Our colleague Laura Nelson covers all things California.

And late last year, she came across something that could revolutionize the way money flows

through the state, a proposal to tax billionaires.

So I spotted this billionaire tax proposal the day that it was sent to state officials.

It was actually my fourth day at the journal. I just started working here. And I flacked it to my

editors like, hey. Way to get you hit the ground running. Yeah. Thank you to these people for giving me

something interesting to do in my first couple of months on the job.

California is known for its high taxes, but this one was different.

It would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of people who have net worths of more than a billion dollars.

At first, Laura thought, this is interesting, but it might not get very far.

Taxing the wealthy is an idea popular and progressive circles, but hasn't gained a lot of traction as policy.

So we just decided we would do a first story and introduce people to the idea, and then we thought maybe that would be the end of it for a while.

That was obviously not the case.

This specifically kind of took root with the billionaire class and the hyper wealthy in the Bay Area tech scene, and it caught fire from there.

In California, a proposed ballot measure that would tax the wealthiest people in that state

sparked some pretty intense backlash.

California's ultra wealthy railed at the idea.

Anyone who has assets over a billion dollars, net of their debt, has to pay a one-time

tax of 5% of their net worth, including their private stock,

including their real estate.

You said 5%.

5%?

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