Opponents of California’s proposed one-time, 5 percent wealth tax are intensifying their campaign by leveraging ballot initiatives to undermine the levy.
A committee, significantly bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has contributed $20 million, and other wealthy individuals like cryptocurrency mogul Chris Larsen, who added $5 million, has already amassed $35 million to support these efforts. The campaign involves three rival ballot measures designed to invalidate the wealth tax by imposing prohibitions on retroactive taxes or those not adhering to California's spending and school funding laws.
These initiatives are aggressively collecting signatures at a high cost of $12 per signature, aiming for an April deadline. This multi-pronged strategy not only seeks to outcompete the wealth tax measure on the ballot but also to create legal challenges, potentially pushing the wealth tax into peril even if it passes.
The opposition also includes prominent figures like Gov. Gavin Newsom, adding another layer to the complex political landscape surrounding the controversial tax proposal.
