To the editor: It’s time to name the billionaires’ bluff as soon as and for all (“Knives are out for California’s golden goose,” Feb. 9).
California’s roughly 200 billionaires had till Jan. 1, 2026, to alter their official state of residence with the intention to be ineligible for the proposed wealth tax that goals to stop hospital and emergency room closures throughout the state. There isn’t any proof to contradict the truth that the overwhelming majority of billionaires have remained in California.
Additionally, George Skelton’s math simply isn’t mathing. The state can increase $100 billion to maintain hospitals and ERs open, or it might, probably, danger lots of of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. These numbers aren’t even in the identical stratosphere. No one of their proper thoughts would refuse $1 million if they may should pay $1,000 after they obtain it.
What’s extra, credible tutorial and economist-driven analysis exhibits that wealth taxes don’t drive the ultra-wealthy to relocate en masse.
In recent times, Massachusetts and Washington state enacted larger taxes on high-income earners and capital beneficial properties. Each states now have extra high-income residents with extra cumulative wealth than earlier than.
Skleton’s column is simply plain unsuitable. It’s time to cease the sensationalist assaults and begin specializing in what issues: preserving California’s hospitals and ERs open.
Renée Saldaña, Los Angeles
This author is press secretary at SEIU-UHW, lead sponsor of the California billionaire tax poll measure.
..
To the editor: As a healthcare employee, I see the cracks in California’s healthcare system widening: longer waits, fewer employees and hospitals working on fumes. When federal healthcare cuts hit, the system gained’t bend; it’ll break.
The California Billionaire Tax Act is a lifeline. It will hold hospitals open and ensure sufferers aren’t turned away. Calling that “unhealthy PR” misses the purpose — that is about saving lives, not soaking the wealthy.
Healthcare staff aren’t the villains right here. We’re attempting to maintain hospitals and ERs open for each Californian who may want care, together with billionaires and their households.
Andres Gonzalez, Maywood
