Who Wants to Tax a Billionaire?

Mike, Godfrey, and Mariel analyze the deep-pocketed players funding LA’s expensive mayoral race, and their motivations (spoiler alert: one wants new bike lanes). California billionaires are responding as one might expect to the possibility of a one-time wealth tax. And with ballots arriving now —&nbsp;voting early is so important! — a look at efforts to protect the polls.All of us at LA Podcast love making episodes for you every week and we want to keep delivering them to you every Monday.&nbsp;Please become a paid subscriber to keep us hard at work —&nbsp;thank you so much to the 23(!) who joined us over the past week. We’re more than a third of the way to our goal of 100 new subscribers by Election Day. Sign up today at&nbsp;lapodcast.org&nbsp;&nbsp;A new LAist report reveals the actual contestants of the mayoral race: police union LAPPL and Airbnb versus the Carpenters Union and bike lane enthusiast and hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick. The battle between the police department and street safety is a tale as old as timeGovernor Gavin Newsom signed new legislation adding stricter penalties to influencers who don’t disclose political funding on posts — a week-ish later, a lawsuit (filed with help from the Bass campaign’s legal firm) alleged Nithya Raman’s campaign paid influencers without proper disclosureAnother new poll shows Latinos heavily favoring Raman — and yet another says 25% of the city is still undecided with only a month until the election(It’s never too early to plan for the potential future. This week, L.A. Material’s Julia Wick dared to ask: if Raman were to win, who would take her seat?)Here are some numbers to make your head explode: California’s billionaires’ wealth increased to $2.117 trillion in the past year (a 25.6% raise). They spend 0.26% of their wealth annually in state income taxes. And they’ve spent $227 million (and counting) to oppose state Proposition 40Then, as Mariel explains in Golden State Report, these same billionaires sponsored state Propositions 41 and 42, which would repeal any wealth tax (as added insurance, should Proposition 40 pass)(And remember, Proposition 40 was written in part to address budget holes after Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashed Medi-Cal funding: state officials estimate the Medi-Cal program could lose more than $30 billion annually)(And, and, and: 41% of LA County residents are enrolled on Medi-Cal. Is your head still intact or is it just us?)You’ll also find a potential end to California’s tortured relationship with CEQA (Prop 45) and a voter ID proposal (<a href="https://goldenstatereport.substack.com/p/proposition-39-isnt-just-about-voter" rel="no