Google co-founder Sergey Brin this week donated $500,000 to a campaign opposing a June ballot measure to expand the Overpaid CEO tax, helping to bolster a counterproposal that would eliminate the tax and make more San Francisco businesses tax-exempt.
Campaign finance records show Brin donated the half-million on Tuesday to the “Yes on C, No on D to protect San Francisco’s small businesses and economic recovery” campaign, whose supporters come largely from the city’s business community, such as the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the billionaire-funded political advocacy group Advance SF.
The contribution gives a big, late-minute boost to Measure C, which would eliminate the “overpaid executive gross receipts tax” – the 2020 voter-approved tax also known as the “Overpaid CEO tax” – and exempt more small businesses from city taxes while reducing rates for some larger companies.
Already, the campaign for Measure C and against Measure D has garnered more than $5.6 million in contributions and spent $1.5 million on ads and other communications, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission. The two measures will go before San Francisco voters on June 2.
Measure D, a rival, labor union-backed proposal, would preserve the city’s current tax scheme and expand the Overpaid CEO tax in an effort to claw money back from the city’s top earners. It would also expand the levy to impose additional taxes on companies whose top executives earn far more than their average employee.
But proponents of Measure C say that the tax is punitive and would discourage companies from growing and doing business in San Francisco at a time when the city is trying to revive its economy and moderate Democrat leaders push for a more business-friendly environment.
Measure C boosters are also trying to use city data to make their argument: the controller’s office said last week that if the proposed changes to the Overpaid CEO Tax pass, the market will generally have nearly 950 fewer jobs on average over the next 20 years.
The same report says that while the measure would generate $250 million to $300 million a year in tax revenue for the city, expected job losses and reductions in business investment could offset the additional government spending.
Measure D supporters aren’t buying it: progressive leaders and organizations say the business-backed countermeasure is a “poison pill” and an attempt by the city’s wealthiest to escape paying more in taxes to a cash-strapped city.
They argue that the executive pay tax will generate critical revenue to continue the city’s many public services and force highly profitable corporations to contribute more to the city’s recovery, not just the bottom line.
Still, Brin’s donation is among the largest individual contributions disclosed so far in the campaign and underscores how closely the fight is being watched by Silicon Valley executives and wealthy donors with ties to San Francisco’s business community.
Brin does not live in San Francisco, instead spending most of his time at an estate on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe that he bought in 2025 for $42 million after souring on California. However, Brin still has investments in San Francisco, and is one of many tech titans betting on the city’s real estate market.
Other top donors to Measure C include billionaire media mogul Michael Moritz ($625,000), tech billionaire Chris Larsen ($500,000), and large companies such as Williams-Sonoma ($300,000), Visa ($275,000) and Google ($250,000).
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This article originally published at Sergey Brin pours $500,000 into S.F. campaign to kill CEO tax.