California’s richest residents are opening their checkbooks to kill a wealth tax before voters can weigh in, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone pouring $82 million into the opposition and a small circle of tech billionaires driving the total anti-tax haul past $118 million ahead of the Nov. 3 ballot.

The measure, a one-time tax of up to 5% on the net worth of California residents worth more than $1 billion, became eligible for the November ballot on June 17 after Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced its signature count had cleared the state’s random-sample threshold.

A last-minute offer from sponsor SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West to drop the initiative in exchange for a legislative 2% version was rejected by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and negotiations collapsed before the June 25 withdrawal deadline.

Under the initiative, 90% of revenue would flow to Medi-Cal and other healthcare programs, with 10% split between food assistance and public education. The tax would apply to anyone who was a California resident as of Jan. 1.

Brin, who moved to Nevada last year, has emerged as the single largest donor to Building a Better California, the committee he co-founded with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to sponsor two counter-initiatives on the same November ballot.

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