As voter support for California’s proposed “billionaire tax” plummets below 50%, top luxury real estate titan Aaron Kirman is sounding the alarm, warning that the mere threat of Proposition 40 is freezing high-end transactions and driving California’s top job creators to the exit doors.
“We think this proposal is disastrous for California. It’s disastrous for the real estate market, and buyers and sellers have had enough of California taxation,” Kirman — the CEO and founder of Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California who has more than $26 billion in sales under his belt — told Fox News Digital.
“Being California is one of the highest-tax states, I think buyers and sellers, whether they’re billionaires or not, have just had enough,” he continued. “And the general public needs to understand that it’s a top-down market, and if buyers and sellers just decide to not transact in California, it affects the entire global community here.”
A recent UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research-POLITICO poll found that 45% of likely voters support Proposition 40, while 43% oppose it and 12% are undecided. That’s down from 50% support in the Citrin Center-POLITICO poll conducted earlier this year.
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The proposal — backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West — would impose a one-time 5% tax on certain assets exceeding $1 billion held by people who were California residents on Jan. 1, 2026, generally excluding real estate, pensions and retirement accounts. The tax would be due in 2027, and taxpayers could spread payments over five years at an additional cost, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Still, Kirman argued that the possibility of the tax and broader economic pressures, including inflation and elevated mortgage rates, have created headwinds for California’s real estate market. He said those factors, compounded by state and local tax initiatives, have created a “wait-and-see” freeze among buyers and sellers.
“Interest rates aren’t helping. Inflation has been challenging. And then moving parts in California have not been easy. So when you put it all together, the general sentiment for the luxury market is frothy. Buyers are weary to get into it. And we see a lot of buyers just sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what’s going to happen,” he said.
“Billionaires and multimillionaires are studying the whole picture,” Kirman said. “Today, people are re-evaluating that and saying, ‘Look, if I am gonna continue to get taxed in this manner, I would prefer to be in a state that appreciates my business and the employees that I generate’… And they really are looking at other places. And I do think that there would be a mass exodus if this tax goes through… We’ve already seen a lot of exodus in general from multimillionaires and billionaires opting for states that have less taxation. And the last thing we wanna do is continue that trend.”
The recent poll showed voters were less likely to support Proposition 40 if they did not believe it would remain a “one-time” tax. But despite the dropping support for the tax itself, the poll still found a prevailing wariness toward billionaires, with 44% of voters saying they do more harm than good.
“Behind the billionaire is a corporation, and behind that corporation are employees that work for the corporation. And all of this is good for a state. And I think people are finally beginning to realize that California needs industry to sustain. And the more people we lose, the worse the state’s going to be,” Kirman said.
“It’s not always as simple as ‘tax the rich’ and give to the people [in] need,” he added. “A state needs infrastructure, a state needs the businesses that are supporting the people, the economy. And from there, it is a top-down business, right? Not only is it the employees, it’s restaurants, it’s nightlife, it’s shopping. I mean, it’s all of these things that combine to make for what is really important, which is a state that is pro-business, supports growth, taxes correctly, and doesn’t always take it from the top.”
Kirman also pointed to Los Angeles’s Measure ULA Transfer Tax — the municipal “mansion tax” adding 4% on transfers over $5.4 million and 5.5% on transfers over $10.9 million — as a cautionary tale of local policy backfiring on housing supply and market activity.
“It starts with Measure ULA, which has been a catastrophic tax for the luxury segment in California,” he said. “We’ve seen, after ULA — which was a tax that went to homelessness — billions of dollars not going in the right spot. And this continues to be a trend, and I think the California voters are tired of it. I think that the business owners are tired of it, whether it’s big business or small business. And I think we as a community need to come together to make it clear that we want big and small business to survive, and we wanna continue to grow as a community and not have to retreat because of bad policy.”
“In a city [where] we need housing, we need apartments, that tax has backfired. They collected billions of dollars. We’re down in transactional volume by 60%; we are down in building apartments 70%,” Kirman said.
“And the concern isn’t just for billionaires. A lot of people that are very successful multimillionaires say, ‘Look, if they’re going to impose a billionaire tax, is there going to be a millionaire tax next,’ right? And this is the kind of messaging that is not helping California succeed,” the CEO continued. “And I think because there’s been so many taxes that LA and California has imposed, most principals are saying enough is enough.”
California remains the world’s fourth-largest economy, though the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates show its population declined slightly from July 2024 to July 2025. Kirman emphasized that tax reform and policies aimed at economic growth are critical to maintaining the state’s competitiveness.
“It really does hurt my heart a little bit because I do believe California is the best state in the country, or one of the best. We have amazing infrastructure. We have an amazing business. We are the fourth-largest economy in the world. And on top of it, we have a lifestyle that no other state can provide. And it’s sad to see corporations and multimillionaires and billionaires leave for other states, not because they want to, but because they’re looking for fiscally responsible states for themselves.”
“There’s two things we know certain in life: Death and taxes will always be in existence, and it will always be a conversation. But I do believe that California residents, as well as the government, need to start coming together and there needs to be some fiscally smart decision-making when it comes to tax. Because the last thing we wanna do is lose both our big and small businesses to other states.”
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