Gadarian Speaks With ABC News About California’s Proposed Billionaire Tax

June 2, 2026

ABC News

Shana Kushner Gadarian

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

State & Local

Taxation

United States

ABC News

Shana Kushner Gadarian

A California ballot measure proposing a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' wealth—introduced by a healthcare workers union in response to federal Medicaid cuts—faces broad opposition from gubernatorial candidates, Gov. Newsom and well-funded competing ballot initiatives that purport to improve government transparency and to protect retirement savings from taxes, respectively.

Shana Kushner Gadarian, Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking, thinks the alternative ballot measures may have been crafted to oppose the tax without appearing to support billionaires over healthcare workers.

“My guess would be that the strategy is to just avoid the whole question of the billionaire tax…to be for something rather than against something,” Gadarian says.

Read more in the ABC News article, “Proposed 'billionaire tax' in California spurs controversy and heavy spending.”