Daily Business Report: Thursday, January 15
Bye Bye Billionaires: Gavin Newsom’s California Exodus
by Katy Grimes | California Globe
California billionaires are leaving the state in record numbers, and taking their billions with them. According to one billionaire, more than $1 Trillion has already left.
Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing a retroactive billionaire tax targeting the roughly 220 billionaires residing in California in 2025, ignoring that these individuals are the most financially mobile and can live anywhere. Expecting them to remain in the state as if they will happily and willingly hand over even more of their wealth surely must be facetious.
SEIU is sponsoring the “2026 Billionaires Tax Act.” The measure will impose a one-time 5% tax on individual wealth exceeding $1 billion, Marc Joffe wrote for the Globe.
Barrera for State Supe Faces Make-or-Break Moment
By Jokob McWhinney | Voice of San Diego
Longtime San Diego Unified board member Richard Barrera’s campaign for state superintendent faces its first, and perhaps most consequential, vote this week. But it won’t happen with official ballots.
Barrera, like many of the other candidates vying for the state’s top education role, made the pilgrimage to Sacramento this week for an endorsement interview with officials from the state’s largest teachers union.
Leadership from the union, the California Teachers Association, which represents more than 300,000 teachers statewide, will then vote on whether to endorse Barrera.
Do Americans Possess the Fundamental Right to Refuse Unwanted Medical Treatment, Even During a Public Health Crisis?
By Katy Grimes | California Globe
“This case presents a burning question of federal law that has not been, but should be, answered by this Court; namely, are there any meaningful limits on a government’s ability to impose medical mandates in the name of public health?”
“Forced medication is a gross violation of the most basic and fundamental of human rights. Thus, medical mandates of all sorts should be abhorrent to a free and just society.”
The above question and statement are from a newly filed legal case with the United States Supreme Court to review the Health Freedom Defense Fund case against Los Angeles Unified School District, which the Globe has covered.
