Billionaires buy California's democracy as Proposition 40 slips
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
As Proposition 40 slips in the polls, California billionaires spend lavishly to defeat the wealth tax, leaving working families to shoulder the devastating human cost of federal healthcare cuts.
The price of a billionaire's panic
Follow the money downward and you find the exact price tag of a democracy for sale. A new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and covered by The Mercury News, reveals that support for Proposition 40 has slipped to 45% of likely voters. That drop is no accident of public mood. It is the direct product of an advertising onslaught funded by opponents of the measure. Proposition 40 proposes a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. It is designed to raise funds for healthcare programs, education, and food assistance to compensate for impending federal healthcare funding cuts.
The panic among the ultra-rich is palpable. They are using every tool in the oligarch's playbook to protect their hoards. Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, abandoned California for Nevada and moved limited liability companies to dodge the levy. Brin poured $102 million into 'Building a Better California' to fund opposition and sponsor counter-measures Proposition 41 and Proposition 42. Eric Schiffer, chairman of family office Patriarch and CEO of Reputation Management Consultants, told Fox Business that the tax would create a "giant sucking sound" of entrepreneurs leaving the state. Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley poll, told the Times that the asset tax is new and risky. Voters are expressing caution amidst the confusion sown by this corporate cash.
The bipartisan shield for dynastic wealth
The strongest opposing case against Proposition 40 comes from Governor Gavin Newsom and cautious institutional leaders. They argue that taxing accumulated assets is unprecedented and risks driving capital out of the state, destabilizing long-term public finances. But this defense of the status quo collapses under the weight of the state's actual ledger. Newsom, whose early business ventures were backed by billionaire heir Gordon Getty, officially opposes the wealth tax. Billionaires like Brin can simply pack up their LLCs and flee to avoid contributing to the public common good. This proves that the system is rigged to protect dynastic wealth at the expense of working families.
The threat to everyday Californians is immediate and brutal. Ninety percent of Proposition 40 revenue is earmarked for state healthcare programs like Medi-Cal. The rest goes to education and food assistance. If this tax fails, the burden of the $100 billion federal funding cliff will land squarely on the zip codes that can least afford it. That mirrors the devastation left in the wake of the 2008 financial crash that stripped my neighbors of their homes. Occupy Wall Street protested extreme wealth concentration and the use of political power to protect the financial elite. Ordinary Californians are now locked in a populist struggle against oligarchs who believe their fortunes are above the law. Meanwhile, voters have shown stronger support for Proposition 3, which makes permanent an existing income-tax increase to fund schools and healthcare. The public wants the wealthy to pay their share when the choice is laid bare without billionaire obfuscation.
The verdict on extracted fortunes
The historical pattern is clear. Whenever working people attempt to tax extreme wealth, the billionaire class deploys its capital to manufacture confusion. They fund deceptive ballot measures like Propositions 41 and 42, and threaten capital flight to preserve untaxed fortunes. To win this time, undecided voters would have to break decisively for the labor-backed initiative despite a flood of opposition cash. But the deck is stacked. The human cost of protecting these fortunes is paid in closed clinics, gutted classrooms, and denied care. These fortunes were built on the infrastructure of our public roads, schools, and internet. Justice would require that they pay at the rate the local hardware store does. Proposition 40 will likely fail under the weight of a $100 million opposition blitz. Working families will absorb the blow of federal healthcare cuts while billionaires hoard their fortunes in tax havens.