Billionaire Tax Coming to California and How BYD Dethroned Tesla

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L.A. Times Studios

News, Daily News, Society & Culture, The Times, California

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🗓️ 11 February 2026

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

A proposed tax on billionaires in California: Governor Gavin Newsom is against it, Senator Bernie Sanders is for it. Sanders is soon kicking off a campaign to get that measure across the finish line. Basically, the idea is a one-time 5% tax on the assets of the over 200 billionaires in California. Supporters need signatures from about 875,000 registered voters to submit to election officials by the end of June for the measure to qualify for the November election. Meanwhile, San Francisco public schools shut down on Monday, as teachers walked off the job for the first time in nearly 50 years. San Francisco Unified School District is only offering teachers a 6% raise and limited coverage, blaming decreased state funding and a massive deficit.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an L.A. Times Studios podcast.
0:07.6	Hi, I'm Faith Pino from L.A. Times Studios in New York City.
0:11.6	We begin with a proposed tax on billionaires in California, a charge led in part by Vermont
0:17.8	Senator Bernie Sanders, despite pushback from Governor Gavin Newsom.
0:22.2	Basically, the idea is for billionaires to pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth.
0:28.8	According to LA Times reporter Seema Mehta, the measure needs signatures from nearly 900,000
0:34.6	registered voters by the end of June in order to qualify for the November election.
0:40.3	Senator Sanders says revenue from the tax would stop over 3 million Californians from losing
0:45.6	health care and could help stop the closure of hospitals and emergency rooms in the state.
0:51.2	Meanwhile, some people are sticking up for the billionaires. There's only about 200 or so of them after all. A few days ago, it was a lot of the state. Meanwhile, some people are sticking up for the billionaires. There's only about
0:55.1	200 or so of them after all. A few days ago in San Francisco, a handful of protesters gathered
1:01.2	in front of City Hall to oppose the tax. I'll know that there's no rich country that doesn't
1:06.3	have. I think that, I mean, you can try and, if you try to get new billionaires, if you're trying to fight
1:16.0	inequality and not just fight poverty, then you're going to end up with everyone being a lot
1:23.0	forward. They worry that the tax could hurt innovation in the state.
1:35.9	Some billionaires like Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and a prominent conservative donor and venture capitalist David Sacks have already left the state.
1:44.7	But others like Jensen Juan, CEO and co-founder of Envidia, who is one of the 10 wealthiest people in the world isn't against the bill.
1:49.5	In fact, he says he hasn't thought about it once and is, quote, perfectly fine with it.
1:57.9	And in San Francisco, public schools shut down Monday as teachers walked off the job for the first time in nearly 50 years.
2:00.7	United. United. We'll never be Buchanan, who's covering the strike for the LA Times.
2:09.6	He says it's been a long time coming.
2:12.6	Well, the San Francisco district in general is in a $100 million deficit, a little bit more than $100 million.
	...

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