California business leaders have dropped a provocative new ad comparing November’s ballot measures to an explosive device.
The 60-second spot, released Wednesday on social media by the Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes coalition, deploys a fake bomb-squad raid to dramatize what it calls a looming “tax bomb.” The coalition operates as a project of the California Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs and top executives from some of the state’s largest employers across a combined workforce exceeding 500,000 employees.
The clip opens with civilians scrambling for cover as two armed men in “Bomb squad” uniforms sprint toward an apparent explosive. The target, per the ad’s framing, is the hundreds of state and local tax hikes California voters could face in November’s election. As officers close in, one warns that no resident will escape the impact.
“Every Californian is going to pay more.”
“With this big of a tax bomb nothing is safe. The entire state could get destroyed.”
The ad notes that roughly 2 million people have already “evacuated” — those who left California for states including Texas and Florida in recent years. The message identifies the culprit as “a group called the politicians,” accusing them of demanding more taxpayer money for “programs even if they all fail.” The spot concludes with a direct appeal: “No to higher taxes.”
Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, told The California Post the campaign aims to cut through voter apathy before Election Day.
“Just to get people’s attention that there’s a lot of taxes on the ballot on election day. The key is that they understand what’s coming,” he said.
Lapsley framed the proposed hikes as fundamentally contradictory to the political conversation around affordability. “We are the highest tax state in the country and all we are doing is continuing to pass taxes,” he continued. “Everybody talks about affordability and the cost of living but then all you do is see more taxes. And when you keep piling on more taxes all you do is make California more unaffordable.”
He tied the issue directly to employment, questioning whether businesses can sustain job creation and worker retention under continued fiscal pressure. The message he hoped viewers would absorb centers on “jobs and being able to grow jobs and keep California affordable for our employees.”
The coalition’s website argues Sacramento has already squandered substantial resources. “In the last five years, Sacramento blew through a $100 billion surplus on a reckless spending spree, with billions of taxpayer dollars lost to waste and fraud. State spending increased by 79% since 2019,” the site reads. “New taxes won’t solve the problem. They’ll make it worse by driving away jobs, revenue, and opportunity, ultimately hitting regular people and businesses the hardest.”
The California Business Roundtable is not alone in its offensive. Another business-backed group, the Coalition for California, has been pressing Sacramento on parallel spending criticisms. That organization contends that despite massive outlays, California still grapples with homelessness, deteriorating roads and underperforming schools.
The ad’s bomb-squad framing represents an escalation in business-community messaging tactics, moving from policy white papers to visceral visual metaphors designed for social media circulation. The coalition timed the release to maximize exposure as voters begin focusing on November’s ballot measures.
Lapsley said the broader concern extends beyond any single election cycle to the state’s competitive position nationally.