The war on California’s proposed ‘Billionaire’s Tax’ is getting weird. This week, amid ongoing rancor from tech elites over the much maligned bill, it became apparent that someone was planning a so-called “March for Billionaires” in San Francisco. A website advertising the event popped up online, providing little in the way of context other than a pithy tagline: “Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive.”
The immediate reaction was incredulity, and most people assumed the site was some sort of bizarre hoax. “this is a joke/satire right??” one social media user wrote not long after the news circulated. Now, however, the apparent organizer behind the event has revealed that the march is definitelynot a joke, and that it is scheduled to take place this coming Saturday.
The San Francisco Examiner first reported that the event’s organizer had been revealed as Derik Kaufmann, the founder of AI startup RunRL, which previously participated in Y Combinator’s accelerator program. Kaufmann told the Examiner that the event was not being funded or organized by any outside group, no big monied associations or companies—just him.
In a conversation with TechCrunch, Kaufmann — who also told the Examiner that he was no longer involved with RunRL — confirmed that the impetus for the upcoming rally was California’s proposed wealth tax, which the tech founder said he believed would be “quite damaging to the tech economy.”
The policy in question, the Billionaire Tax Act, was introduced last year, and would require Californians worth over $1 billion to pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth. The legislation, which is backed by the state’s healthcare union SEIU (Service Employees International Union), could pay for important public services and help the state offset recent federal funding cuts, according to some experts. Nevertheless, the policy has led to loud protestations from some of the tech industry’s most prominent figures, many of whom have either threatened to leave California or have already left. It has also led to a monsoon of lobbying in the California legislature, in an effort to defeat the bill.
When asked why he opposed the legislation, Kaufmann expressed concern for how the bill could impact the startup economy in Silicon Valley. “This tax in particular is fatally flawed,” he said. “It hits startup founders whose wealth is only on paper. They would be forced to liquidate shares on potentially unfavorable terms, incurring capital gains taxes and giving up control. Not to mention the difficulty of valuing private companies.”
“Many founders would be hit with wildly disproportionate tax bills,” Kaufmann continued. “Additionally, there’s no precedent for this sort of comprehensive wealth tax in the US. Sweden eliminated theirs 20 years ago to avert capital flight and promote entrepreneurship and now has 50% more billionaires per capital than the US.”
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Online conversation about Kaufmann’s planned event has continued to alternate between incredulity and ridicule. “I can’t imagine billionaires marching in the street,” one social media user said, of the event.
That person would probably be right.
Kaufmann told TC that, so far, he isn’t aware of any actual billionaires planning to attend the march that has been organized in their honor. Kaufmann said that the event is likely to include “a few dozen attendees,” although he stressed that he really isn’t clear on how many people would show up.
The ongoing outrage over the proposed tax is a little funny, given that it’s already been known for quite some time that the legislation has almost no chance of being enacted. That’s because California Governor Gavin Newsom has already stated that, should the bill somehow pass, he would veto it.
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