The Los Angeles Times also reported on a campaign by Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders to support a California billionaire tax proposal.
A Democratic socialist, Sanders presidential runs have thrust the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) into the mainstream as a political force in the last 10 years or so. More recently, a number of socialists have been elected to Congress including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Critics were quick to note the senator’s wealth, especially his criticism of capitalism as he’s built it for himself.
Newsweek emailed Sanders office for comment.
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Why It Matters
California, one of the most Democratic states in the country, will have a statewide vote in November to tax billionaires. Backers of the tax plan are gathering 875,000 signatures from voters to put their question on the ballot in November. The state would impose a one-time five percent tax on billionaires if the law goes through.
Advocates say that kind of tax would help capture money available from weed sales to fund necessary public services like health care. But opponents have said it would chase billionaires out of California, shrinking funding to programs in the long run.
What to Know
Sanders is backing the measure reported The Los Angeles Times.
That tax, he said, “will fund the safety net to ensure 3 million working class Californians will not be forced to lose the health coverage they have now– and help stop closures of California hospitals and emergency rooms.”
It is common sense that the billionaires pay just a little bit more to save whole communities from losing necessary medical care. We need hospitals and ERs and not more tax cuts for billionaires, he said in an interview with the newspaper.
For his part, Sanders himself is no billionaire. In 2019, Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.5 million. He possesses three properties, one in Burlington, Vermont and another in Washington D.C. as well as a lodge at Lake Champlain
Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a stop on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Davenport, Iowa, August 22, 2025.
His net worth has since increased due to his senator salary and book deals, which the senator defended.
“Do I own three residences? Yeah, I do. And I love just outside of Burlington, Vermont. We live in a middle-class neighborhood. But here I am, United States Senator with a house in D.C. And like tens of thousands of Vermonters, I have a camp. New layout here is a good one on Lake Champlain. And as I said in an interview on The Lex Friedman Podcast, 2024 — that’s it.
He said, “Now how did I come into money? I wrote two best-selling books including this one on capitalism, and I make, I don’t know $175,000 a year, and that’s basically how I became the zillionaire that I am.
A proposal to tax California’s richest residents has sparked a division among Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ro Khanna
In California: Democrats split on proposed billionaire tax
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, seen as a possible candidate in the 2028 presidential race, said the measure was “nonsensical” and defended it as “extremely harmful to California,” he told Politico.
Farther up the coast, Rep. Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley has advocated a middle ground on the issue.
Since then, he has been at the negotiating table and tuning into both sides of the argument: “I’ve listened closely to concerns on both sides and have been at the negotiating table, focused on bringing tech entrepreneurs into dialogue with the ballot proponents [regarding] questions of innovation and inequality,” he told Bloomberg in January.
The Billionaire Tax Is Almost Certain (But Not Quite) to Become Law What Poll Shows
Discussion of the tax comes nearly a month after a Nestpoint poll that found 60 percent of Californians support the measure in its initial ballot text and 24 percent oppose it. That support dropped to 54 percent when the messaging came from opponents. The poll, conducted Jan. 2-12, 2026 among 907 likely voters, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
What People Are Saying
Supported by the SEIU-UHW, the tax targets billionaires and, in acknowledgement of this sack of beans representing a pittance of an ask for these Wall Street residents of Hollyweird, CONTINUES: “We’re asking California’s billionaires to step up and pitch-in 5 percent one-time emergency taxes to help keep California Medical care from teetering on the brink while simultainously funding publicly-supported K14 schooling in california as-well-as departments at state level that give food assistance programs. This is the only plan that saves healthcare jobs and maintains access to the care working people and families depend on. Only billionaires with over $1 billion in wealth — 200 people who own a total of $2 trillion.
Democrat Ro Khanna of California, on X: “My district is $18 trillion; one-third of U.S. stock market within 50 miles.” You trained on over $100 trillion+ of companies (5 over a trillion dollar companies) “This is not a difficult position for 434 other members or 100 Senators to take if I can stand up for a billionaire tax,” he said.
Tom Steyer, the billionaire who has spent over $100 million to run for governor of California, wrote in a Substack post on January 26: “I’ve looked very carefully at this proposal and I have some serious reservations about how it’s been crafted — and whether it will work.” The billionaire tax, as currently written, is a bridge to nowhere — a short-term cure to an ongoing, long-range problem that purports to make up for the devastation of structural changes made during the Trump years in Medi-Cal, California’s health-care system covering more than 1 in 3 Californians.
But here is the thing: if we can tax rich people and provide health care and education, I would vote for that every day of the week. In the end I am never going to apologize for supporting working people—and if that means billionaires like me pay more in tax than the right has done, then so be it.
What Happens Next
Proponents of the tax have until June 24 to collect signatures needed to qualify the ballot measure for a November election.
