Californians voted on Tuesday to reject a measure that will increase taxes on the wealthy and help low-income people buy electric cars after Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom worked to kill the proposition.
As of Wednesday afternoon with 41% of ballots reporting, 59% of Californians voted against Proposition 30, which would have imposed an additional 1.75% tax on citizens making more than $2 million annually. Newsom, who is a multimillionaire, and several of his billionaire donors spent millions to oppose the measure. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Shells Out $1.6 Million To Stop Climate Measure That Would Raise Taxes On The Rich)
Newsom called the measure “fiscally irresponsible” and urged Californians to vote against it. His campaign also gave $1,617,216 to the “No on 30” committee, according to campaign finance disclosures filed on Oct. 31.
However, Newsom previously praised the California Air Resources Board’s decision to ban gasoline-car sales by 2035 and aims to make his state’s auto industry “all-electric” by 2035. He will also spend $10 billion of taxpayers’ money to “aggressively fight the climate crisis” by phasing out gas cars and building EV infrastructure.
“It was a great result for California and for a Democratic Governor who’s clearly earned tremendous respect and credibility as a cutting-edge climate leader with proven ability to do big things without raising taxes,” a Newsom spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Tesla, Inc. electric vehicles charge at supercharger location in Hawthorne, California, on August 9, 2022. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Democratic governor called Proposition 30 an irresponsible “special interest carve-out” and argued that the proposed law was designed to “funnel” state income tax to Lyft, a large rideshare company, in a statement Newsom’s campaign previously provided to the DCNF, Lyft and other ridesharing companies must ensure that their vehicle fleets consist of only EVs by 2030 to comply with a 2021 rule passed by the state’s air resources board.
Although the measure could have helped Lyft by raising money to help the company’s drivers buy electric cars, environmentalists began drafting the measure before the company became involved, according to CEO of California Environmental Voters Mary Creasman. The rideshare giant spent over $45 million to get Proposition 30 passed, according to Cal Matters.
Only a small percentage of California taxpayers would have funded Proposition 30’s EV initiatives as only 35,000 of the state’s residents reported adjusted gross incomes greater than $2 million, according to 2019 statistics published by the state tax board. The tax could have generated between $3.5 billion and $5 billion of revenue annually, according to an estimate conducted by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.
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