What Is California's Billionaire Tax?

Kent Lindstrom says California's billionaire tax starts out as a 5% tax on billionaires. The text lets the California legislature make the tax recurring and lower it from billionaires to whoever they want, including millionaires and people with second homes, when lawmakers decide the change is in the spirit of the bill.

Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, has said the billionaire tax should apply to everybody with $50 million in assets. The shift is a 95% drop in the asset level, and $50 million is a tremendous amount of money. A farmer with $5 million in the bank and $45 million in land would still have to find a way to pay.

The legislature is a very left-leaning super majority that votes for a new tax or fee pretty much every other day, and the wider reach is already on the table before the measure is even out of the blocks.