The new pillar of progressive politics

There’s a wave of wealth tax proposals likely to appear on California ballots this year. Despite mounting opposition from lawmakers and some of the state’s wealthiest residents, progressives feel confident voters will approve them.

Taxing high earners has become a pillar of modern progressive politics. The slogan “eat the rich,” coined during the 18th-century French Revolution, regained popularity among progressives in 2020 — a response to growing economic inequality amid the pandemic. That phrase has evolved into calls for taxing billionaires and their corporations in the June primary and November midterm elections.

Last month, SEIU United Healthcare Workers reached a quarter of the signatures needed for its one-time, 5% tax proposal to make the midterm ballot. If approved, the tax could generate $100 billion from an estimated 200 California billionaires. Healthcare workers are rallying with educators to also make permanent a tax on the state’s top 2% of earners. And in San Francisco, two tax initiatives are targeting the city’s top earners: an “Overpaid CEO Tax” in June for executives making more than 100 times their employees’ salaries and a progressive parcel tax in November that would extend a lifeline to public transportation.

“We know who it is that’s holding us back from what we need to survive and thrive,” said Ramsey Robinson, gubernatorial candidate for California’s socialist Peace and Freedom Party. “It’s the billionaires.”

These proposals are largely a response to federal funding cuts. The president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” removes roughly $19 billion in annual funding from Medi-Cal. Hospitals and emergency rooms across the state face closure, and 145,000 healthcare jobs are at risk of being eliminated. Millions of consumers could additionally see an increase in health care premiums or lose their coverage altogether.

Proponents argue that if the people most affected by federal cuts have to make sacrifices, billionaires should too. Theresa Rutherford, president for SEIU local 1021, said California provides “the support systems they need to use to enrich themselves, and they take it for granted and abuse it.”

A majority of Californians support tax hikes on the state’s wealthiest residents, according to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California in February. Some see the embrace for these taxes as a continuation of progressives’ national success, most recently with New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the highest-profile elected official for Democratic Socialists of America.

DSA’s national registration doubled between the start of Mamdani’s campaign and early February. The party hit 100,000 members for the first time in its 44-year history; its San Francisco and Sacramento chapters also reached milestones in member registration. This momentum extends beyond DSA: Peace and Freedom collected enough voter signatures to eliminate filing fees for all of its candidates in the primary, a first for the party.

Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, said Mamdani ran for office on a platform of making New York living more affordable for its residents. Proponents of wealth tax initiatives in California are also concerned with affordability, but approach the conversation from the angle of who should pay to make affordable living possible.

And rather than navigate the Legislature for tax reform, unions are leveraging ballot measures to pressure lawmakers into supporting what’s become populist politics. “Voters will put pressure on Democratic politicians,” McDaniel said, “because they don’t want to come out and say, ‘Yeah, I’m in favor of billionaires.’”

A key endorsement for UHW’s wealth tax comes from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who kickstarted a California campaign for the proposal last month. In San Francisco, a majority of the county’s supervisors endorse the CEO tax, which was introduced by “Stand Up for SF,” a coalition of community groups and labor organizations. They face opposition from moderate Democrats, who told POLITICO they’ve raised $10 million to fight the proposed tax on CEOs.

Part of the strategy for Stand Up for SF is reminding voters that wealth taxes are familiar to the city. San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a gross receipts tax in 2020 on companies with “overpaid” executives — the first of its kind in the country — and lowered it in 2024. The coalition’s ballot proposal would levy a higher tax on companies than its predecessor, also collecting money from ride-hailing companies.

“The CEO tax measure is not new,” Rutherford said. “We’re just improving it.”

Most gubernatorial candidates from the Democratic Party are wary of taxing the rich, even if just once, fearing they would up and leave the state. California could lose hundreds of millions of dollars from income tax revenue, the Legislative Analyst’s Office reported on UHW’s statewide proposal. But a UC Berkeley study on the same tax reported very few wealthy people relocate because of tax changes. The report concludes that the bulk of their income tends to be in assets, meaning the loss in income tax revenue would be small.

“With an economy as vibrant as California, core to the tech industry and the AI boom, there’s too much to lose by leaving,” said Aditya Bhumbla, co-chair of DSA’s San Francisco chapter.

Bhumbla and other progressives say that if they can capitalize on voter enthusiasm in 2026, they could translate that momentum into future elections. He said his chapter of DSA’s priorities currently involve protecting community members from federal immigration raids and protesting the United States’ funding to Israel.

“We want the world,” Bhumbla laughed. “It’ll be some time before we get there. Eyes on the prize.”

Chris Ramirez is an intern with Capitol Weekly’s Public Policy Journalism Internship program. The next round of Capitol Weekly internships will begin in June 2026. If you or someone you know is interested in an internship, please submit two writing samples, your resume and a cover letter to [email protected] by April 17, 2026.