California lawmakers are once again considering a wealth tax.
Lee was not available for an interview Friday, but he plans to hold a press conference Monday in Sacramento to make the case for the wealth tax. “It sounds really dangerous and foolish,” Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman told me. “A California wealth tax would only increase California’s dependence on the minute number of people who are bearing the burden of supporting the state’s expenditures.
California already depends on its top 1% of taxpayers for almost half of its individual income tax revenue. That accentuates booms and busts, so that the state is flush with cash when startups are flourishing and fortunes are being made on Wall Street, but slammed when the economy heads south. Concerns are already being raised about how the state would value assets that are not publicly traded. If the California wealth tax is approved, it promises to be a huge boon for appraisers, accountants and lawyers.