Newsom proposes a "Buffett Rule" -- tax the rich

Click here for Gavin Newsom's Substack article of June 26, 2026, entitled "It's time for a national billionaires' tax and a new social compact," subtitled "We must democratize the American economy to save democracy."

Newsom opposes California's proposed wealth tax (the vote was held on November 3, but the results are not yet known; as of this writing, the vote is roughly 54% opposed, 46% in favor, with about 72% of the votes counted), on two grounds. First, he says, "You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do. Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place." 

His second reason for opposition is the fact that the proposal dedicates 90% of the tax income to healthcare, effectively allowing one interest group (the healthcare workers' union that sponsored the initiative) to dictate a major portion of California's budget priorities. He specifically objects that the measure leaves out public schools, housing, homelessness programs, public safety, and other state priorities.

In a New York Times article in 2011 titled "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich," Warren Buffett famously complained that his secretary paid a higher rate of tax than he did. Newsom proposes "a modern Buffett Rule": He wrote: "So here is what I support: A national billionaires' tax."

His proposal includes:

• A minimum tax on people with net worth exceeding $100 million.

• Ensuring billionaires pay at least the tax rate paid by their own workers.

• Closing loopholes that allow wealthy people to borrow against stock portfolios without paying taxes.

• Changes to inheritance taxation.

• Restoring corporate tax rates to pre-2017 levels. 

  He writes:
  

  It’s clear that we are entering an entirely new economic paradigm. Automation could create unfathomable growth, but who benefits from that wealth? We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy. Simply, as artificial intelligence reshapes the country, every American should own a piece of the future it builds.
   

  Further: 

  There is a working coalition in this country of blue-collar and white-collar, urban and rural, the people who built this country and the people who are trying to find their place in it. They did everything right, and the system still has nothing for them. They are asking for the basics of a decent life, a home in a safe neighborhood, and a doctor they can see without dread. They need child care, an affordable college education, and something left over at the end of the month. What stands in their way is the federal tax code, a corporate code, and an inheritance code written for a different set of Americans. We can rewrite all three together at the federal level with a new social compact. It’s time for an economic reset for America.

  If we do act, it becomes a once-in-a-century chance to renew the American Dream by funding universal child care, making higher education and career training free, funding healthcare, and making a down payment on a real industrial policy for the AI century.