Fight Trump by raising taxes? Health care advocates try for the 2026 ballot
Good morning, happy Wednesday, and welcome to the A.M. Alert.
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WOULD VOTERS RAISE TAXES TO BACKFILL MEDI-CAL?
Federal and state cuts approved this year are expected to rip holes in California’s social safety net. To offset the losses, health care advocates and unions are exploring a ballot measure to raise taxes on the state’s ultra-rich.
They are framing it as another way California could push back against President Donald Trump’s administration.
“It would be incredibly effective if California said, ‘No, we are not going to make cuts because of your big, ugly bill …We’re going to raise revenue to prevent your cuts,’” said Jim Mangia, President and CEO of St. John’s Community Health.
The nonprofit provides low- and no-cost health, dental, pharmacy and other types of care to low-income patients in Southern California.
Mangia envisions a tax of between 1% and 2% on investments and other assets worth more than $25 million, but he and other ballot initiative organizers are still working out the details.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has opposed all efforts to raise taxes during his tenure, including a similar wealth tax proposal from Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-San Jose, in 2023.
That’s why Mangia wants lawmakers to take it directly to voters.
“They can’t (raise) revenue if the governor won’t sign it, but they can (raise) revenue by putting something on the ballot and then letting the voters decide,” he said. “Like they’re gonna do with redistricting.”
Progressive lawmakers had been eyeing a revenue increase to help fill recent budget deficits, according to Politico. But with all the political oxygen spent on Newsom’s redistricting effort this year, Mangia and allies are pushing the Legislature to put it on the ballot in 2026.
OPENAI ON THE ‘RIGHT TO AI’
Via Lia Russell...
Artificial intelligence powerhouse OpenAI wants California lawmakers to guarantee residents’ equitable access to the technology they say is becoming integral to education, policy, media and other sectors.
The San Francisco-based company published a report Wednesday based on internal data they say shows 9 million Californians turn to its flagship ChatGPT chatbot model weekly for help drafting emails, coding and tutoring.
Chris Lehane, the company’s vice president of global affairs, said in an interview he was meeting with lawmakers to discuss policy frameworks to guarantee users’ “right to AI,” likening it to the labor rights movement that arose during the Industrial Revolution.
“History is pretty clear. Technology does lead to progress, it does lead to the growth of the economy, but if you go through those transitions, there’s oftentimes people who benefit and people who cannot,” Lehane said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a personal friend of Lehane and an early tech booster, has been a loud AI proponent, pushing state agencies to adopt the technology for fielding calls during tax season and analyzing traffic patterns.
He has been hesitant at times to put heavy guardrails on the burgeoning technology, despite critics’ concerns about its ability to supplant jobs in fields like media, law and software engineering.
And on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Rancho Santa Margarita parents Matt and Maria Raine were suing OpenAI for wrongful death after their son Adam had for months chatted with ChatGPT about his deteriorating mental health, which gave him tips for planning his eventual death by suicide.
POLLS: NEWSOM’S MEME WAR PAYING OFF
Via Lia Russell...
Antagonizing and parroting President Donald Trump online may be paying off for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2028 presidential prospects, according to two new polls.
In Morning Consult’s polling, the governor’s support among Democratic and liberal-leaning independent voters has tripled since March.
Some 19% of voters said they would support Newsom in the Democratic 2028 primary, more than three times the 5% of people who said the same of him in March. Support for other potential Democratic contenders like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Biden cabinet secretary Pete Buttigieg have either barely moved since then or have seen their support decrease. Support for Ocasio-Cortez rose one percentage point, from 5% in March to 6% in August, while Buttigieg’s potential support declined from 10% to 6%.
Another potential 2028 contender, former Vice President Kamala Harris, also saw her stock decrease in the same poll, from 36% to 29%.
In California specifically, voters prefer a Newsom presidential bid to a Harris one, according to a new Berkeley IGS poll.
It showed 45% — including 69% of Democrats — are “somewhat” or “very enthusiastic” about Newsom running in 2028. The numbers were lower for Harris, who earned enthusiasm from 55% of Democrats and 36% of voters overall.
Morning Consult pollster Eli Yokley cautioned that none of the potential leaders have officially declared their candidacies, and 2028 remains years away.
“But the apparent responsiveness among the Democratic electorate to Newsom’s actions suggests the appetite for a strong and loud fighter against Trump is real,” he wrote.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I drew lines that favored my friends and relatives. … It was the goal at the outset of my career.”
—Former Speaker Willie Brown admits to gerrymandering and says he supports California redistricting in an interview with The Bee.
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