CALIFORNIA — Tech billionaires have spent hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of California’s 2 June primary election to oppose a proposed 5% one-time tax on billionaires that will appear on the November ballot. The ballot measure’s proceeds would fund education, food assistance, and healthcare programs.
Sergey Brin has contributed $66 million since January to campaigns opposing the billionaire tax, according to campaign finance filings with California’s secretary of state. Brin, who moved from California to Nevada in late 2023, also spent $500,000 in San Francisco in May to oppose a local 2 June ballot measure that would expand a tax on high-paid CEOs. He donated the maximum allowable individual contribution of $78,400 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan and gave $1 million to the pro-Mahan Super PAC 'Deliver for California.'
Chris Larsen has funded three Super PACs with $26 million to influence California races, including a $1 million donation supporting a candidate for state insurance commissioner. Google and Meta jointly contributed $10 million to a Super PAC backing assembly and senate candidates in state legislative districts. Tech-backed PACs are also sponsoring voter guides recommending how to vote on local tax measures in city primaries, and voters from Oakland to Bakersfield to Orange County have been targeted with TV ads, robotexts, and mailers from these groups.
Mahan, who has received nearly $50 million in contributions since launching his campaign in late January, is the top-funded gubernatorial candidate aside from Tom Steyer’s self-funded bid. His donors include current and former executives from Google, Amazon, Snap, eBay, PayPal, Stripe, LinkedIn, DoorDash, Reddit, Netflix, Palantir, Anduril, Roblox, and Riot Games.
“I’m not running for tech, and if you look at my record – I’ve been in public office now for six years – I think you’d be hard pressed to find – you would not find a single example of me ever doing something to benefit the industry to the detriment of the community. If anything, I’ve fought hard to get them to do their fair share,” Mahan said.
State assembly members from Mahan’s district criticized him as being “handpicked” by the tech industry. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Labor Federation, said she is not promoting Mahan because she is “opposed to the candidate funded by Trump’s big tech billionaires.” Francesco Trebbi, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “This money is flowing in the direction of politicians that can be influential in defining the regulatory agenda for the next five years. Reinforcing the cycle of economic power produces political power, and political power further establishes economic power. So, this cycle is ongoing.” He added, “These people are sophisticated political givers, so they will use both visible and invisible forms of influence. What we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.”