bearister said:

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Economics Nobel Laureates Support letter for Proposition 40,
the California billionaire tax September 19, 2026.

Daron Acemoglu (MIT)
Abhijit Banerjee (University of Zurich and MIT)
Peter Diamond (MIT)
Esther Duflo (University of Zurich and MIT)
Paul Krugman (CUNY)
Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University)

In November 2026, California will vote on Proposition 40, a 5%
one-time tax on the wealth of California's billionaires.. .. ..

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DiabloWags said:

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Over the 2019-2025 period, the total amount of California
income tax paid by billionaires amounted to only 1.6% of their $1.4
trillion wealth gain, much less than what ordinary Californians pay
on their paychecks.

In the United States of America, we do not pay taxes on assets unless they are sold.

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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Over the 2019-2025 period, the total amount of California
income tax paid by billionaires amounted to only 1.6% of their $1.4
trillion wealth gain, much less than what ordinary Californians pay
on their paychecks.

In the United States of America, we do not pay taxes on assets unless they are sold.

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Thank you for pinpointing the crux of the problem

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DiabloWags said:

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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Over the 2019-2025 period, the total amount of California
income tax paid by billionaires amounted to only 1.6% of their $1.4
trillion wealth gain, much less than what ordinary Californians pay
on their paychecks.

In the United States of America, we do not pay taxes on assets unless they are sold.

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Thank you for pinpointing the crux of the problem

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As you know, I don't believe that's the problem.
The problem is we have a Govt that spends waaaaaaaay toooooooo muuuuuuuch MONEY.

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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Over the 2019-2025 period, the total amount of California
income tax paid by billionaires amounted to only 1.6% of their $1.4
trillion wealth gain, much less than what ordinary Californians pay
on their paychecks.

In the United States of America, we do not pay taxes on assets unless they are sold.

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Thank you for pinpointing the crux of the problem

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As you know, I don't believe that's the problem.
The problem is we have a Govt that spends waaaaaaaay toooooooo muuuuuuuch MONEY.

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I agree that CA spends too much on government employees. But we have a revenue and spending problem.

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wifeisafurd said:

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Polls show slim majority for the billionaire's tax and competing ballot measures against the tax. Voters really are that dumb. Also voters polled think there are way too many propositions on the ballot.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://calmatters.org/newsletter/billionaire-tax-proposition-poll/&ved=2ahUKEwjx6ZrmlYCXAxWHIUQIHWLCJDIQFnoECCoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0jNiQT37rcEmCd82rkplz6

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socaltownie said:

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Lets all get real estate licensese to sell homes in granite bay ;-)

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socaltownie said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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Polls show slim majority for the billionaire's tax and competing ballot measures against the tax. Voters really are that dumb. Also voters polled think there are way too many propositions on the ballot.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://calmatters.org/newsletter/billionaire-tax-proposition-poll/&ved=2ahUKEwjx6ZrmlYCXAxWHIUQIHWLCJDIQFnoECCoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0jNiQT37rcEmCd82rkplz6

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We can not expect voters to appreciate the mobility of capital and the ads (while effective politically) are not really helping educate voter. For eeample a lot steps not explained in recent wave of no on 40 ads for why tax increase leads to 40 billion dollar deficit (which I GENERALLY think is POSSIBLE though not at all certain - just depends if the 2 companies with stock events actually move people out - which isn't at all clear given the value of maintaining large workforce presence in the valley's ecosystem).

It will fail. Measures typically lose support over time - especially when only one side is spending $$$$. You know the internal polling is good because they haven't pivoted yet to the Yes messages on the poison pills. Given Brin resources you know they are runnign daily tracking polls and have test messaged their ads to death. The consultants are making life changing intergenerational wealth. Lets all get real estate licensese to sell homes in granite bay ;-)

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DiabloWags said:

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Prop 41 and 42 are there to take votes away from Prop 40.



Silicon Valley voters to weigh 'billionaire tax' ballot measure - San Jos Spotlight

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Anarchistbear said:

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According to state law, the one receiving the most votes becomes law it all pass

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DiabloWags said:

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Anarchistbear said:

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According to state law, the one receiving the most votes becomes law it all pass

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Yes, I stand corrected.
Most votes wins.

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaltownie said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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Polls show slim majority for the billionaire's tax and competing ballot measures against the tax. Voters really are that dumb. Also voters polled think there are way too many propositions on the ballot.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://calmatters.org/newsletter/billionaire-tax-proposition-poll/&ved=2ahUKEwjx6ZrmlYCXAxWHIUQIHWLCJDIQFnoECCoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0jNiQT37rcEmCd82rkplz6

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We can not expect voters to appreciate the mobility of capital and the ads (while effective politically) are not really helping educate voter. For eeample a lot steps not explained in recent wave of no on 40 ads for why tax increase leads to 40 billion dollar deficit (which I GENERALLY think is POSSIBLE though not at all certain - just depends if the 2 companies with stock events actually move people out - which isn't at all clear given the value of maintaining large workforce presence in the valley's ecosystem).

It will fail. Measures typically lose support over time - especially when only one side is spending $$$$. You know the internal polling is good because they haven't pivoted yet to the Yes messages on the poison pills. Given Brin resources you know they are runnign daily tracking polls and have test messaged their ads to death. The consultants are making life changing intergenerational wealth. Lets all get real estate licensese to sell homes in granite bay ;-)

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So are you sayin the billionaire's tax will lose, but the alternatives supported by Brin will win? Or all the ballot props will lose?

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DiabloWags said:

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Agreed 100%
The pension issue for Fire & Police is MASSIVE.

Look no further than the San Ramon Valley Fire District where 4 retired Captains are making at least $250,000 a year.

And this article was written in 2009 by Daniel Borenstein at the Mercury News:

All four are beneficiaries of a generous retirement formula for police and firefighters that started at the state level with the California Highway Patrol in 1999 and has since spread to local public safety workers throughout the state. On Probert's watch, the San Ramon Valley fire district implemented the change in 2000, less than two years before he walked out the door as a major beneficiary of the policy he strongly advocated.

*

*

Under the formula, known as "3 percent at 50," employees can retire starting at age 50 with a pension equal to 3 percent of their final year's salaries for every year they worked. Thus, in theory, under the new rules someone who worked 30 years could retire with 90 percent of salary. (For the San Ramon Valley district, the new formula represented a 50 percent boost for people who retired at age 50.)

*

*

Daniel Borenstein: Pension spiking out of control East Bay Times

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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Agreed 100%
The pension issue for Fire & Police is MASSIVE.

Look no further than the San Ramon Valley Fire District where 4 retired Captains are making at least $250,000 a year.

And this article was written in 2009 by Daniel Borenstein at the Mercury News:

All four are beneficiaries of a generous retirement formula for police and firefighters that started at the state level with the California Highway Patrol in 1999 and has since spread to local public safety workers throughout the state. On Probert's watch, the San Ramon Valley fire district implemented the change in 2000, less than two years before he walked out the door as a major beneficiary of the policy he strongly advocated.

*

*

Under the formula, known as "3 percent at 50," employees can retire starting at age 50 with a pension equal to 3 percent of their final year's salaries for every year they worked. Thus, in theory, under the new rules someone who worked 30 years could retire with 90 percent of salary. (For the San Ramon Valley district, the new formula represented a 50 percent boost for people who retired at age 50.)

*

*

Daniel Borenstein: Pension spiking out of control East Bay Times

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It's too bad there isn't a 2nd party that isn't a complete disgrace that I could support locally

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socaltownie said:

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

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Agreed 100%
The pension issue for Fire & Police is MASSIVE.

Look no further than the San Ramon Valley Fire District where 4 retired Captains are making at least $250,000 a year.

And this article was written in 2009 by Daniel Borenstein at the Mercury News:

All four are beneficiaries of a generous retirement formula for police and firefighters that started at the state level with the California Highway Patrol in 1999 and has since spread to local public safety workers throughout the state. On Probert's watch, the San Ramon Valley fire district implemented the change in 2000, less than two years before he walked out the door as a major beneficiary of the policy he strongly advocated.

*

*

Under the formula, known as "3 percent at 50," employees can retire starting at age 50 with a pension equal to 3 percent of their final year's salaries for every year they worked. Thus, in theory, under the new rules someone who worked 30 years could retire with 90 percent of salary. (For the San Ramon Valley district, the new formula represented a 50 percent boost for people who retired at age 50.)

*

*

Daniel Borenstein: Pension spiking out of control East Bay Times

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It's too bad there isn't a 2nd party that isn't a complete disgrace that I could support locally

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Dajo - I am going to call a bit of BS. Did you support Meg Whitman? What about John Cox? (who is a bit of a nut but not a social conservative/Maga-hat). Arnold?

The GOP has TRIED non ideological nut jobs. They don't do any better than the right of Genghis Kahn types. The problem is low voter engagement (and really hollowed out press corp) which won't/cant cut through the noise to point out, for example, that if you have the country's highest gas taxes...and bottle necks in refining, distribution and sales you probably are going to get the nation's highest gas prices. This is _NOT_ complicated.

And why the stupid bullet train has not been hung around Gavin's neck is simply journalistic malfeasance. Jerry wasn't going to kill it. Gavin could have. We would have been FAR better served by just taking a helicopter and throwing money out of it across the central valley. Instead we engaged in a massive public works job program that inefficiently saw BILLIONS skimmed off the top for well connected engineering firms and a "plan" that never was going to work.

Prediction - it will stagger along forever and essentially is going to be a transfer from urban dwelling motorists and utility customers to the Construction trade unions and contractors in the Central Valley. We will NEVER get to ride it except as a really bad tourist attraction that will require 10s of millions in operating subsidies.

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dajo9 said:

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socaltownie said:

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dajo9 said:

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DiabloWags said:

---

Agreed 100%
The pension issue for Fire & Police is MASSIVE.

Look no further than the San Ramon Valley Fire District where 4 retired Captains are making at least $250,000 a year.

And this article was written in 2009 by Daniel Borenstein at the Mercury News:

All four are beneficiaries of a generous retirement formula for police and firefighters that started at the state level with the California Highway Patrol in 1999 and has since spread to local public safety workers throughout the state. On Probert's watch, the San Ramon Valley fire district implemented the change in 2000, less than two years before he walked out the door as a major beneficiary of the policy he strongly advocated.

*

*

Under the formula, known as "3 percent at 50," employees can retire starting at age 50 with a pension equal to 3 percent of their final year's salaries for every year they worked. Thus, in theory, under the new rules someone who worked 30 years could retire with 90 percent of salary. (For the San Ramon Valley district, the new formula represented a 50 percent boost for people who retired at age 50.)

*

*

Daniel Borenstein: Pension spiking out of control East Bay Times

---

It's too bad there isn't a 2nd party that isn't a complete disgrace that I could support locally

---

Dajo - I am going to call a bit of BS. Did you support Meg Whitman? What about John Cox? (who is a bit of a nut but not a social conservative/Maga-hat). Arnold?

The GOP has TRIED non ideological nut jobs. They don't do any better than the right of Genghis Kahn types. The problem is low voter engagement (and really hollowed out press corp) which won't/cant cut through the noise to point out, for example, that if you have the country's highest gas taxes...and bottle necks in refining, distribution and sales you probably are going to get the nation's highest gas prices. This is _NOT_ complicated.

And why the stupid bullet train has not been hung around Gavin's neck is simply journalistic malfeasance. Jerry wasn't going to kill it. Gavin could have. We would have been FAR better served by just taking a helicopter and throwing money out of it across the central valley. Instead we engaged in a massive public works job program that inefficiently saw BILLIONS skimmed off the top for well connected engineering firms and a "plan" that never was going to work.

Prediction - it will stagger along forever and essentially is going to be a transfer from urban dwelling motorists and utility customers to the Construction trade unions and contractors in the Central Valley. We will NEVER get to ride it except as a really bad tourist attraction that will require 10s of millions in operating subsidies.

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First I'll say I've been living in New Jersey for over 20 years so I haven't paid as close attention to these campaigns as you probably have. But I'll answer.

First, I don't think pre-Trump Republicans in CA were doing much to combat labor unions. Schwarzenegger didn't do much differently than some of the reforms from Jerry Brown or the vetoes from Newsom. On these issues, I think CA mostly had a uniparty. Maybe there is more that I haven't heard - like I said, I've been away.

John Cox is a nutjob and anti-choice, anti-gay rights which is a non-starter for me. Also, he was supported by Trump which is also a non-starter for me.

I will say that my thinking has evolved on this issue over the years so in the 2000's I probably wouldn't have said what I said above. Looking back in New Jersey, Chris Christie fought the unions but he was again, anti-choice. And that was the old more tame version of the Republican Party. Until the MAGA fever has passed there is no Republican that I would even consider.

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