Topline
Organizers of a proposal to impose a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of California residents with assets worth at least $1.1 billion say they’ve collected twice as many signatures as they need to get the measure before the state’s voters on November’s ballot—as a number of bold-faced billionaires have already change their residency.
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg attend the WSJ. Magazine 2025 Innovator Awards.
Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards
Key Facts
The union leading the effort said they’ve collected nearly 1.6 million signatures and will announce on Monday when they’ll be submitted to election officials for verification.
The group needed the signatures of 875,000 registered voters, and must submit them to county elections officials by June 24, to get the controversial proposition on the ballot.
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. Gavin Newsom, say driving billionaires out of the state will do more harm than good for California’s economy and budget.
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Which Billionaires Have Left California?
Google co-founder Larry Page (net worth of $281.9 billion) moved or axed more than 45 California limited liability companies last year, according to the New York Times, and purchased a mansion in Miami. His co-founder Sergey Brin ($260.1 billion) terminated or moved 15 California limited liability companies out of the state, according to the Times, and has snapped up property in Florida and Nevada. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($231.4 billion) is also leaving. PayPal’s Peter Thiel ($29 billion) was among the first billionaires to move his company (and home) out of the state, and he later donated $3 million to the fight against the tax. Car loan magnate Don Hankey ($8.2 billion) said the tax was “ridiculous” before he left the state, and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick ($3.6 billion) confirmed his move last month. DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang ($1.5 billion) announced his plan to leave the state several months ago and called the wealth tax proposal “stupid.” Oracle Founder Larry Ellison ($217.9 billion) sold his Pacific Heights mansion on Billionaire’s Row for $45 million last year. It wasn’t his primary residence at the time.
Where Are California’s Billionaires Moving?
Florida, mostly. Thiel, Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg have all purchased homes in Florida for between $18 million and $170 million in the last few years. Ellison lives in a $173 million property in Palm Beach County, just a few miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, that he bought in 2022. Knight Frank’s annual wealth report on Thursday highlighted key markets experiencing unprecedented change in their luxury appeal, specifically noting prices in Miami’s luxury residential market have risen 67% in the last five years, and Palm Beach luxury prices have spiked 90.5% over the same period. Hankey moved to Las Vegas. Kalanick moved to Texas.
Chief Critics
Some California billionaires have been openly critical of the proposed tax but have not announced plans to leave. Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody ($2.2 billion) called parts of the proposal “insane” but when asked if he’ll move out of the state said, “I need to stay because all of our employees in the US are in person in SF. Most of our customers are here too.” LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman ($2.6 billion) has called the proposal “badly designed” and “horrendous” for innovation. but hasn’t indicated his immediate exit. Anthropic cofounder Dario Amodei ($7 billion) also described the proposal as “poorly designed” but hasn’t announced plans to move. Vinod Khosla ($13.2 billion) has called the tax “very dumb” but also said he has “no plans to leave California.”
Contra
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the seventh-richest person in the world with a net worth of $180 billion, has said he is “perfectly fine” with the proposed tax.