Meet the California multimillionaires demanding the billionaire tax become law

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Stand back, plebs! We’ve got a wealth-off.

The increasingly cantankerous fight over California’s proposed billionaire tax is now pitting the .01% against the .001%, as a group of multimillionaires call out their even richer counterparts for not paying more taxes.

Disney scion Tim Disney, Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer and former San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti — a mere centimillionaire as one of the founding engineers of Stripe — are among more than 40 wealthy Californians who signed an open letter urging voters to approve Proposition 40, a proposed 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 by Patriotic Millionaires and Tax the Ultra-Rich Now supports a 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who lived in California as of Jan. 1, 2026. Others who signed on include documentary filmmaker Matthew Cooke and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier.

Chakrabarti has been particularly pointed in defending the labor-sponsored wealth tax, dismissing warnings that it would send California’s richest residents fleeing for other states.

“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 added that the top opponents of the billionaire tax — such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has dropped more than $100 million, and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has dropped roughly $40 million — won’t even notice a pinch from the tax.

“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?”

Disney, a filmmaker and author, cast the measure as a response to federal health care cuts and a fight over whose interests government serves.

“Prop 40 is about dignity, decency, and fairness,” Disney said in a statement.

He argued that the tax would help prevent millions of Californians from losing health care following cuts under President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

A spokesperson for the billionaires group fighting the wealth, Building a Better California, delcined comment Tuesday.

New polling by Citrin Center-Politico found that just 46% of likely voters are supporting the billionaire tax, while 43% are opposed and 10% remain undecided.

The millionaires group released findings from a YouGov poll of California millionaires that they said showed 57% support for Prop. 40.

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Roughly 60% of those polled supported higher taxes on people with extreme wealth if the proceeds went to state health and education programs, according to a news release.

Another 56% said they would not leave California if asked to pay a little more in taxes, while 78% agreed billionaires have too much influence in state elections.

The release did not include 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.