Step aside, ordinary millionaires: California’s wealth battle is turning into a showdown among the ultra-rich.
The increasingly heated fight over California’s proposed billionaire tax is dividing the wealthiest residents of the state, with a group of multimillionaires urging their even richer counterparts to pay more.
Disney heir Tim Disney, Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer and former San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti — a centimillionaire who was among Stripe’s founding engineers — are among more than 40 wealthy Californians who signed an open letter backing Proposition 40. The measure would impose a one-time tax on the state’s billionaires.
“As multimillionaires, we’re willing to do our part,” the letter says. “It’s past time for billionaires — our thousand millionaire cousins — to do theirs.”
The letter, released by Patriotic Millionaires and Tax the Ultra-Rich Now, supports a 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who lived in California on Jan. 1, 2026. Documentary filmmaker Matthew Cooke and virtual-reality pioneer Jaron Lanier are among the other signatories.
Chakrabarti has been especially outspoken in defending the labor-backed wealth tax, rejecting warnings that it would drive California’s richest residents to relocate to other states.
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“I think the disappointing thing is how few of the people who have made their wealth because of everything California has given them are willing to do the bare minimum to keep 3.4 million people from losing Medicaid,” Chakrabarti told The California Post in a text message.
He said leading opponents of the tax, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has contributed more than $100 million, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has contributed about $40 million, would barely feel its impact.
“My thoughts on Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt and others is this: all of you are probably going to make about 30% returns on your money this year, based on what returns for billionaires have been over the last several years. You won’t even notice a 5% wealth tax — you’ll still be richer next year than you were this year.”
He added, “But over 3 million Californians will have their lives changed. Do you really want your legacy to be that you fought tooth and nail against that?”
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Disney, a filmmaker and author, framed the proposal as a response to federal health care cuts and a broader dispute over whom government should serve.
“Prop 40 is about dignity, decency, and fairness,” Disney said in a statement.
He said the tax could help prevent millions of Californians from losing health coverage after cuts made under President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
A spokesperson for Building a Better California, the billionaires’ group opposing the wealth tax, declined to comment Tuesday.
A new Citrin Center-Politico poll found that 46% of likely voters support the billionaire tax, compared with 43% who oppose it. Another 10% remain undecided.
The millionaires’ group also released results from a YouGov survey of California millionaires that it said found 57% support for Proposition 40.
About 60% of respondents backed higher taxes on people with extreme wealth if the money went toward state health and education programs, according to a news release.
Meanwhile, 56% said they would not leave California if asked to pay somewhat more in taxes, and 78% agreed that billionaires wield too much influence in state elections.
The release did not provide the survey’s sample size, field dates or margin of error.
“If there’s a price tag on our beaches, our mountains, our piers, our cable cars, our forests, and our state parks, we’re proud to pay it,” the letter says.
Rather than letting the billionaires eat their cake, the millionaires seem ready for a food fight.
