SF Has More Billionaires Than Any City in California. Here’s How Residents Voted on Proposition 40

While a proposal to tax California’s billionaires trailed on Wednesday, more than half of San Francisco residents appeared to support the tax, according to early results. 

Out of 198,536 total Proposition 40 votes counted so far in San Francisco, 52.83% voted for Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the overall wealth of billionaire California residents as of Jan. 1. The funds would go towards healthcare and were intended to backfill cuts created by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

A precinct-by-precinct map shows that San Francisco’s voters were sharply divided along geographic lines. The city’s eastside, including the Mission District and Bayview-Hunters Point, along with the Tenderloin, SoMa, Hayes Valley and Parkside neighborhoods, were between 50% and 70% yes votes. 

The nos were primarily in the Marina, Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights, Seacliff and Twin Peaks neighborhoods, some of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

According to Politico, 33 of the 166 billionaires that registered to vote in California live in San Francisco — more than double any other city in the state. 

Voters throughout the wider Bay Area who spoke with KQED at the polls on Tuesday were divided on the tax. Some said that billionaires should contribute their fair share while others worried that taxing billionaires would lead to a “brain drain.” 

At the state level, coastal California counties — from Los Angeles to Mendocino and Humboldt — largely supported the billionaire tax, as of Wednesday afternoon.

California’s interior, on the other hand, appeared to oppose the tax, along with San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — billionaire hubs in their own right, boasting 12 of the Bay Area’s 20 wealthiest residents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Two competing measures placed on the ballot by billionaires opposed to the wealth tax had mixed performances. Proposition 41 was behind in a neck-and-neck race, while Proposition 42 was leading. Both measures contain language that would act as poison pills against the billionaire tax if they get more votes.

California’s billionaires waged an epic battle against the measure, raising $152 million to kill the tax act, and outspending opponents by nearly five times as much. 

KQED’s Marisa Lagos contributed to this report.