California governor Gavin Newsom admits openly, Billionaire's tax is hurting the State; says: Will do what ...

There's good news for Billionaires in California. Or should one say the Billionaires left in the state of California. The Democratic governor of California Gavin Newsom has come out openly against Billionaire's Tax. In an interview to New York Times, Newsom vowed to stop the proposed Billionaire or Wealth tax in California, saying that its mere introduction had already hurt the state by driving some Billionaires to relocate and take their tax dollars with them. “This will be defeated — there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom said. He added, “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state.” Reports suggest that several billionaires have already left the State of California. While some like David Sacks and Peter Thiel have announced their exit publicly, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have quietly cut their ties with Silicon Valley. There are reported to be others too in the list who have left the state. Evidence suggests that has already begun to happen, even though the proposal is a long way from becoming law. There Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who together founded Google in a friend’s garage in Silicon Valley, have begun cutting ties with California. So has tech venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says California’s proposed billionaire tax is accelerating an exodus of ultra-wealthy residents. Palihapitiya, who has been tracking capital flight from the Golden State, said California has so far lost an estimated $1 trillion.Responding to these, Governor Newsom said, “This is what I feared, and it’s come true.” Incidentally, Gavin Newsom's stand against any form of Wealth tax is not new. The governor has long opposed a Wealth tax saying that it would stifle innovation in California, where the booming tech industry has sent state revenues soaring and driven the State's economy for years. In past years, he has quashed legislative wealth tax proposals on a number of occasions by making it clear that he would not sign them into law.However, what is different this time is that the proposed Billionaires/Wealth tax has come from a large health care union which is trying to place the tax on the ballot. The tax proposal is being led by the labor union Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. If passed, the tax would retroactively apply to residents as of 1 January, and billionaires would have five years to pay it.The union argues that the tax is necessary to make up for the deep cuts to health care that President Donald Trump signed into law last year, including reductions in Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies and food assistance. The union’s proposal calls for the state to spend 90% of the new tax money on health care, with the rest devoted to food assistance and education. The funding would help to keep hospitals open and preserve Californians’ access to health care, said Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff for the labor union. The proposal is still in the beginning phases. Under California law, it needs to collect 874,641 signatures to qualify for the state ballot in November.