Lawyer: Billionaire tax could cost California $1 trillion

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

In an effort to escape the proposed California billionaire tax, several notable billionaires might have already cost the state more than $1 trillion in tax revenue by moving to other states, one attorney to the rich told The Center Square.

“If I look at what the publicly-known departures are and my clients, that’s over a trillion,” David Lesperance, managing partner at his own firm, Lesperance & Associates, told The Center Square on Tuesday. “And I’m one guy.”

Lesperance added there are other lawyers and wealth managers like him who have billionaires in California as clients, and he said they’re forming plans to leave the Golden State.

Some of his clients approached him early about moving to other states, while others came to him after the beginning of the year to start making plans, he said.

“I had four clients contact me literally the Monday after Thanksgiving, saying ‘We got to get out of here,’” Lesperance added. “Four of my clients exited before Jan. 1, and should [the wealth tax] pass, they would be able to defend that they left by Jan. 1.”

The proposed wealth tax on California’s billionaires, which was proposed by the Service Employees International Union – Healthcare Workers West in October 2025, would levy a one-time 5% wealth tax on the Golden State’s residents with a net worth of $1 billion or more. The tax would apply to stocks, bonds and assets like fine art, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.

Just the knowledge the wealth tax was proposed was enough to send some of California’s most famous and wealthy names packing – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook; Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, chief among them.

Proposition 40 – the official ballot title of the wealth tax proposal – will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot after the union backing the tax collected enough signatures to move it before California voters in this year’s midterm elections. The tax is meant to generate $100 billion to help offset federal budget cuts to public health programs, K-12 education and food assistance programs that all saw reductions in federal dollars as a result of H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Just over a year ago, Trump’s ‘Big, Ugly Bill’ slashed funding for healthcare in California by $100 billion to pay for more billionaire tax breaks,” Renée Saldaña, press secretary for the SEIU-UHW, told The Center Square in an email Tuesday. “These cuts eliminate healthcare coverage for millions of Californians, and double health insurance premiums for millions more.”

Hospitals and public health clinics are already closing, and many more are in serious financial trouble, Saldaña added.

“It’s offensive that when so many people are struggling to afford rent, gas, and groceries, there are a few controversial billionaires who are fixated on avoiding paying their fair share in taxes,” Saldaña told The Center Square. “But here’s the reality: The billionaire tax was crafted to be fair, enforceable and legally sound. Once voters pass Prop. 40 this November, billionaires will no longer be able to stick the rest of us with the bill.”

A supporter of the wealth tax told The Center Square on Tuesday that extremely high income earners pay a disproportionally small amount of their income for taxes, which undermines the economy.

“Having billionaires makes our economy weaker, not stronger,” Ashley Craig, a member of Patriotic Millionaires, told The Center Square. “Voters should understand they can vote for Republicans all up and down the ballot, but I think even the folks who are voting for Republicans are going to vote yes on Prop. 40 because it makes a ton of sense. It’s very necessary and it’s very popular.”