Feb. 13, 2026 6 AM PT
To the editor: It’s time to name the billionaires’ bluff as soon as and for all (“Knives are out for California’s golden goose,” Feb. 9).
California’s roughly 200 billionaires had till Jan. 1, 2026, to vary their official state of residence as a way to be ineligible for the proposed wealth tax that goals to forestall hospital and emergency room closures throughout the state. There isn’t a proof to contradict the truth that the overwhelming majority of billionaires have remained in California.
Additionally, George Skelton’s math simply isn’t mathing. The state can elevate $100 billion to maintain hospitals and ERs open, or it may, probably, threat tons of of tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. These numbers aren’t even in the identical stratosphere. No person of their proper thoughts would refuse $1 million if they could must pay $1,000 after they obtain it.
What’s extra, credible tutorial and economist-driven research reveals that wealth taxes don’t drive the ultra-wealthy to relocate en masse.
Lately, Massachusetts and Washington state enacted increased taxes on high-income earners and capital good points. Each states now have more high-income residents with extra cumulative wealth than earlier than.
Skleton’s column is simply plain unsuitable. It’s time to cease the sensationalist assaults and begin specializing in what issues: retaining California’s hospitals and ERs open.
Renée Saldaña, Los Angeles
This author is press secretary at SEIU-UHW, lead sponsor of the California billionaire tax poll measure.
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To the editor: As a healthcare employee, I see the cracks in California’s healthcare system widening: longer waits, fewer employees and hospitals working on fumes. When federal healthcare cuts hit, the system received’t bend; it’ll break.
The California Billionaire Tax Act is a lifeline. It might hold hospitals open and ensure sufferers aren’t turned away. Calling that “dangerous PR” misses the purpose — that is about saving lives, not soaking the wealthy.
Healthcare staff aren’t the villains right here. We’re attempting to maintain hospitals and ERs open for each Californian who may want care, together with billionaires and their households.
Andres Gonzalez, Maywood
