Campaigners for a wealth tax on California's billionaires have seized on Mark Zuckerberg's agreement to stay in the state as evidence supporting their cause, as the costly ballot fight enters its final days. Meta this week announced a change to its capital structure under which Zuckerberg can sell enough shares to cover his potential $11bn tax bill without diluting his control of the company, after he warned he was considering leaving the state.
Under the deal, Zuckerberg promised to stay in California for eight years to be close to Meta's headquarters and AI engineers. Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, said it "shows the reasons to stay in California are more compelling than the reasons to leave." Voters will decide on November 3 whether to approve a one-off 5 per cent wealth tax on the roughly 250 billionaires who lived in the state on January 1. If approved, it would be the first wealth tax of its kind in the US.
The measure has provoked a ferocious opposition campaign funded largely by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and other billionaires, and has split the state's Democratic establishment. Governor Gavin Newsom opposes it, arguing that a California-only tax would drive entrepreneurs out of the state.
Gabriel Zucman, an economist who helped draft the proposal, said the deal "puts to bed the idea that he is going to move.” A Citrin-Politico poll this week put support at 46 per cent, with 43 per cent opposed. Stanford economists opposed to the tax calculated that it would fail to raise the $100bn claimed and would cost the state more than it brings in.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing