Disagreements between a couple of Google billionaires over how to best fight California's so-called billionaire tax might just help the ballot initiative become law in November, according to a New York Post report this weekend — but there's so much more to it than that.
First, the basics. California Proposition 40 is billed as a one-time 5% tax on all wealth over ONE BILLION DOLLARS retroactive to Jan. 1, 2026. So if you're a billionaire who moved to Florida or Texas after that date, you're still on the hook should the measure pass.
It's a tax on the appraised value of all wealth — stocks, bonds, trusts, real estate, art, etc. — so the lawsuits promise to be epic.
It should also come as no surprise that various California billionaires aren't exactly fans of Pro. 40. Several — including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Palantir's Peter Thiel, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, and venture capitalist David Sacks — preemptively left California in 2025, before Prop. 40 even qualified for the ballot. Just in case. And of course they proved correct.
Anyway, Brin seems to understand Prop. 40's potential fallout better than most, which is why he founded Building a Better California to oppose it, and raised $118 million to fund the new organization — including a whopping $82 million of his own money.
Google's old CEO, Eric Schmidt, coughed up $3 million.
There's the rub.
And Another Thing: The Post described Prop. 40 as a "union-backed measure," but that might be unintentionally misleading. We aren't talking about working-class guys making steel or digging coal — as though Sacramento allows those things to happen any longer — but largely public sector unions drooling at the prospect of more state revenues. Plus devoted lefties looking to punish success.
"Some donors and advisers are growing frustrated that Building a Better California is suffering mission creep in its effort to reshape California politics," the New York Post reported Sunday, "by backing six different state ballot measures."
That's an awful lot of measures for an organization founded to fight against just one, and "some insiders are growing concerned that its spending in other areas, like environmental policy, could threaten its success."
But then things get weird.
Building Better contributed $10 in support of Prop. 45, "which would significantly streamline environmental reviews," in an effort to reduce housing and infrastructure costs. But Schmidt's wife, "environmental philanthropist" Wendy Schmidt, helps lead the campaign against Prop. 45 along with Jane Fonda.
More:
Along with past and future spending expected on Props. 40, 41, 42 and 45, Building a Better California has sent $6 million to Prop. 37, $1 million to Prop. 1 and millions more to another proposed constitutional tax-and-spending measure.
Other billionaire tax opponents are growing concerned by the group’s tactics.
“This is about not only what are you against,” a source told the Post, “but what are you for?”
If Brin had his act together, he'd focus like a laser on Prop. 40 because of confusing language buried in the initiative that could dip into the savings and retirement accounts of Californians worth far less than a billion dollars.
Prop. 40 allows the Legislature to adjust the tax to mortals of any net worth by a two-thirds vote, plus the governor’s signature, without requiring another ballot measure, so as long as the change is deemed “consistent with and furthers the purposes” of the proposition.
Since the whole purpose of Prop. 40 is to raise money for state healthcare and education spending, and health and education public unions pretty much own Sacramento, it's easy to see the Assembly doing pretty much whatever it wants, should the measure pass in November.
There is a lesson here, and it doesn't take a billion dollars to see it.
The question is whether California voters will learn it before the November election.
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