Silicon Valley Billionaires Spend $333 Million to Fight Wealth Tax

A coalition of Silicon Valley billionaires has launched a $333 million political campaign to defeat Proposition 40, a California ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires. The effort is organized by the nonprofit Building a Better California and led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who contributed $102 million to the cause.

Other primary backers include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who donated over $40 million, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr with $40 million, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, who provided $33 million. The group is employing a multi-pronged strategy that combines heavy spending on political advertising with support for Proposition 42, a countermeasure intended to ban all future wealth taxes in the state.

Internal documents indicate the campaign intends to use non-billionaire supporters as its public face to mitigate negative perceptions of the ultra-wealthy. The coalition aims for a decisive victory to discourage similar wealth-tax initiatives in other states. Governor Gavin Newsom opposes the measure but was unable to remove it from the ballot in June.