Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin are gaming California's Prop 40
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
As billionaires use stock deals and millions in spending to dodge a 5% wealth tax, California voters must decide if healthcare is worth more than oligarchs' hoards.
I grew up in Flint, Michigan, where the distance between the rich and the ruined is measured in blocks. I see that same concentrated greed now in California. Proposition 40 is a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires with at least $1bn. It is a necessary strike against a class of people who treat the public treasury like a suggestion.
A lifeline for the vulnerable
The goal is simple. The tax aims to raise $100bn to offset federal funding cuts to California's healthcare system. These cuts come from US President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill. Suzanne Jimenez of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West calls the measure a "short-term solution." She warns that "if we do nothing, we're going to see a collapse of our healthcare system, while we figure out a longer-term solution to fund our healthcare."
California is a land of extremes. It has the largest economy in the US. It is the fourth largest global economy. Yet it also has the largest share of homeless people in the US. This is the ledger of the modern American dream: unimaginable wealth for a few and a sidewalk for the many.
The oligarchs' playbook
The billionaires are not taking this lying down. They are using their hoarded fortunes to buy their way out of accountability. According to the BBC, Sergey Brin gave more than $100m to a political organisation to block the tax. He is not the only one. Billionaires have reportedly left the state to avoid the tax. Don Hankey said the measure made him feel "a little bit like I wasn't wanted."
Then there is Mark Zuckerberg. He could owe as much as $12.5bn if the tax passes. Instead of paying, he went to his board. Meta agreed to a new stock deal to offset his losses. Zuckerberg is not just avoiding a tax; he is using his corporate power to insulate himself from the democratic will.
Even Governor Gavin Newsom opposes the measure. He fears wealthy residents will leave and take their income tax revenue with them. It is a surrender to the threat of the rich.
The myth of the God-given right
The billionaires claim they are the "ultimate American Dream," as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang puts it. But that dream is a lie when it requires the collapse of healthcare to maintain. Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned for Prop 40 in Los Angeles. He says billionaires "believe, like the monarchs of the 19th Century, that they have a God-given right to rule."
The opposition relies on the threat of flight. The Norway wealth tax increase proves the mechanism here: the flight of the ultra-wealthy to low-tax jurisdictions as a direct response to wealth taxes targeting the extreme percentile. In 2022, more super-wealthy people left Norway than in the preceding 13 years combined.
The billionaires want us to believe this flight is inevitable. But the cost of their flight is smaller than the cost of a collapsed healthcare system.
The polls are tight. A Citrin-POLITICO poll found 46% in favor and 43% opposed. Jon Cohen of TrueDot notes that while Californians think billionaires should pay more, "it doesn’t translate so easily into them voting for this tax."
Meanwhile, 72% of Californians believe the gap between rich and poor is widening. Voters in Washington state are fighting a similar battle with a "millionaires tax."
If Proposition 40 fails, California lawmakers will likely drop any future statewide wealth tax proposals for a decade. They will retreat to regressive consumption or payroll taxes that hit working families hardest. Justice requires that the people who built their fortunes on the backs of workers and consumers pay to keep the clinics open. Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin do not deserve a special stock deal or a tax haven; they owe the state a debt that is long overdue.