By Laura J. Nelson
California billionaires who oppose a ballot measure to tax their wealth are fighting back with ballot measures of their own. And the campaigns they're funding are paying signature collectors $15 a pop.
A group called Building a Better California has collected nearly $80 million from tech and business leaders since January. State disclosures show $45 million is from Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Building a Better California describes itself as a nonpartisan organization working to tackle long-term issues, including housing affordability. But it has also funneled more than $33 million to three ballot-measure campaigns that take aim at portions of the proposed wealth tax.
The billionaire tax, the three countermeasures and a half-dozen other campaigns are still on the street in California, jockeying for the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to qualify a ballot initiative. Three campaigns -- including two funded by Building a Better California -- are now offering signature collectors $15 for each valid signature. They are the highest prices of the year, according to professionals who track the market.
Workers are paid for each voter signature they collect on a ballot-measure petition. Campaigns set the per-signature price to motivate collectors, and the price tends to rise as the ballot deadline approaches. As more campaigns circulate petitions, the prices also typically go up. Campaigns will need to file signatures in about six weeks to be sure they make the November ballot.
Paying top dollar is a time-tested way to qualify a measure in a busy year on a tight deadline, experts say. But big signature bounties also push up prices for other campaigns, including the one supporting a tax on billionaires.
"All hell broke loose," said Fred Kimball, whose petition-management firm is handling the Billionaire Tax Act. He oversees a vast signature-gathering operation, which includes workers who fan out across parking lots and public parks with clipboards.
The billionaire tax measure would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of those with net worths of more than $1 billion who were California residents on Jan. 1. Supporters say it would raise some $100 billion to help offset looming federal cuts to Medicaid.
The two $15-a-signature campaigns sponsored by Building a Better California would require more audits of special taxes, impose more rules on how revenue from new taxes could be spent, and bar retroactive taxes and new taxes on personal property. A third would bar new taxes from circumventing rules on how much tax revenue must be spent on schools.
The billionaire tax and the opposing measures need about 875,000 valid signatures to qualify. Most campaigns aim for a minimum of 1.3 million, assuming some will be discarded for clerical reasons, including people who signed the same petition twice or aren't registered to vote in California.
The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West union, which is sponsoring the billionaire tax, was paying about $5 a signature in late January. The campaign was forced to raise its prices after the "Brin measures" started charging $12 a signature, Kimball said.
Now the billionaire tax is at $12, according to professionals who monitor the prices.
"You have to pay to be competitive," said Brandon Castillo, a ballot-measure consultant whose clients include the state's hospital association and the California Chamber of Commerce.
Prices are being driven up by the sheer number of campaigns still on the street, including warring measures between Uber and a trade group for trial attorneys, experts say.
SEIU-UHW chief of staff Suzanne Jimenez said that a "small handful of extremist billionaires" are "attempting to influence the signature gathering phase of the process and drive up costs." She said the union has 5,000 healthcare workers who have volunteered to collect signatures without pay, helping to offset costs.
The Billionaire Tax Act campaign said late last month that it had collected 25% of the signatures required to reach the ballot. Building a Better California's two $15-a-signature campaigns reported Friday they had passed the same threshold.
Building a Better California's reported total spending has topped $50 million, on the wealth-tax countermeasures as well as efforts to change an environmental law that can slow infrastructure and housing construction and to fund down-payment assistance for middle-class home buyers.
Spokeswoman Abby Lunardini said it is "supporting long-term policy reforms that are long overdue and supported by strong majorities of people."
Some of the state's most prominent business leaders have given to Building a Better California, including $9.5 million from venture capitalist John Doerr, $7 million each from venture capitalist Michael Moritz and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison, and more than $3 million from former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
A representative for Schmidt said he had nothing further to add. Brin, Doerr, Moritz and Collison didn't respond to a request for comment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has said that while he supports California's progressive tax structure , he opposes the Billionaire Tax Act because billionaires would move to avoid it, causing a long-term drop in tax revenue.
If the billionaire tax makes the ballot and is approved by voters, the tax would apply to those who were residents of California on Jan. 1. Some wealthy Californians aren't waiting to see if it will.
David Sacks, the Trump administration's crypto and AI czar and a longtime San Francisco resident, said he moved to Texas in December. On the daily live video podcast TBPN this month, so did Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick.
"Let's just say it's prior to January," Kalanick said.
Write to Laura J. Nelson at laura.nelson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 11:45 ET (15:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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