Voters are about to decide if the mega-rich among them should hand over billions of dollars to pay for improvements to healthcare.
Page F125From§Eachthe evening edition — 24 October 2026
California billionaires bankroll ad campaign to defeat tax on California billionaires
As it ran on the front
Proposition 40 asks about 250 people in California to hand over 5 percent of their net worth, one time, to fund the state's health care system. Two of those 250 — Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel — are already paying. Just not into the account the measure names.
In August, Common Dreams reported that groups backed by mega-billionaires, including Brin and Thiel, had launched an advertising blitz against the measure, run through two organizations: Building a Better California and Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes.…
…(cont) By September, the fight had drawn a letter from Nobel-winning economists calling the measure "a turning point in the battle between democracy and oligarchy." The same dispatch that carried their quote also reported the measure polling at 52 percent — a number from the reporting, not from the letter, sitting next to it in the same piece.
Roughly 250 Californians hold an estimated $2.3 trillion in combined wealth. A one-time 5 percent tax on it could raise up to $100 billion. Ninety percent of that goes to healthcare; the rest splits between education and food assistance. The tax reaches 250 names. The ad campaign against it was funded, in part, by two of those same names.
Voters decide this on November 3 — ten days from today. Until then, some of the people Proposition 40 would tax are paying to make sure it doesn't pass, under organization names that describe themselves as fighting waste.
The gap here isn't complicated, hon. It's the gap between what a measure is called and whose money shows up opposing it. Building a Better California doesn't put Brin's or Thiel's name on its letterhead. Proposition 40 doesn't put their names on the ballot either — it just sets a threshold, $1 billion in net worth, that both men clear by a wide margin.
Ten days out, the ledger reads the way ledgers usually read. The tax has a target list. So does the opposition's checkbook. They are the same list.
“Two guys named Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel are bankrolling ads telling the rest of us that taxing billionaires is a bad idea, and wouldn't you know it, they're billionaires. The group calls itself "Californians Against Wasteful Spending" — turns out the waste they mean is their own money going toward somebody else's hospital bill. Ten days before the vote, and the only people spending real money on this fight are the 250 people who'd have to write the check.”
“This isn't about protecting two guys' net worth, it's about protecting California's tax base from capital flight — wealthy people leave states that tax them, that's just basic economics. Though I guess if they were planning to leave, they wouldn't still be here funding ad campaigns to stop the tax... did I say that? Forget I said that. The point is uncertainty is bad for business, full stop.”
The receipts
As voters across the United States cast ballots on November 3, Californians are weighing whether to approve a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires in the state. The tax would apply to roughly 250 Californians who now hold an estimated $2.3 trillion in wealth. Supporters say the wealth tax could raise up to $100 billion, with…
· Nobel-Winning Economists Say California Billionaire Tax Could Be ‘Turning Point in the Battle Between Democracy and Oligarchy’ from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Billionaire-Backed Groups Launch Ad Blitz Against California Wealth Tax from the morgue, 25 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.