The billionaires who do stay in California may even be hiring attorneys and accountants to cover or devalue their belongings and guarantee that they pay as little of the new tax as doable.
You’d higher imagine they’re planning that already. None of them has the money on hand to pay the prescribed 5% of their internet value. They might be pressured to liquidate belongings, together with their stock of California-based corporations.
That will drive down asset values for the billionaires — and likewise for all of the staff and all of the California residents who maintain the shares of their 401(okay) accounts.
Economic hurt will unfold among the many residents of the state and boomerang, inflicting even much less tax income to be collected.
All this to pay more into authorities health care packages riddled with fraud, and to punish people for creating jobs and wealth for people all through California and the nation.
The SEIU’s billionaire tax might impoverish California for generations. No billionaire comes close to that sort of harmful greed.
Bruce Bialosky, a former presidential appointee, is a licensed public accountant specializing in taxes.
