Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont brought his populist message to Los Angeles on Wednesday, railing against tech titans, corporate media outlets and income inequality as he sought to drum up support for a campaign to tax California billionaires.
With a speech that was heavy on egalitarian rhetoric and light on details about the California proposal, Mr. Sanders energized the crowd at the Wiltern Theater after a singer warmed them up with chants of “tax the rich.”
“At a time when the very rich are becoming phenomenally richer, when the very rich have been given a massive tax break by Donald Trump, when millions of people in this state are struggling to be able to afford health care, maybe billionaires should start paying their fair share of taxes,” Mr. Sanders, an Independent, said to wild cheers from the room.
He was the only elected official who spoke during the three-hour program that featured speeches by a handful of labor leaders and a few musical acts. The absence of any California politicians was notable because the billionaire tax, which has been proposed by a health care workers union, has caused friction within the state’s political establishment. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has vowed to defeat it, and several Democrats running to succeed him as governor have said they do not support the measure, which may go before voters in November.
The proposed initiative calls for a one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of all California residents with more than $1 billion. Backers believe the tax would apply to about 200 people in the state, although some wealth advisers have said they think the number would be higher.
The union proposing the tax, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, argues that the funds are necessary to make up for federal health care cuts that President Trump signed into law last year. Under the proposal, the state would be required to spend 90 percent of the new revenues on health care, with the rest devoted to food assistance and education.
The union has not yet collected enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot, but it is already facing well financed opposition from cryptocurrency executives and other tech billionaires.
California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst has estimated that the tax would deliver tens of billions of dollars in one-time money for the state, but that it could also lead to hundreds of millions of dollars or more in continuing losses from billionaires leaving California.
Mr. Newsom has said he opposes the tax because it could harm the state’s status as a hotbed for innovation by driving tech leaders away. He also fears the long-term hit to the state budget if the wealthiest residents leave and take their tax dollars with them, reducing funding available for schools and other government services.
The proposal has generated intense opposition from Silicon Valley and other business leaders in California.
“This wealth tax will devastate our innovation economy, destabilize our tax revenue even further, and ultimately be something we all pay through higher taxes, fees, and increased prices on everyday essentials,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, one of several groups working to defeat the measure.
But none of that was on the minds of the hundreds of people who packed into the theater for Wednesday’s rally. Entry to the event and “Tax The Billionaires” T-shirts were free, but bottomless popcorn cost $12 and parking at the nearest garage was $35.
Inside the concert hall, attendees were greeted by petition circulators hawking various ballot initiatives and opportunities to sign up for Democratic Socialists of America mailing lists.
Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, introduced himself onstage as “a union man” before calling for a general strike against Mr. Trump and his policies.
Alfredo Salazar, a union representative with the Teamsters union, which has come out in support of the initiative, called it “simply the right thing to do to support working families.”
“The times we’re in, we need to level this playing field because it’s excessive,” he said.
Helen Perri, 66, a retiree from Ventura County, said she was disappointed that no California officials appeared at the event to speak, chalking it up to fear of repercussions from their financial supporters.
“They have donors, big donors,” she said. “It’s very clear.”
In his speech, Mr. Sanders name-checked several billionaires with ties to California, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Sergey Brin. The crowd responded with loud boos.
“We’ve got some bad news for them,” Mr. Sanders bellowed. “Starting right here in California, these billionaires are going to learn that we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power.”
Mr. Sanders dismissed concerns about a slew of billionaires fleeing the state because of the tax. He noted that wealthy people had threatened to leave New York City if Zohran Mamdani were elected mayor last November but so far had not left in droves.
The union sponsoring the proposal has a history of using ballot measures as leverage in negotiations with employers and state policymakers. Mr. Newsom said last month that he had been trying to negotiate with the union’s president, Dave Regan, to drop the ballot measure, but they had not reached a deal.
So far, very few other unions have joined the S.E.I.U.-U.H.W. in backing the proposed billionaire tax. The California Teamsters has endorsed it and the UNITE HERE union, whose members include hotel and airport workers, had a heavy presence at Wednesday’s campaign kickoff.
But the most politically influential unions in the state have so far stayed on the sidelines. The umbrella union for S.E.I.U. has not come out in support of the health care workers’ proposal. And the California Teachers Association is backing a different tax proposal for the November ballot, one that would extend existing income taxes on high earners that are set to expire in a few years.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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