California Assemblyman Proposes Taxing Californians Even After They Leave The State

                California Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) recently introduced AB 2088, “The California Wealth Tax” bill that would force wealthy Golden Staters to pay additional taxes on wealth and income (that has already been taxed). The country’s first net worth tax would apply to all those whose net worth exceeds $30 million and is estimated to generate an additional $7.5 billion in revenues per year. California currently has the highest tax rates in the nation, a fact that has already prompted many people of means to flee the state.

              Which is why Bonta’s bill proposes to tax Californians even after they move to another state. He says tax “avoidance” would not be allowed. Bonta says his proposal would apply a “phased-in approach” to stealing ex-Californians’ wealth. “If you move in Year One, 90 percent of the tax bill applies," he said, adding that in Year Two it drops to 80 percent, in Year Three 70 percent, and so on until it falls to zero by Year Ten. Seems like more of a “phased-out” approach to me, but insanity nonetheless. Conversely, when someone moves to California and happens to be worth more than $30 million, the tax would be phased-in, and that person would be taxed at ten percent the first year, twenty percent the second, and so on until facing 100 percent of the taxes in Year Ten, if they were dumb enough to still live there.

              Bonta’s website says his tax would only affect about 30,400 people, and he avers that it is necessary because the coronavirus has created “inequality” in the state. In reality, of course, it is many consecutive years of disastrous Democratic policies and legislation that have turned the erstwhile Land of Milk and Honey into the Land of Poop and Needles and chased away many of its best and brightest. Bonta’s bill, if enacted, will accelerate that trend.

              An introduction to the new bill states that the wealth tax is “for the benefit of accumulating excessive wealth in this state,” according to the California Globe. This is an affront to modern Democrats, as they believe only The State—and those running it-- should be able to accrue excessive wealth.

              Bonta and his ilk will surely propose additional bills in an attempt to find a way to continue to extract property taxes and sales taxes from those who have recently fled the People’s Republic of California.