California Billionaires Are Freaking Out Over a New Tax Proposal

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• 00:04

  Our colleague Laura Nelson covers all things California.

• 00:09

  And late last year,

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  she came across something that could revolutionize the way money flows through the state,

• 00:15

  a proposal to tax billionaires.

• 00:19

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

• 00:24

  It was actually my fourth day at the journal.

• 00:26

  I just started working here.

• 00:28

  And I flagged it to my editors like, hey.

• 00:31

  Way to get you hit the ground running.

• 00:33

  Yeah,

• 00:34

  thank you to these people

• 00:35

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

• 00:40

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

• 00:45

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

• 00:53

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

• 00:58

  Taxing the wealthy is an idea popular in progressive circles,

• 01:01

  but hasn't gained a lot of traction as policy.

• 01:07

  So we just decided we would do a first story and introduce people to the idea,

• 01:11

  and then we thought maybe that would be the end of it for a while.

• 01:14

  That was obviously not the case.

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