Enemies of the People
Meet the megarich, far-right players who will stop at nothing to avoid paying taxes.
Prop. 13 reform’s right-wing opposition consists of the same donors bankrolling astroturf organizations in San Francisco and the undemocratic and costly recalls throughout the state. Massive corporations like Kilroy Realty, Western National Group, and Blackstone have burned through millions funding local campaigns and propositions created to trick everyday people into voting against their own interests.
So, who doesn’t want to pay their taxes?
California Business Roundtable: Among the Roundtable’s members are the heads of companies that have spent years funneling money to climate-denier groups. The Roundtable gave over $24 million to the opposition during our 2020 campaign to reform Prop. 13.
The Blackstone Group: CEO Steve Schwarzman, a top financier of Trump and McConnell, gave over $7 million to the opposition during our 2020 campaign to reform Prop. 13.
Billionaire Geoffrey Palmer: Labeled “LA’s worst developer” and a Trump megadonor, Palmer gave $2 million to the opposition during our 2020 campaign to reform Prop. 13. He was also one of the top donors to the recall Newsom campaign.
Kilroy Realty: This San Francisco based real estate company most recently donated $150,000 to the opponent of George Gascón, the LA District Attorney who ran on criminal justice reform. They also weighed in on the 2024 presidential ticket, choosing to donate to Donald Trump. Their founder, John Kilroy Jr., has also donated $1 million to Neighbors for a Better SF—a dark money group dubbed by Mission Local as the “800-pound gorilla of SF politics”. Kilroy Jr. also sat on the board of the largest Republican PAC in California.
Western National Group: A real estate investment firm based in Irvine donated $4.5 million to oppose Schools and Communities First in 2020. This corporation has consistently donated to conservative PACs and far-right candidates the likes of Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, and Ted Cruz.
Billionaire William Oberndorf: A well-known local billionaire and a major donor of the undemocratic recalls of the San Francisco District Attorney and three School Board members in 2022. What’s less well-known is Oberndorf’s history of monetary support for Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Nikki Haley. In 2020, Oberndorf donated $4.7 million to Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund, an important resource that allowed McConnell to keep the Republican Senate majority.
Billionaire Michael Moritz: The owner of San Francisco news agency SF Standard. The Standard pushed the doom loop narrative, and Moritz himself wrote an OpEd for the New York Times spread his propaganda. Like other billionaires on this list, Moritz has a history of donating to Republican candidates across the country. He also spearheaded the campaign to create “California Forever” a town designed for wealthy tech executives to run their businesses less restrictions and pay lower taxes.
Billionaire David Sacks: A tech entrepreneur who was one of the first people to amass wealth off of the early SF tech boom. Recently, Sacks funneled over $100,000 to Gavin Newsom’s 2022 recall. Sacks is now going to be the country’s first “Crypto Czar” under the Trump administration.
These ultra-rich, rightwing political players—some of whom campaigned against our 2020 ballot measure (Prop. 15) to close the corporate loophole in Prop. 13—also champion corporate deregulation, pro-gentrification development, and anti-democratic election interference and recalls.
