On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) discussed the proposed billionaire tax in California and said that he opposes it, and one reason is “we’ve already seen dozens and dozens of people leave the state.”
Newsom said, “Well, I think billionaires do need to be taxed more, but just not at the state level, capital moves. And the challenge with this particular tax is it doesn’t include firefighters and teachers. They’re left out of the tax, it’s one-time, and we’ve already seen dozens and dozens of people leave the state. But my state of mind is crystal clear, at a federal level, the imbalance between the rich and the poor has got to be addressed.”
Newsom added that people like host Bill Maher pay much more than uber-wealthy people, and “we’ve got to deal with the stepped-up basis, we’ve got to deal with the fact that we’re not taxing capital gains at income tax or ordinary income, we’ve got to address the fact they’re borrowing against tax — about their capital gains, and then they’re passing on these massive trusts, without any taxation, to the next generation.”
Later, Newsom said that the state’s population has grown over the last three years.
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