The issue of extra tax for the super-rich dies is explained after California's no

Vote counting in California is notoriously slow. Only late Monday evening, almost a week after the mid-term elections, could a winner be chosen in the state's high-profile referendum on a "billionaires' tax".

It was rejected by the voters, with a fairly clear margin of around six percentage points.

The proposed tax was designed as a one-time five percent fee that California's roughly 200 dollar billionaires would pay. The revenue would be earmarked, primarily to fund health care that has been eroded by Donald Trump's tax reforms at the federal level.

It was therefore a tax on wealth, not on income - which would be something completely new in the United States.

The stalwart of the American left, Senator Bernie Sanders, called this referendum the most important of all on Election Day. He traveled several times to California and held well-attended rallies for the yes side.

And for a long time the opinion polls indicated that it would be a yes.

Similar proposals have been floated in other states. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is among those who advocate "taxing the rich." Many have believed that this could be a winning issue for a Democratic presidential candidate in the next election in 2028.

But the conclusion many now draw is that the issue is dead, at least for the time being. If even the voters of liberal California aren't for it, who are?

Democrats have been divided on the issue. Both outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and incoming Xavier Becerra have said no, arguing the tax would drive tech billionaires out of California.

This has also already happened to some extent. Google founder Sergey Brin moved already last December across Lake Tahoe, from the Californian side to the low-tax state of Nevada.

He has also pumped an estimated 100 million dollars, equivalent to one billion kroner, into campaigns for the no side in the referendum. Several other billionaires have also invested large sums of money in stopping the tax.

- The billionaires must have bought themselves a temporary victory at the ballot box. But they have not been able to buy an end to this debate. This is just the first round, Suzanne Jimenez, a union leader who has been active on the yes side, told NBC.