{"id":202548,"date":"2026-03-03T18:44:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202548\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T18:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:44:29","slug":"silicon-valley-flexes-financial-muscle-in-governors-race-and-tax-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202548\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley flexes financial muscle in governor’s race and tax battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"San<\/a>Aerial view of downtown San Jose and Silicon Valley. (Photo courtesy of the city)<\/p>\n

This commentary\u00a0was originally published by CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Over the last half-century, digital technology has reshaped the daily lives of people everywhere and created vast new industries. But no spot on the globe has been more affected than its birthplace.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

The transformation of the Santa Clara Valley from a bucolic grower of fruit into the technological powerhouse of Silicon Valley \u2014 thanks largely to Stanford University\u2019s presence \u2014 fueled a dramatic evolution of California\u2019s economy, growing it into the fourth largest in the world, were it a nation.<\/p>\n

Technology isn\u2019t just a linchpin of the economy; the immense personal wealth of its creators has \u2014 perhaps unfortunately \u2014 become a crucial source of revenue for the state. The top 1% of California\u2019s taxpayers generate nearly half its personal income taxes or, put another way,\u00a0nearly a third of the state\u2019s general fund revenues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite its importance to California\u2019s economy and budget, Silicon Valley has not \u2014 compared to other major economic sectors \u2014 paid much attention to state government.<\/p>\n

While farmers, bankers, medical providers, casino-owning tribes and other segments of the economy have hired lobbyists and doled out campaign money, tech tycoons have assumed their products and services were so obviously valuable to the state, they needn\u2019t worry about what was happening in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

That attitude is changing fast.<\/p>\n

Efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, the industry\u2019s hot new product, and to impose new taxes on the business are fueling the creation of campaign war chests\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0elect friendlier legislators<\/a>, oppose hostile legislation and block ballot measures like the one that would\u00a0impose a new tax on wealth.<\/a><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley also is doing something it never would have done in past years \u2014 trying to elect a tech-friendly governor.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0field of would-be governors is wide<\/a>, but the two likely to have the most campaign money are\u00a0billionaire investor Tom Steyer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan<\/a>, who represent the ideological parameters of the Democratic hopefuls.<\/p>\n

Steyer is making an obvious bid for support from the Democrats\u2019 left wing, endorsing efforts to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, while Mahan is counting on his friends in Silicon Valley to supply as much money as he needs to mount a credible run.<\/p>\n

The techies are diving into the gubernatorial campaign because Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has generally backed Silicon Valley in policy battles \u2014 especially conflicts over taxes and artificial intelligence \u2014 will be gone in a year. And as his governorship winds down, the state\u2019s Democratic Party seems to be moving leftward.<\/p>\n

This week, Steyer said that if elected, he would call a special election to modify California\u2019s iconic property tax limit, Proposition 13, so that taxes on commercial property could be increased. That change, dubbed a \u201csplit roll\u201d and long sought by public employee unions, was\u00a0rejected by voters in 2020<\/a>\u00a0but remains a holy grail among unions and other left-leaning groups.<\/p>\n

Steyer told Politico that cuts in federal aid to states by President Donald Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress leave a budget hole that must be filled by new taxes on business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really can\u2019t wait,\u201d Steyer said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the clock. And so, yes, the only way to pass that is with a special election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahan immediately rejected Seyer\u2019s tax plan, calling it \u201cthe wrong approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steyer has also endorsed the proposed wealth tax,\u00a0which would hit Silicon Valley\u2019s billionaires<\/a>\u00a0and has already resulted in some changes of residence to Florida and other low- or no-income tax states.<\/p>\n

Mahan, meanwhile, has joined Newsom in opposing the measure, saying it would backfire by encouraging wealthy people to leave California and take their taxable incomes with them.<\/p>\n

This could be the year that Silicon Valley, which has reshaped California\u2019s culture and economy, also reshapes its politics.<\/p>\n

CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Want to submit a letter to the editor, guest column or\u00a0opinion\u00a0piece? Find our guidelines and submission form\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aerial view of downtown San Jose and Silicon Valley. (Photo courtesy of the city) This commentary\u00a0was originally published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,6752,21628,943,88,90,89,2280,94005,19870],"class_list":{"0":"post-202548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-calmatters","10":"tag-campaigns","11":"tag-governor","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-silicon-valley","16":"tag-split-roll","17":"tag-wealth-tax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}