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By Andrew Stanton
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Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, is set to launch a campaign to support a California billionaire tax proposal, reported The Los Angeles Times.
Sanders is a Democratic socialist whose presidential campaigns helped bring the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) into the spotlight over the past decade. Since then, several other socialists including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, have been elected to Congress. But critics have raised questions about the senator’s net worth—highlighting that he has been a critic of capitalism despite building his own wealth.
Newsweek reached out to Sanders’ office for comment via email.
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Why It Matters
Voters in California, one of the most Democratic states in the country, may vote in November to enact a tax on billionaires. Supporters of the tax proposal is in the process of 875,000 signatures from registered voters to secure its placement on the ballot in November. If enacted, the state would place a one-time five percent tax on California billionaires.
Proponents believe such a tax could fund critical public services including health care. Opponents, however, have said it would drive billionaires out of California, reducing funding for programs in the long term.
What to Know
Sanders is supporting the proposal, according to The Los Angeles Times.
He said the tax would “provide the necessary funding to prevent over 3 million working-class Californians from losing the healthcare they currently have — and would help prevent the closures of California hospitals and emergency rooms.”
“It should be common sense that the billionaires pay just slightly more so that entire communities can preserve access to life-saving medical care. Our country needs access to hospitals and emergency rooms, not more tax breaks for billionaires,” he told the newspaper.
Sanders himself is far from a billionaire. He is worth an estimated $2.5 million, Forbes reported in 2019. He also owns three homes—one in Burlington, Vermont; one in Washington, D.C. and a third on Lake Champlain.
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The senator has defended his net worth, which has grown due to his salary as a senator and book deals.
“Do I own three residences? Yeah, I do. I live here in Burlington, Vermont. We live in a middle class neighborhood. Guess what, I’m a United States senator, and I own a home in Washington, D.C. And guess what—like many thousands of people in the state of Vermont, I have a summer camp. It’s a nice one on Lake Champlain. That’s it,” he said in a 2024 interview on The Lex Friedman Podcast.
He continued, “Now how did I get the money? I wrote two best-selling books, including this book on capitalism, and I make, I don’t know $175,000 a year, and that’s more or less how I became the zillionaire that I am.”
California Billionaire Tax Proposal Divides Democrats, Including Gavin Newsom, Ro Khanna
Democrats are taking different sides on the proposed billionaire tax in California.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is viewed as a contender in the 2028 presidential race, told Politico the initiative "makes no sense" and called it "really damaging to the state."
Representative Ro Khanna, who represents parts of Silicon Valley in Congress, has pushed for a compromise on the matter.
“I’ve listened closely to concerns on both sides and have been at the negotiating table, focused on bringing tech entrepreneurs into dialogue with the ballot proponents to work through questions of both innovation and inequality constructively,” he told Bloomberg in January.
How Likely Is the Billionaire Tax to Pass? What Poll Shows
A poll released by Nestpoint last month showed that 60 percent of Californians support the tax on an initial ballot text, while 24 percent oppose the measure. When presented with opposition messaging, support fell to 54 percent. It surveyed 907 likely voters from January 2-12, 2026, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
What People Are Saying
SEIU-UHW has endorsed the tax, writing in a statement: “We’re calling on California’s billionaires to step up and pay a one-time, emergency 5% tax to prevent the collapse of California healthcare and help fund California public K-14 education and state food assistance programs. This would protect healthcare jobs and ensure working people and families can get the care they need. The tax would be paid only by Californians worth more than $1 billion — which is about 200 people who hold a combined wealth of $2 trillion.”
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California, on X: "My district is $18 trillion, nearly 1/3 of U.S. stock market in a 50 mile radius. We have 5 companies with a market cap over a trillion dollar companies. If I can stand up for a billionaire tax, this is not a hard position for 434 other members or 100 Senators."
Tom Steyer, a billionaire who is running for governor in California, wrote in a Substack post on January 26: “I have looked at this proposal, and I have some real concerns about how it’s been designed, and whether it works long-term. As drafted, the billionaire tax is a temporary fix to a permanent, structural problem, trying to backfill the damage caused by the Trump administration’s disastrous cuts to Medi-Cal, the healthcare system for more than 1 in 3 Californians.
Let me be clear though: If there’s an opportunity to tax wealthy people to fund health care and education, I’d vote for it all day long. At the end of the day, I’m always going to come down on the side of supporting working families, and if that includes making billionaires like me pay more taxes, then so be it.”
What Happens Next
Supporters of the tax have until June 24 to gather signatures to put the ballot measure on the ballot in November.
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