Taxing billionaires failed in California, but other states are taking steps to collect from the rich

State efforts to tax the rich did relatively well in the 2026 midterm elections, following a series of state legislative moves in that direction in recent years. That might come as a surprise because a majority of voters rejected California’s Proposition 40. The much-publicized ballot initiative would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state’s roughly 200 billionaires. Google cofounder Sergey Brin and several other billionaires spent nearly $400 million trying to persuade...