FOX Business host Marcus Lemonis discusses billionaires fleeing California to avoid a proposed wealth tax on “The Bottom Line.”
One of America’s largest unions has made a public statement regarding California’s controversial billionaire wealth tax.
The Teamsters California and its 250,000 members have officially supported state legislation proposing a single tax of 5% on the net worth of California residents worth more than $1 billion.
“The fight to pass the California Billionaire Tax is a fight to protect workers’ ability to afford to live in California; it’s a fight that California Teamsters will continue to lead,” California Teamsters Co-Presidents Peter Finn and Victor Mineros said in a joint press release.
“The same Big Tech billionaires who shed crocodile tears over paying their fair share of taxes while raking in colossal sums of money are operating a rigged system that charges delivery workers and bus drivers higher rates than the AI executives who are trying to eliminate our jobs,” they continued.
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The Teamsters statement adds that the union hopes the tax proposal will hold billionaires “accountable for destroying our jobs and stealing our health care from families,” as the California Teamsters lead “the fight for workers and their jobs by challenging Big Tech’s agenda to replace jobs that support families with robots.”
Teamsters union workers demonstrate outside an Amazon fulfillment center on December 19, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images)
Although the initiative has not yet qualified for the November 2026 ballot, the proposal – supported by the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West – would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, due in 2027, with taxpayers allowed to spread out their payments over five years, with additional costs, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
If the measure is approved by voters, everyone residing in California on January 1, 2026 would owe the tax, according to the proposal.
“Approximately 200 California billionaires hold a staggering $2 trillion in wealth; each of the billionaires could spend $500 million a year from interest income alone without receiving a cent of their wealth.” Finn and Mineros wrote. “But for greedy corporations and their billionaire owners, that’s never enough: They won’t be satisfied until they replace every worker with a robot that fuels their fortunes.”
Corcoran Group agent Julian Johnston speaks exclusively to Fox News Digital about the new wave of California billionaires migrating to South Florida due to a proposed wealth tax.
“The legislative package prioritizes protecting workers and the public from eliminating good jobs with robots, addressing the dangers of autonomous vehicles threatening our community’s public safety, and ensuring that our state’s economic growth benefits ordinary Californians,” they continued, “not just business executives and shareholders.”
Neither Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office nor the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West West immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
As a result of this proposal, several billionaires – some public and others unnamed – have shifted their assets or relocated from California to more business-friendly states, like Florida. Confirmed examples include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, investor Peter Thiel and venture capitalist David Sacks.
“One customer said, ‘You know, this could be a $5 billion tax for me,'” Julian Johnston of the Corcoran Group recently told Fox News Digital. “So they move because of that.”
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FOX Business’ Max Gorden has the Los Angeles details on “Varney & Co.”
“They all dine and drink together and talk about this proposed tax. And then when the proposed tax gained momentum, then they realized that they either had to rent or buy something in California to establish residency and reduce their net exposure to the proposed billionaire tax,” he further explained.
“It’s a melting pot and they’re all friends. And that’s the problem. The tipping point came when four or five of them bought and three others signed a contract. The rest of them, all their friends, are here. And they talked about office buildings, too.”
