Billionaires fleeing California before crippling tax hikes hit should be a stark warning to New York leaders who want to put the squeeze on the wealthy to fund lavish lefty policies.
The Post reported Monday that Google co-founder Larry Page and venture capitalist Peter Thiel are among the one-percenters hatching escape plans from the Golden State to avoid getting slammed by a one-time tax that would force them to pony up 5% of their total wealth.
That would cost each of them billions.
The proposed tax isn’t a sure thing; proponents need to collect nearly 900,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot come November.
But just the threat of it is enough to make big earners eye low-tax states like Florida and Texas — places that encourage entrepreneurs to boost their wealth instead of punishing their success.
And they’re right to worry: In progressive havens like California, milking the rich has become a very popular fix for all money woes.
Of course, that system falls apart when you have no billionaires left to tax because they’ve all hit the road for greener, less grabby pastures.
That reality still hasn’t set in for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who wants tax hikes on corporations and on the rich to nab $9 billion to pay for his socialist smorgasbord of “free” stuff — from buses to child care to government-run grocery stores.
And Gov. Kathy “Go wherever the wind takes her” Hochul, who once crowed that she’d oppose a wealth tax in the Empire State, is already starting to fold like a cheap suit, with Democratic state lawmakers rubbing their own hands in glee.
This is a dangerous game of chicken; the Empire State has already bled around $14 billion in recent years as hundreds of thousands pull up stakes and head to red states with lower tax rates.
Hiking taxes wouldn’t just send more people running for the exits, it’d also guarantee that fewer businesses and high earners set up shop here in the future.
California is about to be reminded that the rich can move — and take their money with them.
And unless Hochul and the Legislature curb Mamdani’s worst excesses and stop treating the wealthy like cash cows, New York will be next to learn that lesson.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
