Billionaires Tax Closer To California Ballot, Here’s Who Has Already Left

ToplineBillionaire Google co-founder and ex-California resident Sergey Brin has said he’s adamantly opposed to a proposed one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of California residents (and has spent $57 million to fight it) because he fears it will lead the state down a similar socialist path as that of the former Soviet Union, which his family fled when he was 6 years old. Sergey Brin and his girlfriend Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto, a Trump-supporting influencer, at the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026.Getty ImagesKey FactsBrin, who has moved from a backer of liberal causes to a supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, told the New York Times in a rare statement: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union.

I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”The proposed tax would apply to California residents with assets worth at least $1.1 billion and has pushed a number of bold-faced billionaires, including Brin, to leave the state.The union leading the effort on Tuesday said it had collected nearly 1.6 million signatures of support, twice as many as the 875,000 it needs to get the measure on the November ballot, and has submitted them to election officials for verification. Supporters say the tax is needed to compensate for federal healthcare funding cuts (about 90% of the tax would be used for public health services) but opponents, including Democratic California Gov.

Original reporting: Forbes.