While some California billionaires are slamming the proposed wealth tax and cutting ties with the state, other wealthy citizens are stepping forward to defend the policy.
Dave Nixon, a former healthcare executive, relocated from Florida to Pasadena, California, in 2022 in search of a community that more closely aligned with his values. He is a member of Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of affluent Americans that advocates for a fairer tax system, livable wages, and equal access to political power.
“I just felt like education, healthcare, all the things I care about that equalize society, were not being paid attention to [in Florida],” Nixon said in an interview with Fortune. “I still think that California does a better job on those things that matter.”
California’s latest proposal to tax extreme wealth, the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, would impose a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of residents with assets of at least $1 billion, a category that currently pays no recurring wealth tax beyond existing income and capital-gains taxes. The measure is projected to raise on the order of $100 billion and would channel roughly 90% of the new revenue into health care programs, with the remainder earmarked for education, food assistance, and administering the tax through a dedicated reserve fund.
Nixon previously wrote in Fortune about his disapproval of wealthy residents threatening to leave high-tax states such as New York and Illinois for lower-tax states like Florida and Texas. He remains skeptical of the claim that raising taxes will prompt a widespread flight of wealthy residents.
“That idea is a myth, an empty threat constantly laid down by millionaires across the country looking for a way to discourage state lawmakers from raising their taxes,” he wrote. “California’s higher taxes on wealthy people like me are exactly what makes it the kind of state I want to live in.”
Many of the state’s more than 200 billionaires have weighed in on the proposed tax policy, with varying opinions. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are reportedly preparing to abandon the state for Florida. Other billionaires such, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, said it “never crossed [his] mind” to leave the state because of the tax.
When asked about Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s recent actions, Nixon said, “It’s sickening and greedy.”
“California has been very good to them and has supported an innovation economy that, for example, the founders of Google have benefited from,” Nixon said. The state has long been home to Big Tech and has incentivized companies to stay and grow through tax credits. In 2025, California signed deals with Google, Adobe, IBM, and Microsoft, to bring AI training into high schools, community colleges, and the California State University system.
“I’m just disappointed in anybody that doesn’t see it as a responsibility to pay their fair share of taxes,” Nixon said.
‘Get them to pay their fair share’
Maureen Kennedy, another member of Patriotic Millionaires, is a philanthropist based in Marin County who has lived in California since 1996. A former federal housing policy official under former President Bill Clinton, she said it’s up to the state to figure out how to offset healthcare costs. She agrees with the rationale behind the bill, which would use the tax to fund health care, education, and food assistance.
“We’re a high-cost state, and [healthcare costs] have been outstripping increases in wages,” Kennedy said. Health spending increased 7.5% between 2022 and 2023, whereas average wages grew by 4.43% during that period, according to the Social Security Administration. Employers expect healthcare costs to increase by 9% in 2026 if they don’t try to lower costs, according to a survey from Mercer.
About 3.4 million Californians are expected to lose MediCal coverage after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid over the next ten years and added new work requirements.
“Higher income working people like I was before I retired pay a very large percentage of their income in California, but the billionaire class don’t pay that,” Kennedy said.
Billionaires averaged a 24% tax rate between 2018 and 2020, compared with 30% for the total population and 45% for top income earners, according to a 2025 paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.
“American ethos is built on playing by the rules and paying your fair share,” Kennedy said. “This is a way to, on a one time basis, only get them to pay their fair share.”
