France

California lawmakers are considering a proposed 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires ahead of a vote, a measure that critics argue could drive out wealthy residents and ultimately cost the state tens of billions in lost revenue, according to a Hoover Institution study. Gov. Gavin Newsom has opposed the proposal. Commentators have drawn comparisons to France, where high taxes and expansive welfare and pension commitments have fueled unrest and economic stagnation, raising questions for other jurisdictions considering similar tax-the-rich policies as a long-term revenue strategy.

The debate comes as prediction markets watch California's fiscal policy and the broader 2026 midterm landscape, where tariffs, foreign policy, and corruption allegations could shape control of Congress.

As Texas rolls out its new Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA) program, Arizona's decade-plus of experience with universal Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offers a preview of what's ahead. Arizona expanded its voucher-style program statewide in 2022 after starting narrowly in 2011, growing from roughly 11,000 to 108,000 participants without a proportional increase in state oversight staff.

Supporters, including microschool operators like Phoenix's School to Purpose, say ESAs let families find alternatives that fit children who struggled in traditional classrooms. Critics, including advocacy group Save Our Schools Arizona and Deer Valley superintendent Curtis Finch, point to fraud and misuse concerns, weak academic accountability for private schools and microschools, and enrollment losses draining public school funding. State superintendent Tom Horne disputes the scale of fraud, calling it minimal, and argues parental choice itself serves as the accountability mechanism.

The debate matters for Texas as its own program scales up: whether existing oversight capacity and accountability requirements can keep pace with rapid enrollment growth, and how public school districts absorb the financial impact of departing students.
Arizona's years-long ESA experiment offers Texas a preview of the tradeoffs between school choice, oversight and public school funding.

Connecticut's inaugural citizens' assembly is set to release its conclusions on September 28, capping six weeks of deliberation by 100 randomly selected, representative residents tasked with tackling property tax reform. Participants heard from experts, debated among themselves, and will vote on a preferred solution, following a model used in Ireland, France, Belgium, and Mongolia to address contentious policy questions outside traditional electoral politics.

Organizers plan to extend the process after November's election by moving the assembly's findings onto an open-source deliberation platform called "Frankly," inviting the broader public to review and discuss the group's conclusions online. The approach is designed to address the central legitimacy challenge facing citizens' assemblies — since members aren't elected — by opening the results to wider public scrutiny rather than reducing them to a simple referendum. Advocates, including Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, argue the model could offer a template for reducing partisan gridlock in future policymaking efforts elsewhere if the Connecticut experiment proves successful.