Cory Arnold

It’s not 1% a year for 5 years. It’s a one time 5% tax on all assets and it will kill entrepreneurship in California. Here is an example: John Doe starts a company. He takes a nominal salary - say $150k for this example - and the rest in equity in the company. Let’s say he owns 20%. He raises VC capital in 2026 from someone that invests $100M into the company and values the company at $6B. This means his 20% is “worth” $1.2B. I put it in quotes because he can’t actually sell. He has a paper value that putatively says he’s a billionaire. But he actually lives on $150k because that is what his income is. Just because someone decides to make a bet on the business does not mean some bank account in your name magically gets created with $1.2B in it. Under the proposed tax, however, John Doe would now owe $60M in cash to California in 2027. How will he pay it? Is there some buyer you know of, that the rest of the market doesn’t, that will do a deal at the max value when there is a distressed seller like John Doe who needs money he doesn’t have to pay taxes on value he also doesn’t have! Now imagine that after the tax is assessed, in early 2027, the company takes a write down to $200M. Now his share is $40M. But he still owes $60M. Again, there are no buyers for his shares per se. He still only makes $150k/yr. What is this person supposed to do? He now has a “worth” of $40M but owes California $60M. Should he declare bankruptcy now because he tried to start a business but was retarded enough to do it in California? So did you really get the billionaires?? No. Because the mega billionaires have already left or are tax structured to minimize the tax or will fight it. You will, however, drag a bunch of young, energetic folks who want to make things and hire people into bankruptcy court. Awesome work, Ro. You should be proud.