A Google founder has more than doubled his financial contribution to the fight against a proposed wealth tax in California. New filings with the state show that former Alphabet president Sergey Brin donated $25m to a Super Pac dedicated to blocking the tax on top of $20m he had already given.
Brin is not alone among Google’s top brass in upping his financial stake in the campaign against the ballot proposal. The company’s former CEO Eric Schmidt donated $1.02m, adding to a previous $2m contribution.
The tech titans are battling the California Billionaire Tax act, often referred to simply as the billionaire tax. It’s a proposed ballot measure that would require any California resident worth more than $1bn to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state. It’s sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, and is still in the signature-gathering phase.
If the measure reaches the ballot and gains voters’ approval, the tax would apply to billionaires based on their residency as of 1 January 2026. For Brin, worth about $247bn, the bill would likely be upwards of $12bn. That stipulation appears to have caused him and several other billionaires to leave California at the end of last year. Brin relocated to a $42m estate on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada, and his Pac donations show Reno as his address. Schmidt’s filings show his address as West Hollywood.
there are no good billionaire. the whole concept of billionaire is utterly antisocial
It’s also anti democratic. Giving a few people that much power, is 100% against democratic principles.
It is however perfectly in line with an oligarchy dictatorship.Swifties would disagree.
So?
Who gives a fuck what they think?
Millions of fans of mediocre pop music?
Every Swiftie I know has the most basic music taste I have ever seen. It’s always the usual crap they play on the radio and never anything beyond that.
This tax is stupid IMO, it shouldn’t be one time, but 1% every year.
I’ll take the 5% though, better than nothing.Once upon a time this guy would have paid 94% in federal taxes. The math would have literally worked against him … he could pay workers more and give them benefits to lose his money or just lost the money in taxes.
This style tax scale is what got one guy elected FOUR TIMES as President of the US.Once upon a time this guy would have paid 94% in federal taxes
Federal income taxes. It’s an important distinction between wealth taxes and income taxes. The problem with billionaires isn’t what they’re willing to admit to in income, it’s what they’re able to do with their vast wealth.
Yup, the first so much of his earnings would have been lower rates, after the amount surpasses thresholds, the rate increases on that part, reaching 90 some percent on obscene amounts.
They don’t take wages now though, they get like stock options, then borrow against their stock holdings, borrowing more to pay off the old, never realizing a gain to pay taxes. As per Propublica’s reporting.
it’s almost like their should be capital interest tax and loan resurgence limits, that require a federal application and limits on how it can be used (like home and auto loans are)
It is an easy fix yes, borrow against value to get money, get taxed on it, at least sometimes. Other fixes are needed. Thiel packed paypal shares into an IRA and walked away with billions tax free I guess.
We should allow individuals to tax themselves like a corporation too, subtract all of our expenses from our earnings and pay taxes on the remainder, then find taxes from those that can afford them, like the rich.
I have heard a few people talk sanely about the tax and the more I hear the more ridiculous this one time “fee” sounds.
I heard a far better proposal about closing the tax loopholes they use. Wealthy folks are borrowing tax free against unrealized capital gains. They pay little to no tax on it.
It’s not sexy but it’s a way better solution because not only does it tax the people who need to be taxed, it also begins to help people push back against capital being more powerful than labour.
It’s also far less costly to implement. You borrow against unrealized capital gains to live as if it were income - boom income tax.
Better once than not at all. It doesn’t preclude better solutions in the future.
I don’t disagree with you on principle - but I worry what with attention and nuance being nonexistent these days we end up with “we tried it once and it didn’t work” - and never get to a better solution.
I recently heard a possible California governor candidate talk good sense on better ways to tax the wealthy and he made a very reasoned argument against this tax - it changed my mind. Note: am not American.
Pay $45m. Trying to not be taxed…
45 milly to not pay 12 billy seems reasonable.
Dude is worth a quarter of a trillion
He can afford to spend 12.5bn on stopping this before he’s losing money
Frankly I’d be campaigning on this if I was an advocating politician of the bill. “He is willing to burn this money rather than pay a fair share into public finances to benefit everyone”
He has already left the state to avoid the tax according to the article. So he’ll pay nothing even if it passes. I suspect he’s funding the measure simply because he doesn’t want this to start some sort of nationwide precedent.
“The $45m he spent to fight this would’ve allowed us to renovate this school. The $12b he’d owe would let us renovate 100 schools. Or get X thousand of the homeless off the streets. Or fixed 10 million potholes.”
Make his name responsible for those things not happening.
