Save California Health Care and Public Education, sponsored by SEIU-UHW, has collected at least 25% of the required signatures to qualify a combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute known as the billionaire tax for the 2026 ballot. The total number required is 874,641, which is 8% of the votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election.
The initiative would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' net wealth. The revenue would be allocated to state-funded healthcare programs (90%) and education-related and food assistance programs (10%).
The campaign formally launched on Feb. 18 with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsing the measure. He said, “This initiative would provide the necessary funding to prevent over three million working class Californians from losing the healthcare they currently have — and would help prevent the closures of California hospitals and emergency rooms. It should be common sense that the billionaires pay just slightly more so that entire communities can preserve access to life-saving medical care. Our country needs access to hospitals and emergency rooms, not more tax breaks for billionaires.”
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-17), California Superintendent of Public Instruction and gubernatorial candidate Tony Thurmond (D), Teamsters California, and California Democratic Socialists of America also endorsed the initiative.
Save California Health Care and Public Education has reported more than $3.5 million in contributions as of Feb. 26, with a majority of the contributions being in-kind contributions representing signature gathering or campaign consulting by SEIU-UHW.
The initiative’s opponents include Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-3), PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and the California Business Roundtable.
Jack Guidi from Americans for Tax Reform, who also opposes the initiative, said, "The tax is retroactive and would apply to all eligible residents beginning January 1st, 2026. However, the earliest this tax could go into effect would be November 2026. This means California could end up losing tax revenue even if the ballot initiative doesn’t pass, as it incentivizes wealthy residents to escape before the tax passes."
Two committees — Stop the Squeeze and Golden State Promise — registered in opposition to the initiative. Stop the Squeeze reported $300,000 in contributions, and the Golden State Promise reported $10 million from Chris Larsen and his San Francisco-based blockchain company, Ripple Labs.
Separately, a committee, Building a Better California, is sponsoring three initiatives that compete with provisions of the proposed billionaire tax. All three are currently collecting signatures. The first initiative would prohibit taxes enacted after Jan. 1, 2026, from being exempted from the state minimum guarantee for education funding established by Proposition 98, passed in 1988. The billionaire tax initiative includes a provision excluding the revenue generated by the tax from the state’s General Fund for purposes of calculating the state minimum guarantee for education funding.
A second initiative would amend the state constitution to prohibit the enactment of new taxes after Jan. 1, 2026, on the ownership or accumulation of retirement holdings, individually owned assets, and other forms of personal savings. The amendment would also prohibit enacting retroactive taxes that result in a tax liability based on activities that occurred or were present prior to the effective date of the tax.
The third initiative would require state laws or ballot initiatives levying a new special tax enacted after Jan. 1, 2026, to require the government entities or departments receiving revenue from the new tax to eliminate their lowest-performing programs and reinvest those savings in higher-performing programs.
Building a Better California reported $35 million in contributions, with $20 million donated by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
The wealth tax initiative would be the first ballot measure in the country to enact such a tax. In 2023, Texas voters approved Proposition 3 by a margin of 68% to 32%, amending the state constitution to prohibit the state legislature from enacting a wealth tax or net worth tax in the future.
To qualify for the 2026 ballot, the deadline for signature verification is June 25, 2026. The California Secretary of State suggests submitting petitions by April 17 to qualify through a random sample check.
For the 2026 cycle, initiative sponsors have filed 44 ballot initiatives — 13 have reached 25% of signatures, and one campaign submitted signatures on Feb. 25. Between 2010 and 2024, an average of nine ballot initiatives qualified for California ballots each cycle.
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