California's richest residents aren't just watching Proposition 40; they're mounting one of the most lavish political counteroffensives the state has ever seen. At stake: a proposed one-time 5% levy on billionaire wealth to fund health care. At the center of the pushback is Building a Better California, a nonprofit and allied PAC that's raked in more than $333 million from about 80 donors, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and investor John Doerr, the New York Times reports. In an internal memo seen by the Times, organizers stressed that non-billionaire supporters should be "the face" of the group's efforts.
Weekly strategy calls, secret memos, stock donations to avoid capital-gains taxes, and big ad buys are all part of the playbook. The group is not only trying to kill Prop 40 but also backing Prop 42, a separate measure designed to effectively block future wealth taxes even if 40 passes, the Times reports. The Times' sources say Schmidt opposes the multi-measure strategy, but he has still donated more than $40 million to the group, making him the second-largest donor, behind Brin.
- Brin has donated more than $100 million to the group, but he hasn't donated since July. The Times reports that his advisers want other donors to step up, though the donations haven't made much of a dent in a net worth estimated at more than $245 billion. "Brin giving $100 million is like a middle-class family splurging on a big night out at Olive Garden. It's nothing to him," San Francisco political consultant Eric Jaye says. "The amount of wealth being created is an order of magnitude above norms. This is what late-stage democracy looks like."
The anti-Prop 40 effort accounts for around half the record $612 million that billionaires have poured into state elections in California this year, Politico reports. Much of the other half came from Tom Steyer, a pro-Prop 40 billionaire who funded his own failed bid for governor. Read the full New York Times piece for more on who is funding Building a Better California, including numerous founders of tech firms. The group, which argues that the tax would "permanently damage the state's budget, tax base, and economy," aims to crush Prop 40 so convincingly that similar measures are not attempted in other states.
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