‘Billionaire tax’ ballot measure seeks to avert CA health care collapse
THE SACRAMENTO BEE — A new campaign is underway in California to make the state’s wealthiest residents pay to help rescue its health care system, with organizers filing a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires.
Two health care industry players — Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Community Health, and Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West — on Thursday formally filed the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a proposed statewide ballot measure that would tax billionaires with a net worth of more than $1 billion.
The measure, filed with the state Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, seeks to raise $100 billion to replace federal health care dollars that were cut earlier this summer as part of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“These federal cuts didn’t happen by accident,” said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, in a prepared statement. “They were designed to shield billionaires from contributing while pushing the consequences onto patients and workers. A time-limited emergency tax on the ultra-wealthy is a practical way to keep the healthcare system functioning.”