A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. “You are really playing with fire with this one,” said Aaron Levie, chief executive officer of the publicly traded Silicon Valley company Box. Levie said he fears that the proposed tax would drive entrepreneurs to look elsewhere to run their companies and launch start-ups. Analysts say an exodus of billionaires could mean a loss of hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

Source: Taipei Times January 17, 2026 16:53 UTC