Gavin Newsom Just Handed Every California Family a $1,000 Tax Bill on His Way Out the Door

October 24, 2026 Cat2, The Media
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Gavin Newsom spent seven years lecturing America about fairness while running the highest-taxed state in the country.

Now a new report just caught him signing 67 more tax hikes before he left Sacramento.

And Gavin Newsom just handed every California family a $1,000 tax bill on his way out the door.

$14.3 Billion Squeezed Out of the Most Taxed State in America

The California Tax Foundation just released its analysis of the 2025–26 legislative session, and the number is staggering.

Democrat lawmakers and Newsom approved measures that will raise taxes and fees by $14.3 billion annually – on top of what Californians were already paying.

California already holds the nation's highest gasoline tax at nearly 71 cents per gallon, the highest statewide base sales tax rate, and the highest top personal income tax rate at 13.3 percent.

The Tax Foundation ranks California 48th in the country for tax competitiveness.

Dead last among functional states.

California Tax Foundation research analyst Caitlin Herring put it plainly: "When the new taxes and fees approved this session are fully implemented, Californians will be paying $14.3 billion more to their state and local governments, on top of any additional taxes approved in the November election."

Then she said the quiet part out loud: "These new expenses will increase the cost of living in this state just as a new governor takes office and begins grappling with California's ongoing affordability problem."

Newsom created a financial disaster and handed it to his successor.

The foundation estimates that works out to roughly $1,000 more per California household per year.

Your Small Business Just Became His ATM

Senate Bill 122 – which Newsom signed into law on June 29, 2026 – taxes every piece of prewritten software in the state, including cloud-based business tools your employees use every day.

California was one of the last major economies to exempt that category from sales and use tax.

Newsom just ended that.

The full package – the software tax plus new caps on business tax credits – is projected to drain at least $9.17 billion annually from California businesses.

A second measure, Senate Bill 125, adds a new health plan tax on top of that, projected at another $2.3 billion per year.

Those two bills alone account for 80 percent of the $14.3 billion – signed and delivered before Newsom started his 2028 road trip.

The California Medical Association called the health plan tax illegal, arguing it violates Proposition 35 – a 2024 ballot measure that 68 percent of voters approved to limit exactly this kind of maneuver.

Voters said no.

Newsom taxed them anyway.

The Man Who Wants to Run America Already Drove His State Into the Ground

California has lost population every single year under Newsom's watch.

The IRS data shows California leading the nation in net taxpayer loss – one leaving every minute and 44 seconds.

More than 700,000 Californians fled to other states since 2020, with Nevada and Arizona – two states with lower taxes and less regulation – taking the most.

Chevron left for Houston.

Silicon Valley's biggest names decamped to Texas.

A polling firm found that even a sizable majority of California independents and a plurality of Democrats believed Newsom was more focused on his presidential ambitions than fixing his own state.

They were right.

Karl Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Newsom's record is a "major liability" – specifically his high taxes and "lackluster economy" – and that California "no longer has the quality of life that was long a gigantic magnet for jobs and commerce."

Newsom spent his final legislative session loading $14.3 billion in new taxes onto the backs of the people already fleeing his state, then hopped a flight to New Hampshire to campaign alongside Senate candidates – while California's affordability crisis burned behind him.

He is not running from his record.

He is running toward your wallet.

Sources:

  • California Tax Foundation, "2025–26 Legislative Session Tax and Fee Analysis," California Tax Foundation, October 2026.
  • Tax Foundation, "2026 California Tax Rates, Collections, and Burdens," Tax Foundation, 2026.
  • Debra Saunders, "Two Californians Are Eyeing a White House Run in 2028. Republicans Rejoice," The Daily Signal, December 13, 2025.
  • Karl Rove, Opinion, The Wall Street Journal, 2025.
  • RSM US, "California Expands Sales Tax to Electronically Delivered Software," RSM US, 2026.