California Dems Buck Newsom With Vote To Endorse Billionaire Wealth Tax

The California Police Chiefs Association has also come out against it.

Even SEIU California’s statewide executive board—the broader arm of the same union driving the campaign—recently voted to stay neutral.

California already maintains the nation’s highest top marginal income tax rate.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, ranked as the world’s fourth-richest person with an estimated net worth of around $267 billion, has now poured more than $100 million into efforts to defeat California’s proposed Billionaire Tax.

The latest contribution of $20 million went to Build a Better California, a group actively opposing the measure that could force him to hand over an estimated $13.3 billion in a one-time hit.

Prop 40, the so-called billionaire tax set for the November ballot, would slap a 5% levy on the net worth of roughly 200 ultra-wealthy residents of the Golden State.

Critics, however, see it as a classic left-wing wealth grab that punishes success and accelerates the exodus of job creators from an already overtaxed state.

Yet Newsom’s stance has done little to stop the measure from advancing, and competing ballot initiatives—backed by the same anti-tax coalition—could neutralize it if voters approve them.

One such proposal would mandate audits of any programs funded by new special taxes, potentially complicating or blocking the wealth tax’s implementation.

Brin’s massive spending reflects a broader rebellion among California’s tech elite against the state’s escalating tax-and-spend culture.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg recently purchased a $170 million mansion near Miami. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page have all relocated out of California in recent years.