Matt Welch notices that an enterprising Californian has state approval to start collecting signatures for an initiative to buy America's oil companies, car companies, and large investment houses. How will a state heavily in the red pay for those investments? Simple: through a huge new tax on California's wealthiest. Specifically, the state will secure revenue "in the low hundreds of billions of dollars" through a 55 percent estate tax on all wealth above $20 million. And lest California's wealthiest try to sneak out of the state and escape the confiscatory tax, the tax is applied when Californians try to move to other states, as well.
The initiative can't appear on the ballot before 2010, and it's far from certain to receive the requisite signatures to appear anyway. Still, it combines two ideas that have proven popular in Democratic circles -- confiscatory taxes (the financing is the same proposed by state Democrats to close the budget deficit), and nationalization of oil companies (favored by Representatives Waters and Hinchey, at least).
It's truly unfortunate that the measure won't be considered for at least a few years. It would be helpful to give the American people a clear contrast between the two parties on energy supply.
