Ro Khanna Has a New Tech Social Contract for California's Oligarchs

"Silicon Valley Representative Ro Khanna has the distinction of representing more billionaires than any other member of Congress. Despite this-or maybe because of it-he's backing a state-level proposal that has infuriated some of his wealthiest constituents: a billionaire tax. The measure could appear on ballots this year, and if passed by voters, would apply a one-time, 5 percent tax on billionaires who were residing in California as of the first day of 2026."

""All this is saying is, 'You've created unprecedented wealth. We want to make sure that there's some shared prosperity, that there is some benefit to the working and the middle class," Khanna told me in an interview. In response, a consortium of tech billionaires -Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, Google cofounder Larry Page, and venture capitalist turned Trump 2.0's crypto and AI czar David Sacks among them-have threatened to leave the state for the greener pastures of onshore tax havens like Texas or Florida."

"Thanks to Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, California's Medicaid program is set to lose $190 billion over the next ten years. This is on top of increasing housing insecurity, stagnating wages, and the systematic shutdown of clinics and rural hospitals across the state. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, 15 percent of wealth-in a region that is itself home to nearly one-third of the value of America's stock market-is owned by just nine households. This can't hold."

A proposed California ballot measure would impose a one-time, 5 percent tax on billionaires residing in the state as of January 1, 2026, with payments collected in 2027 and placed into a dedicated account largely earmarked for healthcare funding. The proposal, backed by Representative Ro Khanna and proposed by healthcare unions, aims to fund healthcare, education, and food assistance programs. A consortium of prominent tech billionaires has threatened to relocate to lower-tax states in response. The measure is framed as a response to deepening Medicaid cuts, rising housing insecurity, wage stagnation, clinic closures, and extreme regional wealth concentration.

Read at The Nation