I assume the ballot measure for a one time tax on billionaires and billion dollar trusts.

Sounds like the public voted against it. Wild.

California Proposition 40 was a ballot measure to enact a one-time, 5% tax on "billionaires." The proposition was actually pretty straightforward and easy to read, and had language to retroactively impose the tax at the start of 2026, so wealthy people couldn't leave California today to avoid it. Though some did "leave" prior to 2026 in anticipation of it's passage.

I'm oversimplifying here, but the idea a was that if you are the beneficial owner of assets worth more than 1 billion, the state would levy a one-time tax on 5% of the assessed value of all of those assets. How the state would determine beneficial ownership, and how they would determine the value of non-market based assets (like privately held companies, sports teams, art, etc..) was the subject of much debate.

There was enormous ad-spending against the measure by wealthy individuals. Additionally there were a couple of ballot measures placed on the ballot specifically intended to confuse voters; a highly effective tactic because when voters are confused by propaganda, they tend to vote no across the board.

There is also increasing voter fatigue on ballot initiatives for debt spending and taxes. We usually have several per ballot.

If you're unfamiliar with California politics, it seems surprising that voters would vote against this, but if you're familiar with the process, it's failure was pretty predictable.