Sergey Brin's $102 million blocked a California billionaire tax
Proposition 42 leads with 51.6% of the vote to ban new state taxes on personal property and assets. Billionaires pay about $3 billion a year in state income tax.
Sergey Brin spent $102 million to sink California's proposed billionaire tax and wall off personal wealth from future levies. 10, according to Associated Press estimates published by KQED. The constitutional amendment bans new state taxes on business interests, intellectual property and financial assets.
Brin funded Building a Better California, a committee that put more than $300 million into defeating Proposition 40 and passing rival measures. Brin, who now lists a Nevada address, compared the proposed tax to the Soviet-era socialism he fled as a child.
Billionaires account for about $3 billion a year in state income tax, which is roughly 2.5% of income tax revenue, according to estimates by academics who helped write Proposition 40. Backers of Proposition 42 argued the measure protects ordinary pensions and savings from new taxes, while critics called it an expensive move to shield the state's richest residents.
California taxes investment gains only when an asset is sold, and Proposition 42 places that untapped wealth out of reach for lawmakers. Fortune reported the vote results.
Figures as reported by Fortune.
