June 25 was the deadline for initiatives and referrals to qualify or be removed from the ballot in California. Voters will be deciding on nine ballot initiatives and five legislative referrals this fall after deals were struck among several opposing sides, resulting in the withdrawal of six measures from the ballot.
Billionaire tax and competing measures
SEIU-UHW is sponsoring an initiative that would levy a 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to fund public education and healthcare programs. Committees opposed to the wealth tax qualified two initiatives targeting the initiative. The first initiative would require state laws or ballot initiatives levying a new special tax enacted after Jan. 1, 2026, to undergo state audits every four years to determine program effectiveness and cost-saving measures and prohibit the state from enforcing any tax that is exempted or excluded from the state spending limit enacted or effective on or after Jan. 1, 2026. The billionaires’ tax contains a provision that exempts the revenue from the state’s General Fund when calculating the state minimum guarantee for education funding, which was enacted by Proposition 98 in 1988.
