It was all started by a f'in union:

"The measure, which was proposed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West union, first has to gain enough signatures to land on the November ballot."

I suspect most of the lower and middle class will sign thinking (wrongly) they will get a pass on higher taxes by sticking to the billionaires.

Let’s start with this. Not one more penny in taxes increased until the state can verify and account for every penny already collected from the millions who do the daily grind. Same for the federal government.

Can’t provide that, tough shit, tax law is frozen. I’m not mad I have to work for a living, I’m a man and I view that as my responsibility. I’m furious that I’ve been dry humped my whole life and they demand more. I’m doing my part with honesty, now do yours with the same.

Maybe billionaires do get away with tax breaks, fine. As long as they’re doing everything within the confines of the law, leave them alone. The billionaires are the ones providing me an opportunity to provide for my family. The government is the one bending people over a barrel and telling them they aren’t doing enough. Deal with the fraud first, if we need to adjust the tax laws affecting billionaires, we can do that later when the working class isn’t being raped.

At this point, any Billionaire that was stupid enough to have their net worth exposed to the State of California and their Socialist tendencies probably deserves to lose the 5%.
Anyone with any intelligence saw this coming 20 years ago and got their CA tax exposure squared away years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Let’s start with this. Not one more penny in taxes increased until the state can verify and account for every penny already collected from the millions who do the daily grind. Same for the federal government.

I like it. Let’s apply it to the local governments, too.

With all the Fraud, Over Reach and Waste- We're not broke just stupid.

In an old movie a woman asked a sailor what he spent all his money on- "Women, beer and the rest foolishly".

California's Billionaire Tax Is A Trojan Horse... Not A Solution

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times,

California was my home for most of my adult life—long enough to know that what looks good in a campaign slogan can feel very different when you’re the one carrying the load.

I built restaurants there. I employed people there. I signed permits, licenses, and applications like they were holiday cards. I navigated agencies that asked for more paperwork than profit statements. I paid into a system that always wanted one more filing, one more inspection, one more approval, one more fee. The joke was that my assistant didn’t work in hospitality—she worked in compliance. And it was true. That state turns compliance into a profession.

So when I see the latest proposal—a one-time 5 percent tax on anyone whose net worth exceeds $1 billion—I don’t see Robin Hood. I see Sacramento writing itself a permission slip.

The pitch says “billionaires.” But the mechanism says “total assessed wealth, declared by the owner, verified by the state, and enforceable through audit.”

That’s a power move, not a nuance.

A Tax Based on Valuation, Not Reality

Most taxes in America hit earnings or consumption. You pay when you make money, or when you buy something, or when you sell something. This proposal taxes accumulation. It doesn’t ask what you can afford. It asks what you have, and then hands a calculator to the agencies to determine the bill.

We’ve seen how this evolves. The Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris already proposed a federal wealth tax on Americans worth $100 million or more. Not billionaires—$100 million. That’s a signal flare, not a footnote.

It tells you exactly what you need to know: This idea isn’t anchored at the top. It’s already drifting toward the middle.

And middle is where most of the money actually lives.

The Constitution Saw This Coming

There’s a phrase from constitutional law that gets thrown around a lot in conversations like this: bill of attainder.

A bill of attainder is a law that punishes a specific person or small identifiable group without a trial, skipping the courts and due process entirely. In the United States, that kind of law is unconstitutional—lawmakers don’t get to play judge and jury and penalize a select group through legislation alone.

This proposal isn’t a criminal punishment, but the reason people bring the term up at all is because it targets a tiny group by valuation for a massive extraction event without a court proceeding first. That resemblance matters if you believe fairness isn’t optional.

The Wealthy Already Pay Plenty—Just Quietly

People talk about the “rich dodging taxes” like it’s gospel. Let me tell you what actually happens when you build something in California:

You don’t dodge taxes, you drown in them. Not just income tax, not just property tax, but sales tax, alcoholic beverage tax, payroll taxes, employer-side filings, permits, licensing fees, inspections, regulatory approvals, environmental health certificates, building permits, land use permits, and on and on and on.

That state has already been collecting revenue from business owners in every direction long before this proposal ever landed on the ballot.

If you want to know why business owners left, it wasn’t a lack of patriotism. It was math.

The Trojan Horse Isn’t the Billionaire—It’s the Precedent

The billionaires are the branding. The mascot. The costume the idea wears so voters don’t inspect the gears.

But the gears are what matter, because once a state passes a tax on total assessed wealth, future thresholds can be lowered, exemptions can be rewritten, valuation formulas can be expanded, and enforcement will land in the hands of agencies most voters will never meet—but business owners never stop meeting.

The real question is not “Should billionaires pay more?” but “Should the state have the right to tax total assessed wealth at all?”

Because once that precedent exists, the definition of “rich” will keep shifting, the net will keep widening, and the bill will keep climbing down the balance sheet toward the people who never imagined they’d qualify.

A millionaire today in California is someone who owns a house. A house today costs a million dollars there. That’s not a billionaire. That’s a math teacher and a firefighter and a family with a mortgage.

The net will widen because the money they need is not all at the top. There’s much more sitting in the middle.

And middle-class is where precedent always ends up grazing.

My Stance

I lean libertarian—I don’t want government in every aspect of our lives, our kitchens, our land, or our asset valuations. I’m a hard no on expanding its discretion any further. The slogans may be sticky, but freedoms are stickier—once lost, they don’t come back.

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...n-horse-not-solution

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chellim1,

You just know these turds have their eyes on and are beating off to getting their hands on 401(k)s and other retirement plans. Those aren't billionaires, they are tens of millions of middle-class people.

My understanding is that not only stocks and bonds would be taxed, but also real estate, art works, and collectibles.

I can't imagine how the current market value would be calculated.

quote:

I can't imagine how the current market value would be calculated.

There would be an "assessor", just like with property (real estate) taxes. They claim to be scientific, but all errors favor the government.

As an aside: I think you should have a put option when they reassess your house: "You think it's worth X? Write me a check and I'll be out by the end of the month!"

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
Just the threat of maybe having this law is already affecting California. They may collect some money from a few people once, maybe. But they'll never collect another penny in any future year.

Can the politicians there really be this stupid?

No, they'll just change the law again to keep taxing whoever is left.

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Let’s start with this. Not one more penny in taxes increased until the state can verify and account for every penny already collected from the millions who do the daily grind. Same for the federal government.

Can’t provide that, tough shit, tax law is frozen. I’m not mad I have to work for a living, I’m a man and I view that as my responsibility. I’m furious that I’ve been dry humped my whole life and they demand more. I’m doing my part with honesty, now do yours with the same.

Maybe billionaires do get away with tax breaks, fine. As long as they’re doing everything within the confines of the law, leave them alone. The billionaires are the ones providing me an opportunity to provide for my family. The government is the one bending people over a barrel and telling them they aren’t doing enough. Deal with the fraud first, if we need to adjust the tax laws affecting billionaires, we can do that later when the working class isn’t being raped.

Totally agree. After seeing what all of these states are doing with our money the mere thought of of a tax increase to anyone is beyond ridiculous. Show us the books for every penny spent and if no fraud is found then move on to unnecessary expenses. After those two things at MINNIMUM then we can look into taxes. My guess is if they had to do that to get more of our tax money I’m guessing they would suddenly not need anymore tax money. It’s gotten to be a total joke.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
You just know these turds have their eyes on and are beating off to getting their hands on 401(k)s and other retirement plans. Those aren't billionaires, they are tens of millions of middle-class people.

Again, middle class people that continue to vote for this.

It is clear that Congress has no intention whatsoever to rein in spending nor to pay off the debt. Thus, any revenues are superfluous. They might as well just print money and spend it.

There is no justification for taxation given there is no need to account for spending.

Yes, we'll reach the failure of the dollar maybe a bit sooner, but since it is already on an exponential curve with no way to stop it, we should be able to spend what we have now for a little bit of fun before the inevitable.

Taxes aren't about revenue generation. They are about behavior control.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Let’s start with this. Not one more penny in taxes increased until the state can verify and account for every penny already collected from the millions who do the daily grind. Same for the federal government.

I like it. Let’s apply it to the local governments, too.

I’ll go further and say that I would be happy if that was an additional amendment to the constitution!

I'm not a billionaire, but I am worried that if California is successful, it will be the Trojan Horse Democrats are looking for to allow taxation of unrealized gains. That is the holy grail of tax-and-spend liberals.

Posted this before I saw the linked article above, but that is exactly their plan.

Yes, sir!

"Stop demanding more, if you can't show where you spent what We The People already sent."

I'm not going to fret over a billionaire's tax as I'm not a billionaire. Billionaires have plenty of resources to fight or avoid this on their own. Has any of them fought to stop any tax increases on me? Either way, not my monkeys, not my circus.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm not going to fret over a billionaire's tax as I'm not a billionaire. Billionaires have plenty of resources to fight or avoid this on their own. Has any of them fought to stop any tax increases on me? Either way, not my monkeys, not my circus.

Well, you're in Arizona too. So, yeah. But if it was in your State and the next year they did it to the Millionaires, would it be your monkey then? Once the precedent is set, it will eventually affect you.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm not going to fret over a billionaire's tax as I'm not a billionaire. Billionaires have plenty of resources to fight or avoid this on their own. Has any of them fought to stop any tax increases on me? Either way, not my monkeys, not my circus.

First they came for the billionaires money, then they came for the millionaires money, then they came for yours.