Add The California Post on Google California’s controversial billionaire tax has picked up perhaps its least surprising endorsement yet: the Communist Party.
The California arm of Communist Party USA officially threw its support behind Proposition 40 on Thursday, urging voters to support a a one-time 5% tax on the state’s roughly 200 billionaires.
“It’s up to all of us, the 99%, to turn out with a massive vote and show these billionaires that it’s time for them to pay their fair share,” the group wrote on its website.
The endorsement comes as the billionaire tax has sparked an increasingly bizarre political war in deep-blue California — pitting organized labor and the Communist Party against some of Silicon Valley’s richest residents and even Gov. Gavin Newsom and his likely gubernatorial successor, Democratic frontrunner Xavier Becerra
Prop. 40, which was sponsored by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, would impose a wealth tax on billionaires to rake in roughly $100 billion, with 90% earmarked for health care and the remainder going toward food assistance and K-12 education.
The Communist Party said the money is desperately needed to plug holes created by President Trump’s “Big Ugly Bill,” while accusing the president of pushing “MAGA fascism.”
“Without Prop 40, essential services, such as emergency care, will be shut down, causing enormous hardship for working-class Californians,” the communists wrote.
Newsom has come out against the tax, warning that California could ultimately lose money if its famously mobile billionaire class packs up and moves its massive income-tax payments — as well as their companies.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin — who fled the communist Soviet Union with his family as a child — and other wealthy Californians have poured tens of millions into the fight against Prop. 40, including backing rival Propositions 41 and 42, which could kneecap the billionaire tax if they receive more votes.
Dave Regan, head of SEIU-UHW, told KCRA 3 that “there is absolutely no evidence that billionaires leave” the state if Prop. 40 passes.
“Billionaires are the wealthiest people on the planet. They can live wherever they want in the world, let alone in the country.”
In another interview, he suggested the billionaire tax is now “a national campaign.”
The Communist Party specifically singled out Brin and his billionaire allies in its endorsement.
“Billionaires including Google co-founder Sergey Brin are spending millions of dollars to defeat Prop 40,” the group said.
The party urged Californians to reject Props. 41 and 42 along with approving the wealth tax, declaring that “these midterms are not for sale.”
