A California Congressman hopes to end the mass exodus of California billionaires and trillions of dollare leaving the state by fighting a proposed wealth tax, which he labeled “fundamentally unfair.”
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) plans to introduce a bill on Friday that will prevent the state from retroactively taxing former residents of CA who have left or are planning to leave over the proposed billionaire wealth tax.
Kiley’s “Keep Jobs in California Act of 2026” would prohibit “any state from imposing a retroactive tax on the assets of individuals who no longer reside in the state.”
“California’s proposed wealth tax is an unprecedented attempt to chase down people who have already left as a result of the state’s poor policies,” said Rep. Kiley. “As a result, many of our state’s leading job creators are leaving preemptively.”
He added, “No state should be allowed to reach back in time and impose a new tax on someone who no longer lives there. That is fundamentally unfair.”
The proposed “2026 Billionaire Tax Act,” which is expected to be on the ballot in November, would “confiscate five percent of the assets of individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or more who resided in the state as of January 1, 2026,” Kiley said.
Kiley pointed out that the proposed wealth tax is already forcing out many of the Golden State’s big money billionaires, like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel — who have all announced they are leaving in response to the wealth tax proposal.
Kiley warned that the confiscation of assets from billionaires is just the beginning.
“So, they are saying it’s just for billionaires,” Kiley said. “But of course it starts with billionaires and then they continue to lower the threshold, ensnaring more and more people.”
He added that California “already has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country,” so it makes no sense for the state to drive out the job creators.
Brin is already spearheading an effort to stop the ‘billionaire tax’ by appealing to the state’s voting masses with three new ballot initiatives, The California Post reported.
Brin and other tech titans plan to introduce ballot measures designed to combat the tax on the ultra-wealthy. The group, Building a Better California, has amassed a monster $35 million in funds so far.
The measures include a plan to ban the taxes that apply retroactively and new taxes on personal property such as retirement savings, stocks, bonds and intellectual property.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has blasted the state’s proposed massive wealth tax, pointing to the exodus of moguls from the state.