Organizations backed by mega-billionaires, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and notorious venture capitalist Peter Thiel, have launched an advertising blitz aimed at convincing California voters to oppose a one-time, 5% wealth tax targeting the very richest people in the state.<\/p>\n
The two most prominent groups fighting the tax, which will appear on California’s November ballot as Proposition 40, are Building a Better California<\/a> and Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes. The former group, funded in large part by Brin, debuted its first television ad<\/a> on Tuesday, just the start of what’s expected to be a massive propaganda push against the proposed tax.<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/a> reported that the first ad from Building a Better California “emphasizes that unions<\/a> representing teachers and firefighters oppose the tax, along with the state\u2019s top politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>, a Democrat.”<\/p>\n “The ad makes no mention of the billionaires who vigorously oppose the tax,” the Times added.<\/p>\n The coalition spearheading the wealth tax campaign is led by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare<\/a> Workers<\/a> West (SEIU-UHW). The tax proposal has won endorsements from the California Federation of Labor Unions, the California Nurses Association, and the California Democratic Party<\/a>, along with high-profile progressive lawmakers including Rep. Ro Khanna<\/a> (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.).<\/p>\n Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, told the Times that supporters of the tax are “not going to try to compete at all with the billionaires on broadcast television.” Brin’s group is reportedly set to spend more than $90 million on ballot initiatives this year.<\/p>\n Instead, the Times reported, “the union plans to spread its message through text messages, social media<\/a>, door-knocking and slate mailers, making the most of the powerful endorsements it recently won<\/a> from the California Democratic Party and the California Federation of Labor Unions.”<\/p>\n Last week, the Thiel-backed group Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes launched an online ad<\/a> that falsely characterized the proposed billionaire levy as “an everyone tax” and a “Trojan horse.” <\/p>\n The ad features a menacing, AI-generated caricature of Sanders and other supporters of the tax, who are shown forcibly seizing residents’ property, including a boat, a kid’s scooter, and an elderly woman’s television set.<\/p>\n