Key facts
- Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% levy on the assets of California's estimated 250 billionaires.
- Proponents projected the measure would raise about $100 billion, mostly earmarked for healthcare programs.
- Sergey Brin and at least 11 other billionaires gave a collective $269 million to Building a Better California, per state filings.
- That committee poured more than $300 million into campaigns opposing Prop 40 and backing two competing initiatives.
- Competing Proposition 42 had won 4.1 million votes, about 54% of ballots counted, versus 3.4 million yes votes for the billionaire tax.
- Incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said the panel would redouble efforts to ensure billionaires pay their fair share.
California's Proposition 40, a one-time 5% levy on the assets of the state's estimated 250 billionaires, was trailing in the count on November 4, 2026, after the November 3 vote. By that morning, 55.6% of counted ballots statewide opposed the measure, with 60% of the estimated vote counted, the AP reported. No major outlet had called the outcome.
The measure was drawing a narrow majority of counted ballots in Los Angeles County, the state's largest, but was down by double-digit margins in each of the next six largest counties, county voter registrar tallies showed. Voter rolls in the state favor Democrats over Republicans by a nearly two-to-one margin.
Proponents projected the measure would raise about $100 billion, most of it earmarked for healthcare programs facing billions of dollars in federal funding losses under last year's tax cut package, which passed the US Senate with Republican-only support. Opponents argued the tax would drive the ultrawealthy from the state along with their income-tax payments and job-producing enterprises, and discourage entrepreneurs from building startups in California.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and at least 11 other billionaires contributed a collective $269 million to a political action committee called Building a Better California, which poured more than $300 million into campaigns opposing Prop 40 and supporting two other initiatives whose language would invalidate the billionaire tax if either passes with more votes, state campaign finance filings show. One of those, Proposition 42, had won 4.1 million votes by the morning of November 4, about 54% of ballots counted, against 3.4 million yes votes for the billionaire tax.
California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, opposed the measure, and the division among party leadership muddied the message that the tax was a Democratic answer to Republican tax cuts and income inequality. Initial support in polls had diminished ahead of the vote.
Incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said in a press release outlining the panel's priorities: "The committee will redouble its efforts to ensure billionaires pay their fair share and hold tax cheats accountable." US Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, have argued that forcing the richest to pay more will bolster living standards for the poor and middle class and curb the political clout of the ultrawealthy. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a Silicon Valley resident, is among billionaires who have expressed support for such measures.