Who Wants to Tax a Billionaire?

Mike, Godfrey, and Mariel analyze the deep-pocketed players funding LA’s expensive mayoral race, and their motivations (spoiler alert: one wants new bike lanes). California billionaires are responding as one might expect to the possibility of a one-time wealth tax. And with ballots arriving now — voting early is so important! — a look at efforts to protect the polls. All of us at LA Podcast love making episodes for you every week and we want to keep delivering them to you every Monday. Please become a paid subscriber to keep us hard at work — thank you so much to the 23(!) who joined us over the past week. We’re more than a third of the way to our goal of 100 new subscribers by Election Day. Sign up today at lapodcast.org A new LAist report reveals the actual contestants of the mayoral race: police union LAPPL and Airbnb versus the Carpenters Union and bike lane enthusiast and hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick. The battle between the police department and street safety is a tale as old as time Governor Gavin Newsom signed new legislation adding stricter penalties to influencers who don’t disclose political funding on posts — a week-ish later, a lawsuit (filed with help from the Bass campaign’s legal firm) alleged Nithya Raman’s campaign paid influencers without proper disclosure Another new poll shows Latinos heavily favoring Raman — and yet another says 25% of the city is still undecided with only a month until the election (It’s never too early to plan for the potential future. This week, L.A. Material’s Julia Wick dared to ask: if Raman were to win, who would take her seat?) Here are some numbers to make your head explode: California’s billionaires’ wealth increased to $2.117 trillion in the past year (a 25.6% raise). They spend 0.26% of their wealth annually in state income taxes. And they’ve spent $227 million (and counting) to oppose state Proposition 40 Then, as Mariel explains in Golden State Report, these same billionaires sponsored state Propositions 41 and 42, which would repeal any wealth tax (as added insurance, should Proposition 40 pass) (And remember, Proposition 40 was written in part to address budget holes after Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashed Medi-Cal funding: state officials estimate the Medi-Cal program could lose more than $30 billion annually) (And, and, and: 41% of LA County residents are enrolled on Medi-Cal. Is your head still intact or is it just us?) You’ll also find a potential end to California’s tortured relationship with CEQA (Prop 45) and a voter ID proposal (that’s kinda just wannabe voter suppression?) (Prop 39) on the ballot Rest assured, the LA Forward ballot guide with these propositions and more will be out this week Vote protectors are here to help! This election, getting out the vote also means protecting the vote The first step is to vote early! Pledge to vote early today at voteearly.la and sign up to monitor polls near you (you’ll get trained first), host your own ballot party, and join an election protection mobilization network Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at lapodcast.org ICYMI: We’re on YouTube! Bluesky! LinkedIn! Threads! And Instagram, of course. Follow, subscribe, and turn on post notifications to make sure you stay in the loop with all things LA Pod Thank you to Charlotte Landes for producing this episode and to our digital producer Bianca Cockrell The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram Mariel Garza is the co-founder and executive editor of Golden State Report and a veteran California journalist for the LA Times, Sacramento Bee, and Los Angeles Daily News, among others