Mark Cuban slams California’s wealth tax proposal, says ‘if this passes, only idiot startup founders stay in Cali’

As figures like Democratic Representative Ro Khanna position the move as a way to “stand up for the working class over the billionaire class” — pitting the average American against the most financially successful, who they feel increasingly alienated from amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis — others, including Cuban, are raising alarms about key issues with the potential legislative changes, known as Proposition 40.

Why taxing billionaires can be difficult

In a lengthy X post, Cuban responded to Khanna’s latest video touting growing support of the bill and provided the democratic representative with a business lesson in the process.

“A unique feature of these 10b [$10 billion] startups is that even if they raise a billion, little, if any of that money goes to the founders, who are now worth billions of dollars overnight,” Cuban explained in his post. “They are the definition of cash poor, stock rich.

“How are you going to tax them?” Cuban continued. “Make them borrow money against their shares, if they can? They just raised money to grow their company and a bank will come along and loan them money? A company that has been in business maybe less than a year? Lol.”

While he prefaced his statement by saying he gets along well with Khanna, Cuban admitted he thinks “only idiot startup founders” will remain in the state if the tax ends up passing.

As someone who has become a household name by investing in budding businesses, the Shark Tank star added that, in that case, “you can bet if I’m investing in a multi-billion dollar startup, I’m asking them to move from California first.”