SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters will consider a controversial proposal in November to temporarily raise taxes on billionaires after the labor union backing the measure announced Thursday it would forge ahead despite pressure from critics to withdraw it.
The proposal, backed by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West, would impose a one-time 5% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $1 billion and who were living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026. The goal is to generate $100 billion in revenue, mainly to fund the state’s Medicaid system after federal cuts.
“I am all in on this,” union President Dave Regan said on a Zoom call, adding that opponents of the proposal are “totally out of touch.”
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and many traditional allies of the union oppose the measure. They argue it is a temporary fix for an ongoing problem and that it would push the ultrawealthy to leave the state, taking the money they would contribute in income taxes with them. Newsom, who is considering a presidential run as he prepares to leave office in January, has generally opposed tax increases during his time as governor.
A coalition of healthcare, education and housing groups — including the California Medical Association and California School Boards Association — banded together last week to fight the tax.
“The dangerous wealth tax directly threatens vital funding for education and schools, healthcare and clinics, public safety, and infrastructure projects by making California’s revenue even more volatile,” the coalition said in a statement.
Brian Brokaw, a Newsom political adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax, said it would “make California's biggest challenges worse.”
“Driving away the state’s sustainable tax base for a one-time grab is bad policy and an even worse deal for 40 million Californians who will be left holding the bag,” he said in a statement.
Under the proposal, the state would spend the money generated from the tax over multiple years. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that the proposal would generate tens of billions of dollars in the first few years, but that income tax revenues would subsequently decline by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Many of the Silicon Valley tech moguls who oppose the measure have already moved their assets to other states or threatened to do so to avoid the possible tax. They have also spent millions to try to defeat it.
Since the proposal was announced in October, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated $82 million to a political committee called Building a Better California that backs a variety of initiatives designed to blunt the billionaire tax proposal. It has raised more than $118 million, counting Brin’s contributions, from fewer than a dozen donors.
California relies on its top 1% of earners for nearly half of its personal income tax revenue.
The union offered to scale back its proposal last week, asking Newsom to back a 2% tax on billionaires instead. But the governor’s office said the lower rate didn’t change his stance.
The proposed tax may have piqued the interest of many Democrats because it comes at a time when they are particularly concerned about affordability, income inequality and federal cutbacks to government programs, said Martin Gilens, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“There’s kind of a perfect storm that sort of bolsters preexisting inclinations to be sympathetic to the idea of raising taxes on the well-to-do,” he said.
But there’s a catch. Support for ballot initiatives often declines as the election nears, and if the measure passes, it’s likely to face legal challenges, Gilens said.
FILE - Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., addresses the crowd at a campaign event for a proposed "billionaires tax," in Los Angeles, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - A large banner is seen at a campaign event for a proposed "billionaires tax" in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it will expand its operations in Venezuela, just days after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal to develop the nation’s oil reserves and give the Pentagon a stake in the profits.
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company that has a major presence in the country, said Wednesday that it has been assigned additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where the company has an established position. Joint venture plans include investing more than $7 billion over the next five years, more than doubling production to approximately 600,000 barrels a day compared with 2026.
“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential and its ability to compete for investment within our portfolio for decades,” CEO Mike Wirth said in a prepared statement. “With improved terms and additional acreage, we are strengthening a portfolio that we believe can deliver attractive low-cost oil growth, support energy supply and create differentiated long-term value.”
Venezuela holds the world's largest proven reserves, totaling more than 303 billion barrels of crude oil, according to OPEC's 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin. Saudi Arabia is a distant second with 267 billion barrels.
The announcement comes a day after a U.S. official, who briefed reporters on the expected announcement, said that Chevron officials and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were expected to visit Venezuela on Wednesday when the new investment would be formally unveiled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House for the call.
Chevron is the second-largest U.S. oil company and the only one with a major presence in Venezuela. It has had a presence in the country since 1923. Its joint ventures Petroindependencia and Petropiar, S.A. operate extra-heavy oil projects in the Orinoco Oil Belt, while Petroboscan, S.A. is located in the Zulia State in western Venezuela.
The White House confirmed on Monday that it is partnering with North American Blue Energy Partners as part of Trump ’s push to tap into Venezuela’s oil industry.
The sweeping agreement has been met with skepticism from analysts who say it will take years to revive Venezuela’s oil industry, which is in disarray after years of neglect.
Energy experts also have questioned whether Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has the legal authority to give the company 100-year rights over 17 oil fields with reserves of 65 billion barrels — and whether future Venezuelan or American administrations would overturn the agreement.
Trump has had his eyes on Venezuela’s oil since the capture of Nicolás Maduro, and his aides call it a path away from reliance on oil from the Middle East. Trump has been pressing to get U.S. businesses to restore a presence in the country, and suggested Monday that other oil companies were readying for business in Venezuela. “We have Exxon going in, we have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in,” he said. Trump in January said he was inclined to leave Exxon out of Venezuela after CEO Darren Woods called the country “uninvestable.”
A spokesman for Exxon said Tuesday, however, that “nothing has changed” on the company’s position regarding Venezuela.
Asked about Chevron’s announcement during an interview on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “No American firm knows how to operate in Venezuela better than Chevron.”
Bessent told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that Trump is “creating assets for the American people” with the deal and that the arrangement “is going to push down oil prices, push up production” to benefit U.S. consumers and the Venezuelan economy.
Trump has said that the agreement with Venezuela would “substantially lower” gasoline prices in the U.S. However, experts have repeatedly warned that Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure will require years of restoration work and tens of billions of dollars to resuscitate.
Meanwhile, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped overnight to $4.12, according to the motor club AAA. That's 93 cents more than it cost at this point last year.
Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
A woman covering a child from the rain walks along the shore of Lake Maracaibo in the oil-producing region of Cabimas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A fisherman steers his boat on Lake Maracaibo in the oil-producing region of Cabimas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A woman walks near of a oil storage tank of Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA in Cabimas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Sep. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
