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J.D. Tuccille: Wealth-hating economists leverage credentials for billionaires tax

California proposal based on activism, not academics

If California’s proposed wealth tax is defeated next week — polling now finds Prop. 40 underwater with voters — it will represent less a failure of economic arguments than of political activism given academic gloss. While the allegedly one-time five per cent tax on the assets of billionaires is based on the work of prominent economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez, the two University of California-Berkeley professors seem too willing to massage their research until it gives the results they seek. And what they ultimately want isn’t a one-time tax on the rich, but heavy ongoing taxation to eliminate success.

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According to the California Secretary of State’s office, the much debated Prop. 40 “(i)mposes five per cent tax on certain taxpayers with assets over $1 billion” with the “revenue primarily for health care.” If passed, assets would be assessed at their value as of Dec. 31, 2026, for all individuals residing in the state on Jan. 1 of the same year — that is, 11 months before the tax’s potential passage. The tax would be payable in five annual installments “with each subsequent annual installment payment also being subject to an annual nondeductible deferral charge of 7.5 per cent of the remaining unpaid balance.”

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