Google co-founder spends almost half a billion dollars in fight against California billionaire tax

Sergey Brin, former Alphabet president, doubled his financial opposition to California's Billionaire Tax Act by donating an additional $25 million to a Super Pac, bringing his total to $45 million. Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, added $1.02 million to his previous $2 million contribution. The proposed ballot measure would tax California residents worth over $1 billion at 5% on their assets to fund education, food assistance, and healthcare. For Brin, valued at approximately $247 billion, the tax could exceed $12 billion. The billionaires' opposition prompted some to relocate; Brin moved to Nevada. The Super Pac, Building a Better California, supports a competing measure banning retroactive taxes to undermine the billionaire tax 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."

"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."

"Brin donated $20m to Building a Better California in January, bringing his total donations to the Pac to $45m. The Super Pac that Brin and Schmidt most recently donated to is called Building a Better California. It's dedicated to sponsoring a separate ballot measure that would kneecap the billionaire tax by banning retroactive taxes."

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