Right now, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is only targeting billionaires, but the precedent of a retroactive tax, even on those who left the state, should make every California resident (or former resident) uneasy.

“Newsom is pushing the retroactive billionaire tax targeting the roughly 220 billionaires residing in California in 2025,” reports Jonathan Turley. “It signals not just desperation in the face of crippling debt and overspending but a recognition that California is chasing its highest earners out of the state.”

It’s called the “2026 Billionaires Tax Act” and would hit anyone worth more than a billion dollars with a supposed “one-time” five percent tax on their wealth over a billion dollars. Ah, but here’s the catch…

“While technically using 2026 wealth figures, it would apply to billionaires who resided in California in 2025,” adds Turley. “So you cannot hope to flee… at least with your wealth intact. It is a penalty for those who stayed too long, hoping that rational minds would prevail in California.”

Taxing billionaires … whatever. Who cares?

Retroactively taxing billionaires? We should all care.

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What business people, corporations, and job creators seek above all else is not low taxes, fewer regulations, or even a business-friendly climate. In fact, many large corporations see high taxes, onerous regulations, and hostility towards business as a benefit, as a way to kill the thing they fear most: competition. But what all business types need is stability. As high as the taxes and as expensive and time-consuming as the regulations might be, if these are expected problems, they can be planned for, which makes them tolerable. Stability is everything, even if it’s an expensive stability.

What they don’t like are surprises, such as a retroactive tax shot out of the blue. That’s one reason why a retroactive tax is a lousy idea. The precedent will scare businesses and the wealthy away.

Another reason why a retroactive tax is a terrible idea is that it tells anyone who lives in California, who used to live in California, or is considering living in California, that the “Hotel California” is a real thing… “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

One of the great things about America is that we’re not trapped. Unlike the Europeans who cannot flee an Italy or a France, we can flee a California to escape its creeping fascistic socialism. But what if you can’t? What if once you live there, they can retroactively steal your money forever?

From my experience, this is already happening. No kidding, a few months ago, California placed a $3500 lien on my checking account claiming I owe back income taxes for 2013 and 2014. But I moved out of California in 2011. In the months since the lien, with the patient help of our payroll department, we’ve been sending document after document to California’s Revenue Department, but it still isn’t resolved. Talk about a time-suck, and while everyone I’ve dealt with over there has been pleasant,  you can never talk to the same person twice, and it’s always voicemails and massive wait times.

Since this happened to me, more than one person has told me California did the same to them. So it smells like a shakedown, hoping we just give up trying to document our innocence and let them steal our money.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.