Californians want to tax billionaires. They're threatening to leave.

A proposal to tax California’s billionaires is testing the limits of America’s enthusiasm for making the über-rich pay their share.

A proposal to tax California’s billionaires is testing the limits of America’s enthusiasm for making the über-rich pay their share. 

The so-called Billionaire Tax would raise an estimated $100 billion through a one-time, 5% “wealth” tax on roughly 200 California billionaires. Proponents are collecting signatures to get the tax on the November ballot. 

The billionaire tax is polling well among California voters: half of them support it, and 28% oppose it, according to a survey released in March by UC Berkeley and Politico.   

But California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the tax, and some of the state’s most prominent billionaires say they’d rather move than pay it. 

Those decamping to more tax-friendly states may include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and venture capitalist David Sacks, according to a report from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly is eyeing a move to Florida.