To the Editor:
Saez and Zucman write that Google founders Brin and Page are “making moves to leave the state” while also claiming it is “improbable” that a significant number of billionaires left in time. But the number need not be large. Even if only those two departed, the ceiling on collections drops by 30%.
The essay also argues that even losing all billionaire income tax revenue would be a good trade, as it would take 25 years of lost taxes at $4 billion to equal a one-time $100 billion windfall. But the income tax losses grow over time and continue indefinitely. The long-run loss of the growing perpetuity could easily exceed the upfront gain, as any first- year finance student can explain.
Most remarkable is the assumption that California could lose many of its wealthiest founders without broader economic consequences for jobs, business expansion, and the future tax base those activities generate.
Joshua Rauh is a Senior Fellow and Benjamin Jaros is a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
References
First Contact with Reality (Reprise): The California Billionaire Tax (April 27, 2026). In theory, the architects thought of everything. In reality, the proposal has not survived first contact with actual billionaires.
The Commitment Problem at the Heart of California’s Billionaire Tax (April 17, 2026): The “one-time” wealth tax that taxpayers expect to be repeated has produced immediate base erosion, undermining the policy’s fiscal case.
A $2.7 Trillion Artificial Expansion of California’s Wealth Tax Base (April 22, 2026): How the voting-control valuation presumption in California’s wealth tax could force founder liquidation and loss of control.
California’s Anchor Firms are Hiring. Just Not in California (May 26, 2026): Over the past decade, California has missed out on up to a quarter million jobs created elsewhere by the state’s established “anchor” firms — and likely many more from startups that chose other states.
A California Ballot Collision: Wealth Tax vs Savings Protections (May 6, 2026): The Retirement and Savings Protection Act (RPSPA) will be on the California ballot in November, at the same time as the wealth tax. Voters cannot elect to slam billionaires while also protecting their own retirement savings and other personal assets from confiscation.