Is California coming for your retirement account?  

That’s what the backers of Proposition 42 on the November ballot would have you believe. Their measure would prohibit new state taxes on personal property — such as stocks and retirement accounts — and other forms of asset ownership, while also banning certain retroactive state taxes. 

Evan McLaughlin, political director for the California Professional Firefighters, which represents firefighter unions across the state, told the editorial board in an endorsement interview that Prop 42 adds important protections for working families. In recent years, Democratic state lawmakers have introduced a handful of wealth tax proposals targeting the rich. But once you take the lid off a new form of taxation, he argued, there’s nothing stopping it from spreading to the rest of us.

“The Legislature isn’t going to wall themselves off from doing this,” McLaughlin said. “We think that it’s a public benefit to people to say, ‘If you’re going to try to tax these types of retirement assets and 401(k)s and personal savings, you need to go to a vote of the people.’” 

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That certainly sounds reasonable. But no one is coming for your........

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