{
  "id": 19836279,
  "title": "Billionaires spent nearly $400 million to sink California’s wealth tax — and the tax-the-rich side won all 3 income tax measures on the ballot",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/billionaires-spent-nearly-400-million-to-sink-californias-wealth-tax",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-13T16:09:59.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/11/13/billionaires-california-wealth-tax-income-tax-rich-ballot-measures/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "California's Proposition 40, a proposal to impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state's roughly 200 billionaires, was voted down by voters in the 2026 midterm elections. The billionaire-backed measure, championed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin among others, failed to garner the necessary support from California's electorate. Despite its defeat, economist Emmanuel Saez, who helped design the initiative, lamented the outcome, stating: \"Today oligarchy has won.\"\n\nWhile Proposition 40 faltered, recent data suggests that voters across the nation supporting the idea of taxing the rich. In state elections, three income tax measures featuring a boost to income taxes on the rich all emerged victorious. Washington state approved a measure preserving its new 9.9% income tax on household income above $1 million, while Colorado voters rejected Proposition 136, which would have capped the state's income tax rate at 4.4%. Meanwhile, California's voters approved Proposition 3, which makes permanent the income tax rates enacted in 2012 for the state's highest earners, set to expire in 2031.",
  "summary": "Emmanuel Saez, a UC-Berkeley economist who studies inequality and helped design Proposition 40, lamented the loss, saying: “Today oligarchy has won.”",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}