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With food benefit cuts looming in the US, Californians eye billionaire tax
San Francisco, United States – Greer Dove’s days are packed with studying business and finance, as well as doing administrative work at college, along with caring for her eight-year-old daughter with special needs. But once a week, Dove, a single mother, makes sure to drop in at the food bank in California’s Marin County to pick up vegetables, fruit and other food. Along with the federal government’s food benefits, they keep her housing running.“We need this so we can keep functioning at a high level,” she says. “She loves fruit, so I make sure to get it,” she says of her daughter.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Trump says he would not pay $1,000 to watch US at World Cuplist 2 of 4South Koreans gear up to roar on football team from rival Northlist 3 of 4ASEAN leaders adopt measures to ease economic pain caused by Iran warlist 4 of 4Venice Biennale: The Art of the Unseenend of listDove, who is also looking for a full-time job, has worked in restaurants, event management, retail, television shows, office administration and payroll over the years. But she has been on the federal government’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) for six years, and with the food bank, for more than three years. Before she got food benefits, Dove fed her daughter all she had and skipped meals or looked around for snacks in the offices she worked at to get her through the day.United States President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed in June, cut SNAP benefits by more than $186bn over the next 10 years to make up for extending cuts to income tax. This could lead to more than 3 million people nationwide, and 665,000 recipients in California, losing such food benefits, according to estimates.“This will bring a series of cuts that collectively present an existential threat to food benefits,” says Andrew Cheyne, managing director of government relations and public affairs at the County Welfare Directors Association of California.California’s proposed billionaire tax, which seeks to impose a one-time 5 percent tax on the assets of the state’s more than 200 billionaires to make up for the funding gap created by the OBBBA, got more than 1.5 million signatures in April. It is likely to be on the ballot for the November midterm election.While most of the nearly $100bn expected to be raised through the tax will go towards filling the gap in health insurance created by the OBBBA, 10 percent will be used to make up for the retrenchment in fo...
Sanders warns of 'billionaire class' as California wealth tax fight ...
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders delivered a fiery warning to what he called the “billionaire class” at a rally Wednesday in Los Angeles in support of a tax initiative that would target California’s wealthiest residents. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign event for a proposed “billionaires tax” in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026. Photo Jae C. Hong, AP Photo“The billionaire class no longer sees itself as part of American society,” said the Vermont independent, who won the 2020 California Democratic presidential primary by 8 percentage points over former President Joe Biden. “They see themselves as something separate and apart, like the oligarchs of the 18th Century, the kings and the queens and the czars, they believe they have the divine right to rule and are no longer subject to democratic governance.”The proposed November initiative would tax the 2025 net worth of billionaires residing in California by 5% percent allowing them to pay off the tax over five years. The revenue would go into a special fund with 90 percent reserved for health care and 10% reserved for K-12 education.Instead of targeting income, like most taxes, this one aims at individuals’ collected wealth.“They’re saying there’s nothing you can do about it,” Sanders told the L.A. crowd. “Well, we’ve got some bad news for them, starting right here in California.”He said California’s richest people are preparing to spend heavily to defeat the initiative, and voters should be ready for deceptive messaging.“Their ads will not be saying, ‘We are billionaires, we want it all, please vote down this referendum,’” Sanders said to laughs from the crowd at The Wiltern theater. “What they are saying is, ‘If you stand up to us, we are gonna punish you.’”Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles, the sponsors of the proposal, are gathering signatures to place the measure on the ballot in November amid opposition from some other unions.It’s also a risky proposition for Governor Gavin Gavin Newsom, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run and needs the support of the deep pockets in Silicon Valley, to whom he has been close for years. He and the leading Democrats who are running to replace him have come out against the tax as part of a larger opposition push expected to ramp up in the coming weeks. They argue that they support making wealthy people pay more, but this specific measure would drive billionaires out of California.Tha...
Billionaires pour millions into ballot fight over California wealth tax
The billionaire tax, proposed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, would impose a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of California residents with more than ...
Billionaire tax author says California measure may not be temporary
A key architect of California's controversial billionaire tax acknowledged this week that the proposed one-time levy may end up becoming permanent. Economics professor Emmanuel Saez made the ...
