Google billionaire Sergey Brin's money fuels $50 million week against California wealth tax

A campaign group bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent more than $50 million in the past week to defeat California's proposed tax on billionaires, as a new poll showed the measure falling behind days before the Nov. 3 vote.

Building a Better California, the committee Brin set up with former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, raised more than $58 million in the first 17 days of October alone and $164 million since the start of September, according to state campaign finance filings. Brin has given the group $102 million. Schmidt and John Doerr, the venture capitalist who was an early backer of Google and Amazon.com Inc., have each put in more than $40 million.

"We are sprinting, not strolling, through the finish line," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the No on 40 campaign.

At least 15 of the 53 people who gave to the group this month had no record of donating in state politics before. The main committee backing Proposition 40 has raised $32.7 million over 10 months, nearly all of it from the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the health care workers' union that wrote the measure.

Polls turn against the tax

A University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released on Thursday found 50% of likely voters opposed the tax and 42% supported it, with 8% undecided. The survey of 1,477 likely voters was taken from Oct. 19 to Oct. 25. Six weeks earlier, the same poll had the tax ahead 45% to 42%.

"A well-funded no side campaign usually has the advantage over yes campaigns," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley poll.

A separate survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, taken from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22, found 46% of likely voters in favor and 52% against. Support had been 52% in the institute's September poll. Mark Baldassare, who runs the survey, said "most Californians still say they want to tax the wealthy," but are "not convinced that this is the right way to tax the wealth now."

Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff at SEIU-UHW, called the opponents' spending "as obscene as it is revealing."

Two rival measures

Proposition 40 would charge a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California residents worth more than $1 billion who lived in the state on Jan. 1, 2026. The union says it would raise about $100 billion, mostly for Medi-Cal, the state's health program for low-income residents. Governor Gavin Newsom opposes it, while U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has campaigned for it.

Much of the money from Brin's group has gone to two other measures on the same ballot. Proposition 41 would require audits of new special taxes and limit how their revenue is spent, and Proposition 42 would ban new state taxes on personal property such as investments and business stakes. Either could cancel the billionaire tax if both pass and the rival measure gets more votes. The public policy institute's poll put Proposition 42 at 51% support and Proposition 41 at 48%. The Berkeley poll showed both slightly ahead.

Brin's group has now spent more than $300 million in the campaign, including about $144 million on advertising, most of it in September and October, and $99 million on gathering signatures for Propositions 41 and 42. Billionaires have spent a record $612 million on California's state elections this year, about half of it on the fight over the wealth tax.

Brin, 53, is one of the world's richest people, with most of his fortune in shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. He listed his residence as Reno, Nevada, on one of his recent contributions.