The latest Silicon Valley billionaire club is a $333 million political ad machine that is heavily engaged in next week’s elections.
Page F128From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 27 October 2026
THE LEDGER
Newsom endorses cancelling California's billionaire tax and banning the next one; the $333 million ad machine is redundant
Two hundred and fifty Californians hold two point three trillion dollars, and Proposition 40 asks the state to take five per cent of it once. Once — one-time, the measure says, a single levy. Ninety per cent of the proceeds to healthcare, the rest to schools and food. Up to a hundred billion dollars. You are waiting for the lawsuit. There is no need of one. In August the advertising opened, from groups behind which sit Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel: Building a Better California, and Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes, a handsome name. By this week the Silicon Valley club is a three hundred and thirty-three million dollar machine working next week's elections. Three hundred and thirty-three. Forbids. And what does a prohibition do that a counter-argument does not? It binds the legislature that comes after, and the legislature that comes after is not asked. Debru Carthan, of the healthcare workers' union leading the campaign: "He's showing California his true colors." The vote is the third of November. Ninety per cent of a hundred billion dollars was healthcare.
Next spring, no hens. Under the neighbour's floor, the fox makes a den.
“Two hundred and fifty people are sitting on two point three trillion dollars, they get asked for five percent one time, and the answer is a three hundred and thirty-three million dollar ad machine. Ninety percent of that tax was healthcare money — and the governor of the same party as the people who wrote it endorsed the measure that cancels it and bans the next one. They keep telling you there's no money for clinics. The money's right there, and in seven days it gets fenced off.”
“Look, a one-time tax on 250 people is still a tax on the job creators who fund this entire state, and nobody purchased that second ballot measure — the governor endorsed it himself, which is exactly my point. Did I say purchased? That doesn't sound like me. The ads are speech, three hundred and thirty-three million dollars of speech, and if voters agree with the speech, that's democracy.”
Earlier in this story
- Israel lobby routed $13.1 million under other groups' names; the open question is a registration form By Sterling · the evening edition, 27 October 2026
- The Treasury secretary told a House committee the department is examining whether it needs Congress at all to mail the $5,000 the president promised adults for keeping Congress Republican, in the same week 750,000 people lost their health coverage with no vote required. By Mitch · the midnight edition, 4 October 2026
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…
· Newsom Endorses Ballot Measure That Would Cancel Out Billionaire Tax—and Ban Future Wealth Taxes from the morgue, 11 Oct 2026
· Billionaire-Backed Groups Launch Ad Blitz Against California Wealth Tax from the morgue, 25 Aug 2026
· Newsom battles with California Democrats over billionaire tax proposal from the morgue, 13 Oct 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.