To the editor: There definitely was an unbelievable sum of money poured into opposition to Proposition 40, principally carrying the primarily false message that it could result in taxes on middle-class of us (“Why California’s billionaire tax was a harder sell than expected,” Nov. 5). And oh, wealthy folks had been going to flee California, taking their property with them. Yeah, Silicon Valley was actually going to be transplanted.
I personally do not need any discomfort with doing a little bit soaking of the wealthy, who’ve benefited wildly from federal tax insurance policies for years at the price of infrastructure. That stated, Proposition 40 would have been unworkable had it handed.
It referred to as for assessing all of the holdings of ultra-wealthy folks to see if that they had billions in property and, if that’s the case, how a lot. Accountants would have been scrambling to evaluate the worth of inventory accounts (which fluctuate), the automobiles (which depreciate), the artwork collections (which might change worth in a day), the jewellery, the furnishings, the purse assortment, and many others. The state could be hiring accountants and litigating values to the purpose the place any acquire from the tax would have been swallowed up within the means of assessing it.
It will be a California-style “Bleak Home.” Possibly that isn’t why it failed, however why it needed to fail.
Erica Hahn, Monrovia
..
To the editor: I’ve two observations to share about Tuesday’s elections — and the position of billionaires of their outcomes.
As to California’s billionaires: Now that greater than 4 million California voters protected the monetary pursuits of the state’s 250 billionaires by voting in opposition to Proposition 40, maybe a couple of of these billionaires can return the favor and at last spend money on supporting sound public coverage that impacts the tens of thousands and thousands of the remainder of us, i.e., the 39 million-plus Californians who aren’t fortunate sufficient to be considered one of them.
They will begin by investing in a marketing campaign to repeal Measure ULA (the “mansion tax”), which absolutely wouldn’t have handed if that they had taken any curiosity in public coverage again when it was handed in 2022.
As to America’s billionaires: There can be loads of hand-wringing, navel-gazing and postmortems for years over Tuesday’s catastrophic Republican outcomes — which occurred in opposition to the backdrop of America’s billionaires spending greater than $1.5 billion on Republican candidates and causes, with no return on funding. However the rationalization is so easy: When you’ve got respectable candidates and take respectable positions on points, and in case you prioritize the well-being of Individuals and America over all else, you then gained’t must spend billions of {dollars} to persuade Individuals to vote for them.
Todd Piccus, Venice
