‘Tax the rich?’

To the Editor:

In your April 14 edition, John Stossel contributing under the headline “Tax the Rich?” on his interview with Steve Forbes refers to a one-time California wealth tax (on the excess over $1 billion of wealth as of Jan. 1, 2026 of each of the State’s approximately 200 billionaires), currently a proposed ballot initiative (opposed by Governor Newsom) gathering public votes for inclusion on the November 2026 ballot. Mr. Forbes argues strongly against such a wealth tax.

What Forbes does not mention, but what a forbes.com article (“California’s Billionaire Tax Battle: Inside The 2026 Showdown” by Nathan Goldman (Feb. 3, 2026)) does, is that four university and law school analysts considering the background of the California wealth tax proposal point “to the $19 billion budget shortfall created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025’s provisions that lowered funding to states.”

In recalling that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025’s tax reduction provisions gave trillions of dollars of income tax benefits disproportionately to billionaires nationwide, and in now considering that the same Act’s provisions lowering funding to states created a $19 billion budget shortfall for California, one might wonder whether the proposed California wealth tax might to some extent be an effort by California taxpayers to recoup from California billionaires some of what those billionaires were enriched by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 which at the same time cut federal funding to California and caused a state budget shortfall.

In other words: that the problem with the spate of state wealth tax initiatives Steve Forbes in the Stossel article is citing is not simply, or not only, that it’s the “progressives” shouting “Tax the rich!”, as Stossel’s article’s first line would have it. But that adverse consequences to the many because of the generous federal tax gift to the very few under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 are starting to emerge. 

Tom Dickson

Rhinelander