Sergey Brin Defends Prosperity: $102 Million Donation to Fight Punitive California Billionaire Tax
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Google co-founder Sergey Brin has contributed over $100 million to defend job creators and innovators from a punitive tax that threatens California’s economic future.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and a leading figure in American innovation, has contributed $102 million to Building a Better California, a political action committee standing up against Proposition 40—a measure that would unfairly target California’s 200 billionaires with a one-time 5% tax. Brin’s significant contribution makes him the largest individual donor to the anti-tax campaign, which has raised more than $187 million to protect economic growth and investment, while proponents of the tax have only managed to collect about $32 million.
Proposition 40, set for the November ballot, would siphon 90% of the tax revenue into the state’s bloated healthcare system and the remaining 10% to education, food assistance, and administrative overhead. With a net worth near $260 billion, Brin could be forced to hand over $13 billion if this measure passes—a clear example of government overreach targeting successful Americans.
Other prominent tech investors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have also joined the fight to protect California’s economic engine from destructive taxation. Governor Gavin Newsom has rightly warned that this levy could drive away the very people who fund education, public safety, and social services, ultimately shrinking the state’s tax base.
Brin, who now resides in Nevada to escape California’s increasingly hostile tax climate, has reportedly purchased a $51 million home near Miami Beach. Analysts note that even if six billionaires identified as likely to relocate left California, they would generate about $27 billion in state tax revenue, but their annual income-tax payments in California are only $4.1 billion—just 0.2% of their combined $2 trillion net worth. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper estimates that even a mass exodus of the state’s wealthiest would take decades to offset the projected $100 billion revenue from the tax over five years. Proposition 40 is a reckless attack on prosperity that threatens California’s future.