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Tech billionaires have been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the fight against a wealth tax in California. They’ve raised more than $340m, and the campaign they’re funding is spending more than $1m a day to defeat the measure, according to state financial disclosures.

With the election less than a month away, those funds are being spent at a stepped-up pace. During the first 19 days of September, according to the most recent campaign filings, the opposition campaign plowed through at least $21.2m to fight the billionaire tax – surpassing $1m per day. Voters are being inundated with robotexts, mailers and advertisements that warn a tax on billionaires would “expose all Californians to higher taxes”, as one ad reads.

Californians will vote on the ballot measure, Proposition 40, in early November. If passed, it would require a one-time 5% tax on the state’s billionaires, with the proceeds mostly funding healthcare programs, along with some education and food assistance. The measure has divided Democrats in the state, with some giving enthusiastic support and others rejecting the proposal because it’s just a one-time levy and the bulk of it would only fund certain healthcare programs.

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[-] Asafum@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Don't worry though, these people will totally create the utopian society people claim AI will bring... Yeah... They'll definitely start sharing then, it's just right now that they're all Smeagol with their money...

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 22 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

And Greasy Gavin, who really really wants to be president, is helping these bastards. Remember that when the primary comes along, because if he becomes president he's going to do exponentially worse to the poor and middle class.

Important to note also that none of these fuckers are going to go poor because of this tax, and every damn one benefits inordinately from the public spend and should be paying their fair fucking share.

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Don't forget to also vote NO on 41 and 42 in addition to YES on 40 and tell others to as well.

That's the billionaires' sneaky way to try and pre-empt 40 by making the other two sound like untargeted bans on increasing tax on personal property.

It takes less than 3 months for the billionaires collectively to make the $100B back the tax would charge, without them doing any more or less work.

[-] y0kai@anarchist.nexus 10 points 9 hours ago

dipshits could've just spent that money on taxes...

[-] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Jokes on them, they're willingly paying the tax already, it's just being misattributed towards suppression instead of public good.

this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2026
115 points (100.0% liked)

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