Newsom calls for a national billionaire tax, while opposing California’s proposed 5% ballot measure on billionaires’ assets

California Governor Gavin Newsom urged lawmakers to support a national tax on billionaires while, at the same time, California officials are opposing a separate ballot initiative in the state aimed at raising revenue from the super-wealthy. The contrast surfaced after Newsom announced his agenda, according to PBS NewsHour Politics, a day after an influential California health care union said it would move forward with a ballot measure targeting billionaires in California.

The proposed California measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026. PBS reported that the union behind the ballot effort pledged to proceed with the campaign to put the measure before voters, setting up a direct test of state revenue policy through the initiative process.

Newsom, a Democrat, has said he opposes the ballot measure, even as he publicly argued for a national approach to taxing billionaires. PBS characterized Newsom’s position as urging a policy shift at the federal level while working to block a state-level initiative framed around California-only targeting.

Newsom’s announcement came as California continues to debate how to fund health care and other state priorities, and as tax policy remains a central point of contention between elected officials and advocacy groups. In this case, the proposed initiative turns on both who would be considered a “billionaire” under the measure and the timing of residency, using an eligibility cutoff of Jan. 1, 2026, for which assets would be taxed.

The state ballot measure is also likely to raise legal and administrative questions that typically accompany major ballot initiatives. These include questions about the measurement and reporting of assets, enforcement and collection timelines, and how the measure’s tax framework would interact with existing state tax rules. PBS did not provide further details on those operational elements, beyond the initiative’s stated one-time 5% structure and the residency cutoff.

If the ballot effort advances, it would move through California’s initiative qualification process and, if successful, would be placed before voters. Newsom’s opposition suggests the state will pursue legal or administrative avenues to challenge or block the measure before it reaches the ballot, though PBS did not specify which challenge is currently underway or whether court filings have been made.

At the same time, Newsom’s push for a national billionaire tax shifts the dispute to the federal level, where any such policy would require Congress to act and where taxation authority depends on the structure of federal law. The federal dimension also changes the political and practical stakes, since a national tax would affect households and businesses across multiple states rather than being limited to California’s resident billionaires.