Fight against billionaire tax in California

The amount of money that their opponents are now mobilizing shows how much money is at stake in the dispute over a billionaire tax in the US state of California. Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently spent another $20 million to support an initiative that opposes the tax. This emerges from a donation receipt that the US magazine “Fortune” writes about.

All in all, a handful of billionaires have spent more than $156 million on “Building a Better California,” as the Los Angeles Times reports. According to reports, Brin alone is said to have provided a large part of the budget. The initiative uses its financial influence, among other things, to lobby against the introduction of a five percent tax on billionaires' assets, which is being discussed in California.

As a first step, according to the LA Times report, “Building a Better California” invested five million dollars in a campaign directly against the tax. However, the initiative had previously invested a three-digit million sum in two competing votes that either weakened the new tax or ultimately nullified it.

The state's population is scheduled to vote on the tax on November 3rd of this year. The aim of the levy is to raise $100 billion for the ailing healthcare system within five years. Left-wing politicians like Bernie Sanders support the new tax, as do some unions.

But the representatives of the Democratic Party, who are ideologically more open to the initiative, are deeply divided. The Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, fears that the tax could cause billionaires to leave the state - and their tax revenue will therefore be completely lost. The Democratic successor candidate Xavier Becerra also rejects the plans.

In an open letter from which the "LA Times" quotes, several Democratic representatives are said to have written: "This measure is well-intentioned, but it will tear a huge hole in our state budget in the coming years." Representatives of teachers and firefighters, for example, are also against a new tax.

In recent months, some prominent super-rich people have already begun to withdraw from California. Google co-founder Larry Page is said to have relocated the company behind his family fortune to the US state of Delaware. The controversial US investor Peter Thiel has long since moved his company to Florida, but recently even considered moving abroad.