{"id":18013,"date":"2026-07-31T19:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/?p=18013"},"modified":"2026-07-31T19:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:04:38","slug":"wealth-tax-news-7-31-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/feusa\/wealth-tax-news-7-31-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Wealth Tax News \u2013 7\/31\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This week\u2019s we\u2019re watching the continued national and state-level fight over taxing concentrated wealth: California Democrats are internally divided over whether to endorse a billionaire wealth tax (Proposition 40), with intense lobbying, competing polls, and a well-funded billionaire-backed opposition facing off against labor and progressive supporters.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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That fight is complicated by rifts within labor itself, questions about the tax\u2019s legal vulnerability and potential to accelerate billionaire flight, and allegations that the measure’s architect used it partly as negotiating leverage. Parallel wealth-taxation battles are playing out elsewhere, including New York City\u2019s confusing rollout of its new pied-\u00e0-terre tax and a broader Democratic effort to use courts and ballot-language tactics to blunt anti-tax citizen initiatives in Washington, Colorado, and California.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

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Please find summaries of relevant articles with web links below.<\/strong> Please reach out to any member of your Brownstein National Tax Policy Group team with questions or to set up a meeting.<\/a><\/p>\n

California Wealth Tax Initiative 2026: Latest Polls – The New York Times<\/a>
The New York Times has set up a page on their website tracking recent polling on the California wealth tax proposal.<\/p>\n

Federal<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Will Democrats embrace the wealth tax? – POLITICO<\/a>
California Democrats are split over whether to endorse California\u2019s wealth tax proposal at a state party meeting in San Diego. Supporters see an endorsement as a major boost and opponents warn it could backfire politically.<\/p>\n

Platner Is Gone, But His Billionaire Tax Plan Still Matters \u2013 Forbes Op-ed<\/a>
Joseph Thorndike,\u00a0a Forbes contributor and tax historian, argues that Graham Platner\u2019s failed Senate campaign still offers Democrats a lesson in tax populism. He notes that Platner paired an ambitious plan to tax billionaires and corporations with relief for working households, showing how a candidate can attack concentrated wealth without fully embracing democratic socialism. Thorndike argues Platner\u2019s approach echoes FDR\u2019s strategy of using progressive taxes to curb economic power while preserving capitalism, but Platner left major questions about implementation unresolved.<\/p>\n

California<\/strong><\/h4>\n

California\u2019s proposed billionaire tax exposes rifts among labor unions – Los Angeles Times<\/a>
This week, the California State Council of Laborers, California Police Chiefs Association, and United Domestic Workers, came out against Proposition 40. The groups argued it is too narrow, fiscally risky, or better handled through a longer-term funding plan. SEIU California chose to stay neutral.<\/p>\n

Irish entrepreneur Patrick Collison donated $7m to group opposing California wealth tax \u2013 The Irish Times<\/a>
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison has donated $7 million to Building a Better California, a group opposing a proposed California wealth tax proposal. The campaign, backed by several tech figures including Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, argues the tax threatens California’s standing as a center of innovation, good jobs, and economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Why flawed wealth tax could backfire on California \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune<\/a>
Jared Walczak, a senior fellow at the Tax Foundation, argues that California\u2019s proposed wealth tax is legally vulnerable and could backfire by prompting wealthy residents to leave before it takes effect. He says the measure\u2019s residency and valuation dates are especially problematic, its tax would be hard to defend in court, and even if it survives, it could reduce ongoing state tax revenue by driving away billionaires rather than raising the money supporters expect.<\/p>\n

New internal poll showing support for billionaire tax – KCRA<\/a>
The Yes on Prop. 40 campaign says a new internal poll shows majority support for the California billionaire tax, with 57% favoring it and 38% opposed among 1,500 voters. Supporters are using the numbers to counter the \u201cStop the Squeeze\u201d opposition campaign, which argues the tax would hurt schools, housing, and public safety.\u00a0Campaign finance records cited in the article show opposition fundraising has far outpaced support for the measure.<\/p>\n

LeBron James joins California’s billionaire exodus \u2014 but he may not escape the wealth tax – Fortune<\/a>
LeBron James\u2019s move to Philadelphia has become a high-profile example of California\u2019s billionaire tax fight, since Proposition 40 would still tax anyone who lived in the state on Jan. 1, 2026 even if they left later.<\/p>\n

An ‘exponentially different level’ of billionaire spending in California \u2013 Times of San Diego<\/a>
California\u2019s billionaires are spending at record levels, not just to fight the proposed wealth tax but also to shape state and federal politics around crypto, AI, and pro-business candidates. A new\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0says the state\u2019s top 15 billionaires have poured more than $336 million into elections this year, with a few tech and crypto figures driving most of the money and often targeting labor-backed candidates in California races.<\/p>\n

A powerful union, the billionaire tax and an alleged bargaining chip – Los Angeles Times<\/a>
SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan pushed California\u2019s billionaire tax as a way to raise money for healthcare, but behind-the-scenes talks suggest he may also have used it as leverage to win union contracts and other concessions.<\/p>\n

New York<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Rollout of New York City\u2019s Second-Home Tax Is Confusing Some Residents – The New York Times<\/a>
New York City\u2019s new pied-\u00e0-terre tax has created confusion after the city published nearly one million property records and mailed notices to owners who may be affected. While officials say the rollout follows state law and is meant to target wealthy part-time residents, many homeowners say they were wrongly flagged or feel exposed. Critics argue the city\u2019s valuation system and appeals process are cumbersome and error-prone.<\/p>\n

Washington<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Democrats Turn Against Direct Democracy – WSJ<\/a>
The WSJ Editorial Board argues that Democrats and their allies are undermining direct democracy by using courts and ballot-language tactics to block anti-tax citizen initiatives in Washington, Colorado, and California. It says these moves are designed to protect the party\u2019s ability to raise taxes and expand government spending without meaningful voter restraint.<\/p>\n

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The need for fact-based reporting of issues important to family owned businesses<\/a> and protecting a lifetime of savings<\/a> has never been greater. Now more than ever, successful families<\/a> and family owned businesses<\/a> are under fire. That’s why Family Enterprise USA<\/a> is passionately working to increase the awareness of issues important to family owned businesses<\/a> built on hard work, while continuing to strengthen our presence on Capitol Hill. The issues we fight for or against with Congress in Washington DC include high income tax rates<\/a>, possible elimination of valuation discounts, increase in capital gains tax<\/a>, enactment of a wealth tax<\/a>, and the continued burden of the gift tax<\/a>, estate tax<\/a> and generation skipping tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This week\u2019s we\u2019re watching the continued national and state-level fight over taxing concentrated wealth: California Democrats are internally divided over whether to endorse a billionaire wealth tax (Proposition 40), with intense lobbying, competing polls, and a well-funded billionaire-backed opposition facing off against labor and progressive supporters.   That fight is complicated by rifts within labor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,3,92,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-businesses","category-feusa","category-multi-generational-business","category-wealth-tax"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18013"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18022,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions\/18022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}