Ryan MacTheodore Schleifer and Heather Knight, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):

Billionaires including Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents, according to five people familiar with their thinking. […]

The moves are being driven by a potential California ballot measure from the health care union, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the people said. The proposal calls for California residents worth more than $1 billion to be taxed the equivalent of 5 percent of their assets.

Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

These are the same sorts of people who promised to flee New York City if Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election—there’s been no such exodus.

The proposed tax would cost Page, worth an estimated $258 billion, more than $12 billion; Thiel, worth about $27.5 billion, could pay more than $1.2 billion.

How will they ever survive?

The measure faces opposition from Silicon Valley investors and others, including Gov. Gavin Newsom. At The New York Times DealBook conference this month, Mr. Newsom said a wealth tax was not pragmatic. The Democrat, who has been close with people like Mr. Page, is raising money for a committee to oppose the measure.

Can Page and Thiel take Newsom with them when they leave?

“The inevitable outcome will be an exodus of the state’s most talented entrepreneurs who can and will choose to build their companies in less regressive states,” Chamath Palihapitiya, a tech investor, said on social media this week.

The only meaningful outcome will be a handful of incredibly wealthy individuals avoiding taxes by claiming domicile in poor states so they can continue extracting wealth from the system.