A new ballot initiative that's already chased six billionaires out of California contains hidden provisions that could eventually allow the state to confiscate assets from anyone who owns property, according to an analysis published June 3, 2026, by the California Policy Center. The "One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative," which has qualified for November's ballot, includes language that would let the state legislature amend its provisions with just a two-thirds vote—potentially lowering the $1 billion threshold to hit middle-class homeowners and overriding protections from Proposition 13.
The initiative's immediate impact has already been dramatic. In 2025, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved to Florida, along with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Nevada gained billionaire Don Hankey, while Texas welcomed former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and director Steven Spielberg relocated to New York. Just these six departures alone have lowered the potential revenue from the wealth tax by an estimated $27 billion. A Hoover Institution study claims another 20 California billionaires have made departure plans and will leave immediately if voters approve the initiative. The measure applies retroactively to anyone living in the state after January 1, 2026, and imposes a "one-time" tax of 5 percent on "covered assets" valued over $1 billion—including unrealized gains in private company stock, which could force employees to pay tens of millions in taxes on money they don't actually have access to.
The state's fiscal trajectory supports the center's concerns about aggressive expansion. Between 2010 and 2025, California's General Fund exploded from $87 billion to $228 billion—more than doubling even after adjusting for inflation, while the total population barely budged with an increase of only about 1.5 million people. During the same period, participants in taxpayer-funded food aid benefits soared from 3.7 million to 5.5 million, and Medi-Cal enrollment jumped from 7 million to 15 million, covering over one-third of the population. Nearly 10 million people moved from California to other states between 2010 and 2025. California's Gini Coefficient now stands at 0.49, putting it in a virtual tie with New York and Connecticut for the worst income inequality in the nation.
According to Edward Ring, the report's author and Director of Water and Energy Policy at the California Policy Center, the ballot measure's wording is "purposely designed to give the state legislature the authority to override the property tax protections afforded by Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978." Ring argues that California's model can be summed up as: "overregulate an economy to make life unaffordable without government handouts, then win elections by promising more government handouts to people who can't live without them." The analysis notes that 75 percent of seats in both houses of California's state legislature are held by Democrats, with the overwhelming percentage controlled by public sector unions whose "one guiding principle" is to "grow government, because bigger government means more membership, and more membership means more dues revenue."
The center argues that the wealth tax is part of an unsustainable cycle driven by regulatory expansion. The report contends that decades of regulations have buried small businesses while allowing politically compliant large corporations to gain captive markets and pass compliance costs to customers, making California's energy, water, transportation, higher education, housing, and government services increasingly unaffordable. The analysis warns that the initiative is "ridiculous to think California's state legislature cannot muster a two-thirds vote, anytime they wish, in order to extend the reach of the 'Billionaire Tax Act' down to 'millionaires'"—which in California means almost anyone who has owned their home for more than a decade. Ring cautions that this progressive model, "given half a chance, will be exported to the rest of the nation."