𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 $𝟐𝟕 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 — 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐀𝐗 𝐈𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐘 On election night, California’s proposed 5% wealth tax on billionaires was trailing in the vote count — and the billionaires it was built to hit had already made their move. Fox News flagged the list on-air: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, and director Steven Spielberg had all shifted their residency out of the state before the January 1, 2026 cutoff that would have triggered the bill. Kalanick didn’t hide why the timing mattered. 𝘖𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 18, 𝘐 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘴, he confirmed — fourteen days before the deadline that would have made him a California taxpayer on a slice of his own fortune for the very first time. Forbes put a number on what walked out the door with them: $𝟐𝟕 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞, gone before a single ballot was cast. Page alone accounted for roughly $13 billion of that total and Brin another $12 billion — money Sacramento had already built into its spending plans. And now the tax itself is coming up short anyway. The same billionaire class it targeted poured more than $𝟑𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 into defeating it, and as results rolled in Tuesday night, the measure was trailing after leading comfortably just a month and a half earlier. California tried to squeeze its richest residents and walked away with the worst of both outcomes — the money already left, and the tax built to replace it may not even survive the count. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐞. 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 $𝟐𝟕 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐱 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐚𝐱 — 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠-𝐨𝐮𝐭-𝐨𝐟-𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞.