Mayor of San Jose, Matt Mahan, speaks during the NWSL Championship Welcome Reception at Rotunda at San Jose City Hall in San Jose, California, on Nov. 20, 2025.
The Democratic mayor of San Jose, California, has come out against a proposed statewide ballot measure that would ask voters to approve a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' net worth.
Matt Mahan, who took office Silicon Valley's biggest city in 2023, said in a series of X posts on Monday that the initiative would end up costing the majority of California residents.
"We need a rising economic tide to lift all boats, not a political plan that will sink California's innovation economy," Mahan wrote.
San Jose's population sat just below 1 million as of mid-2024, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. It's the third-largest California city, behind Los Angeles and San Diego.
Tech investors and executives have been vocal of late in their opposition to a tax on billionaires, claiming that it will cause companies and entrepreneurs to flee for other states. The issue has become particularly contentious for Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, whose district includes part of Silicon Valley, as one-time supporters in the tech industry have threatened to throw their weight behind a primary challenger.
"Even people who don't expect this initiative to pass are still planning to leave because there will be another one is the argument," billionaire investor Vinod Khosla wrote on X late last month. "And California will lose its most important tax payers and net off much worse."
David Sacks, a venture capitalist now serving as President Donald Trump's crypto and artificial intelligence czar, said on X last week that "Austin will replace SF as the tech capital." Tech investor Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Larry Page, have considered leaving, The New York Times reported.