{"id":47305,"date":"2026-03-23T12:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47305"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:34:24","slug":"google-co-founder-spends-45m-in-fight-against-california-billionaire-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/google-co-founder-spends-45m-in-fight-against-california-billionaire-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Google co-founder spends $45m in fight against California billionaire tax"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"341\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-1024x341.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47306\" srcset=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-1024x341.png 1024w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-300x100.png 300w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-150x50.png 150w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-768x256.png 768w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50-250x83.png 250w, http:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-50.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>on Mar 22, 2026 02:25 am<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dara Kerr, &nbsp;Reporter&nbsp; &#8211; &nbsp;The Guardian (U.K.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stephan:&nbsp;On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that in effect legalized the bribery of politicians. It was the second step the Republicans carried out to end American democracy. The first step was Republican President Reagan&#8217;s tax changes, primarily the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) and the Tax Reform Act of 1986, ostensibly aimed to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes on corporations and high-income individuals but, in fact, its purpose was the creation of an oligarch ruling class. Taken together, these two steps have created the neo-medieval culture that is the United States today. And it couldn&#8217;t be more blantant as this report makes clear.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ecp.yusercontent.com\/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.schwartzreport.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F03%2FScreenshot-2026-03-21-at-6.27.33-PM.png&amp;t=1774294211&amp;ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c1d-8801ad015f00&amp;sig=q7jk46s6GHtL.n9KtG6EoA--~D\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sergey Brin in Davos, Switzerland, on 19 January 2017.&nbsp;Credit: Ruben Sprich \/ Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/schwartzreport.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b50db294056098aa2e77fd21c&amp;id=e930591a7d&amp;e=d7eb7aa9f9\">Google<\/a>&nbsp;founder has more than doubled his financial contribution to the fight against a proposed wealth tax in&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/schwartzreport.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b50db294056098aa2e77fd21c&amp;id=fb386485c3&amp;e=d7eb7aa9f9\">California<\/a>. New filings with the state show that former Alphabet president Sergey Brin donated $25m to a Super Pac dedicated to blocking the tax on top of $20m he had already given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brin is not alone among Google\u2019s top brass in upping his financial stake in the campaign against the ballot proposal. The company\u2019s former CEO Eric Schmidt donated $1.02m, adding to a previous $2m contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>he tech titans are battling the California Billionaire Tax act, often referred to simply as the billionaire tax. It\u2019s a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/schwartzreport.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b50db294056098aa2e77fd21c&amp;id=8758715a9c&amp;e=d7eb7aa9f9\">proposed ballot measure<\/a>&nbsp;that would require any California resident worth more than $1bn to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare pr ograms in the state. It\u2019s sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, and is still in the signature-gathering phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the measure reaches the ballot and gains voters\u2019 approval, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/schwartzreport.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b50db294056098aa2e77fd21c&amp;id=0ea687d611&amp;e=d7eb7aa9f9\">Read the Full Article \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>on Mar 22, 2026 02:25 am Dara Kerr, &nbsp;Reporter&nbsp; &#8211; &nbsp;The Guardian (U.K.) Stephan:&nbsp;On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that in effect legalized the bribery of politicians. It was the second step the Republicans carried out to end American democracy&#8230;. <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/google-co-founder-spends-45m-in-fight-against-california-billionaire-tax\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47305"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47307,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47305\/revisions\/47307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}