US Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to rally in California on Wednesday with frontline healthcare workers and other supporters of a proposed ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the roughly 200 billionaires who reside in the Golden State.
Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime champion of efforts to redress massive income and wealth inequality nationwide, said in a statement ahead of Wednesday's rally that he "strongly" supports the proposed wealth tax in California, which is home to more billionaires than any other state in the US.
"While US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings and 21% of seniors are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year," Sanders wrote in a social media post earlier this week. "That’s why I’ll be in LA this week fighting for a wealth tax on billionaires."
Sanders' appearance at Wednesday's rally in Los Angeles, which is set to begin at 5 pm local time, comes as organizers behind the California wealth tax push are working to collect the roughly 875,000 signatures required to get the proposal on the November ballot.
"Union leaders believe the visit by Mr. Sanders will energize their campaign, which has already trained more than 1,000 volunteers and doubled the amount per signature that it is paying petition circulators," the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
"We are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality poses to our nation—and to working people."
The Times also reported that "an opposition campaign committee with ties to the crypto industry, called Golden State Promise, officially formed on Friday" and "was expected to report this week $10 million in donations, including $5 million from Chris Larsen, a founder of the cryptocurrency company Ripple."
The proposal has also drawn opposition from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has close ties to Silicon Valley elites—some of the most vocal opponents of the state wealth tax plan. (Notably, the billionaire CEO of the most valuable company in the world, Nvidia, said earlier this year that he is "perfectly fine" with the proposal as others in his class pumped millions into the effort to defeat it.)
Newsom, widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has publicly vowed to defeat the proposed wealth tax, which is aimed at raising funds to prevent a looming healthcare crisis spurred by federal Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved last summer.
"This will be defeated—there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom said in January. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state."
Proponents of the tax estimate that it would raise around $100 billion in revenue—much of which would be placed in a "Billionaire Tax Health Account" designed to help shore up the state's healthcare system.
Mayra Castaneda, an Ultrasound Technologist at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, said that "we are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality poses to our nation—and to working people."
"If we let these healthcare cuts stand, my patients will suffer. Hospitals and ERs will close, others will be strained by taking on more patients, and people will lose access to life-saving care,” said Castaneda. “This is all avoidable if billionaires just pay their fair share in California, so I’m going to do whatever is in my power to see this proposal pass in November. I’ll be telling my story alongside Sen. Sanders and urging my fellow Californians to take action to save lives.”
