If the state were to tax Page’s $260 billion net worth at 5%, it would rake in $13 billion in tax revenue. Brin’s taxes would bring in about $12 billion. While Thiel, Kalanick, and Hankey may not rank among the top five richest men in the world, together they would have generated $1.775 billion.
The loss of a fourth of the proposed tax revenue is a major hit to the initiative, which intends to use the funds toward health care, education, and food assistance.
Billionaires in and outside of California are working to fight the tax, which has been a harbinger for more wealth taxes across the country.
Two billionaire-backed political action committees, Stop the Squeeze and Golden State Promise, have launched to stop the proposal.
“We’ve got more millionaires and billionaires than we’ve ever had, and they’re paying, effectively, a 4% tax rate,” Rep. Brianna Thomas, of Seattle, a Democrat who supported the measure, previously told Fortune. “Meanwhile, you got working folks paying 11% of their income, and the lowest-income people paying 14%. Isn’t it unfair for those who have the most, to pay the least, and those who have the least to pay, the most, proportionally?”
