Et Tu, Spielberg?

Well, I didn’t see this one coming. Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful directors of all time and over his lifetime of hit films he’s made himself quite a substantial fortune. I’m taking this information from Google’s AI but he apparently has a net worth of $5 billion to $7 billion. The $7 billion estimate comes from Forbes but some estimates are higher at $10 billion. 

Whatever the exact amount, he definitely a billionaire. And while he has homes on both coasts he has mostly lived in California. 

Until now.

According to a report in the LA Times, Spielberg has moved to New York.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg recently moved to New York and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing purchasing a new property in Florida, stirring speculation about whether their decisions are tied to a proposed new tax on California billionaires to fund healthcare for the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Although a handful of prominent conservatives who bolted out of California noisily blamed their departure on the controversial wealth tax measure, as well as the state’s liberal ways and what they describe as cumbersome business regulations, neither Zuckerberg nor Spielberg has given any indication that the tax proposal is the reason for their moves.

A spokesperson for Spielberg, who has owned homes on both the East and West coasts since at least the mid-1990s, said the sole motivation for Spielberg and his wife, actor Kate Capshaw, decamping to Manhattan was to be near family.

“Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York based children and grandchildren,” said Terry Press, a spokesperson for the prodigious filmmaker.

I covered the Mark Zuckerberg thing already. It seems pretty clear that he is indeed moving to Miami. But the Spielberg move is news. And to be honest as I read the LA Times story, I got to that third and fourth paragraph above and I thought ‘Well, this might be unrelated to the wealth tax.’

But then I kept reading:

On Jan. 1, Spielberg and Capshaw officially became residents of New York City, settling in the historic San Remo co-op in Central Park West…On the same day, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment opened an office in New York City.

Come on now. Look, I’m not saying Spielberg (or his spox) are lying about why they moved. I believe he really wanted to be near his family. But don’t try to tell me that the Jan. 1 date of the move is a coincidence. That’s literally the deadline for the retroactive tax to take effect (assuming it makes it on the ballot and gets approved by the voters).

Forbes put together a video of how much the wealth tax might cost Spielberg if he stayed in California.

If you’re thinking about moving anyway, why not move so that you don’t also get hit with that $350 million tax bill? It sure looks like that’s what happened here.

Spielberg is a Democrat. He supported Kamala Harris and probably every other Democrat in every previous election. I’m sure that he’s fine with high taxes on income, like a lot of wealthy Democrats seem to be. 

But the wealth tax is a new thing. We haven’t had anything like this in California before and it’s a pretty big ask. Spielberg has (or had) a massive yacht called the Seven Seas that was nearly 300 feet long. (I found a story saying he was selling it but I don’t know if it ever sold.) In any case, some estimates say he paid around $250 million for the custom yacht. That’s a huge amount of money but it’s still substantially less than what this “one time” tax would cost him. It looks like he thinks that’s a bit much.

Clearly, Spielberg isn’t going to come out and say that he opposes the wealth tax and flip Bernie Sanders the bird on the way out of town. But actions speak louder than words. Add him to the list of billionaires leaving the state, at least in part—at least in the timing, to avoid this tax. And good for him. He’s done enough for everyone by making great moves for 50 years, including several of my personal favorites. Leave the man (and his money) alone and let him enjoy his grandkids.

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