Warning of the potential “trickle-down effect” that even the governor acknowledges, “Million Dollar Listing” realtor Josh Altman pegged a proposed tax as the “dumbest idea I’ve heard.”
(Video Credit: Fox Business)
At the same time, the once-Golden State has been pursuing doling out billions of dollars worth of reparations — despite having never allowed slavery in the state — and crippling small businesses with minimum wage rates disconnected from reality, lawmakers have been exploring a way to squeeze the most financially successful to new extents.
Having already pushed through a sales tax on properties exceeding $5 million in value, a proposed California Billionaire Tax Act found realtor Josh Altman asserting the end result would actually be trillions of dollars worth of lost tax revenue.
“Are you seeing an exodus over the proposed wealth tax?” asked Fox Business host Stuart Varney on Saturday’s “Varney & Co.”
“Stuart, I hoped you weren’t gonna bring that up, cause that’s the dumbest idea I’ve heard since the ULA Measure, which I thought then was the dumbest idea I’ve heard,” contended Altman, who went on, “There’s about 200 to 250 billionaires in California, more than any other state. However, there’s also 40 million people in California … 23 million who are eligible to vote. If this hits the ballot, there is no way that the billionaires come out on top here, and that’s an issue.”
Already aware of seven billionaires who had fled California, the Douglas Elliman broker remarked, “It’s the trickle-down effect. It’s the people, the hundreds of thousands of people who work for these billionaires. It’s the trillion dollars in taxes that we’re gonna lose.”
In the spring of 2023, following the November ballot initiative Measure ULA, the so-called “mansion tax” added anywhere from 4-5.5% sales tax on properties valued over $5 million, Altman had told the New York Post, “It’s crazy out there right now.”
“I’ve literally become not only a real estate agent, which I signed up for, but I’m not a yacht salesman, a car broker and a wholesale furniture salesman,” as sellers sought creative ways to motivate buyers.
New ‘mansion tax’ has celebs using desperate tactics to sell their massive homes https://t.co/Fpw2A31gOH pic.twitter.com/R3e1TRxDUE
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) April 2, 2023
Whether a genuine admission of the left taking their eat the rich agenda too far or simply an effort to position himself as a moderate ahead of an expected White House bid, even California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) had admitted he was “burdened by the facts” when it came to the proposed wealth tax.
Speaking Thursday at a Bloomberg News event in San Francisco, the governor said, “The fact is, it actually will reduce investments in education. It will reduce investments in teachers and librarians, childcare. It will reduce investments in firefighting and police.”
“The impact of a one-time tax does not solve an ongoing structural challenge that has been exacerbated by the impacts of H.R. 1,” he had argued. At the same time, Altman made the point that, where it concerned the pockets California lawmakers aimed to pick, there is no difference between 100 million and a billion.
“[The billionaires will] be fine,” he told Varney. “It’s people that need them that are not, and we’re running them out of California.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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