What are the fault lines in billionaires’ tax ballot fight? Strategists weigh in
The “master strategist” behind an anti-Tom Steyer Super PAC laid out his theory for how a coalition of labor, business, and medical industry interests that helped sink the billionaire’s gubernatorial campaign would succeed in defeating a wealth tax that could appear on the November ballot.
Jim DeBoo, who led the California Is Not For Sale independent expenditure boosting Steyer rival Xavier Becerra, gave wide-ranging remarks on the governor’s race and upcoming ballot measures during a Wednesday panel at a California Chamber of Commerce conference.
He spoke with ballot measure strategist Brandon Castillo, both of whom CalChamber President Jennifer Barrera jokingly referred to as “master strategists.”
The Associated Press said Tuesday that Becerra and Republican contender Steve Hilton had cinched enough votes in last week’s primary to proceed to the November general election. Steyer, who broke state records by self-funding his campaign with $215 million, conceded and endorsed Becerra.
Steyer held himself out as a progressive who would have heavily taxed his fellow business moguls. It was a message DeBoo said was complicated by organized labor’s split over a related billionaires’ tax spearheaded by SEIU-United Health Care Workers President Dave Regan.
The proposal, which the Secretary of State’s Office is reviewing for inclusion on the November ballot, would levy a one-time 5% tax on billionaire and funnel 90% of revenues towards hospitals and healthcare costs affected by federal budget cuts. A handful of billionaires are supporting competing measures to undermine the wealth tax, which Newsom and middle-of-the-road Democrats oppose, along with the State Building and Construction Trades Council and the California Teachers Association, which is supporting a separate measure to renew a tax funding public education.
“It’s a unique time in California politics where one person (Regan) has managed to align the business community, the medical community, the billionaire community, all against one entity,” DeBoo said.
Proponents of the tax say it would stave off hospital closures and other drastic measures by forcing the state’s wealthiest residents to share their largesse as inflation and inequity surge.
SEIU-UHW Vice President Debru Carthan said in a statement that the union was confident voters would support the tax by “double-digit margins,” and dismissed DeBoo’s remarks as the concerns of a “few political insiders focused on protecting 200 billionaires.”
“California is in crisis: Our hospitals are closing, our ERs are overwhelmed and families are being forced to choose between paying for their healthcare or keeping a roof over their heads — while billionaires pay lower tax rates than working people,” Carthan said. “Californians understand what’s at stake: If we don’t act, the bill for this healthcare crisis will fall on us.”
A Legislature veteran, DeBoo is one of Newsom’s closest political advisers and served as his chief of staff from 2020 to 2022. His firm represents clients like PG&E, Chevron and the California Medical Association. And he led last year’s successful Yes on Proposition 50 campaign that voters passed to redraw California’s congressional districts.
The anti-Steyer super PAC teamed up with some of those corporate clients to boost Becerra — an effort DeBoo likened to a military order in the TV series “Game of Thrones” — trying to sway voters from approving a measure that opponents say could have the unintended consequence of driving away the state’s biggest taxpayers.
“We called ourselves the Night’s Watch,” he said, “Because, Game of Thrones people, we were trying to get the walker away from the wall.”
Castillo represents the California Hospital Association and dialysis clinics who oppose some SEIU-UHW proposals, but said he does not have a role in the billionaires’ tax debate.
He predicted a “30% chance” of Newsom and other Democratic leaders succeeding in negotiating the wealth tax off the ballot. The Legislature has until June 25 to withdraw a ballot initiative, per a 2014 state law.
“I can’t remember a time where we’ve had so many interests going to war, head to head,” Castillo said. “Where groups are saying, ‘You know what? I’m going to take your initiative and one-up you an initiative’ so it makes it really intriguing.”
Castillo and DeBoo predicted that if the billionaires’ tax succeeded in making it to the November ballot, it would create a cacophonous media environment like the one leading up to the June primary, a scenario DeBoo referred to as “Steyer on steroids.”
“It’s going to be really difficult to break through. I think the billionaires tax is going to create the opposition that is going to create hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising with, ‘you can’t trust government, you’re paying too high of taxes,’” Castillo said. “The voter climate is gonna be really difficult this election cycle, and voters are gonna get fatigued if we even have 12 or 15 measures on the ballot.”
