How governor candidates would handle taxes and greenhouse gas
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Editor's note: This is part 3 of our series asking California gubernatorial candidates how they would address our state's most pressing issues. Go here for part 1 and here for part 2.
We posed your questions to the candidates for governor on high tax payers and greenhouse gas emissions.
The big picture: Below are their responses. The top two vote-getters in June will advance to the November runoff.
- We got responses from Democratic businessman Tom Steyer, fellow Democrat and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Republican political commentator Steve Hilton.
- Axios also reached out to Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Katie Porter, Tony Thurmond and Antonio Villaraigosa and did not get a response.
Q: How do you plan to keep the highest-tax paying Californians in the state?
Steyer thinks California has a two-tiered tax system where the wealthy exploit loopholes while working people pay their fair share. He would:
- 🔒 Close corporate loopholes to raise $20 billion in new annual revenue.
- 📚 Fund education, health care, child care and home care without raising taxes on working people.
Mahan thinks tax proposals that sound good politically often backfire economically.
- "Billionaires have the resources to move, shift assets, or hire lawyers and accountants to avoid poorly designed taxes," he told Axios. He would:
- 🎯 Close loopholes, like wealthy individuals borrowing against unrealized gains or hiding money offshore, rather than broad tax hikes that the rich can dodge.
Hilton thinks California needs to cut taxes and regulations to stay competitive. He would:
- 💵 Eliminate state income tax on the first $100,000 of income to help working-class Californians.
- 📉 Move to a flat 7.5% tax rate above that to keep and attract businesses.
Q: How will you ensure California meets its legal requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2035?
Steyer would:
- ☀️ Make home batteries, rooftop solar, heat pumps and EVs accessible to all Californians.
- 🔬 Continue California's leadership in climate R&D, clean energy technology and carbon sequestration.
Mahan would:
- ⚡ Fast-track clean energy, transmission and EV charging projects to support electrification without raising electricity costs.
- 🏘️ Build more housing near jobs and transit to reduce time spent in traffic.
Hilton would:
- 🚢 Reduce oil imports to cut emissions from supertanker shipping, one of the most polluting forms of transportation.
- 🌲 Improve forest management. "In 2020, more CO2 was emitted from those mega wildfires than was saved through climate policy in the previous 20 years," he said.