The Golden State’s ultrarich, and therefore SoCal’s real estate royalty, dodged a bullet as Californians voted against Proposition 40, the billionaire tax.
The Associated Press called the race Monday evening after the ballot initiative, which would have charged billionaires a one-time, 5 percent tax on their net worth, trailed for days.
California real estate moguls didn’t rally against the proposed first-of-its-kind tax the same way tech execs and venture capitalists did — but there were a couple of real estate-connected billionaires that cut checks to the campaign against the tax.
Marcus & Millichap founder and chair George Marcus
Marcus & Millichap founder and chair George Marcus made two, million-dollar contributions to “Building a Better California.” The political action committee, mostly backed by Silicon Valley elite, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the tax and bankrolled countermeasures. Marcus is worth $1.5 billion, per Forbes, meaning he would have owed $75 million if Prop 40 passed.
Stewart Resnick — one-half of the billionaire couple that owns the Wonderful Company and a whole lot of land in California — poured $4.5 million into the campaign against the wealth tax. The Resnicks share a fortune north of $11 billion, so the couple would have owed around $550 million.
Henry Samueli, who made his money in tech but owns the Ducks and the OC Vibe megadevelopment that will surround the hockey team’s stadium, pumped $5 million into the campaign late last month. Samueli is worth around $35 billion, so his bill would have been just under $2 billion.
Don Bren, Rick Caruso, Ed Roski Jr
Don Bren, Rick Caruso, Ed Roski Jr. and Stan Kroenke are some of SoCal’s richest in real estate and would have been on the hook if the tax passed — though none gave money to the Building a Better California PAC.
Bren, the richest developer in the country and owner of Irvine Company, is worth about $20 billion; his one-time bill would have been $1 billion. Caruso, the mall magnate, is worth $7 billion, so he would have owed $350 million. Roski of Majestic Realty would have owed about $350 million too — and Kroenke, the largest private landowner in the country, would have had to pay around $1 billion, like Bren.
While he was not a financial backer of the campaign against the tax, Caruso posted his voter guide on social media — and on it, was a “no” vote on Prop 40 and “yes” votes on Props 41 and 42 (the countermeasures). He also told the California Post he considered leaving the state, the outlet reported Monday before the call was made.
In L.A. County, 55 percent of the votes were in favor of the tax and 45 were against; in Orange County, 59 percent were against and 41 percent were for.
