Exclusive | Billionaire civil war brews between ex-Google bosses as Eric Schmidt rages at mega-rich wealth tax coalition

A billionaire civil war is brewing inside Sergey Brin’s $100 million operation to kill California’s proposed billionaire tax as ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is among a group of grumbling billionaires that say the coalition has lost the plot, the California Post has learned.Schmidt, a $3 million donor to Google-founder Brin’s Building a Better California, was reportedly furious after the state Democratic Party endorsed the union-backed wealth tax and shot down two counter-measures the group is bankrolling.“Eric is rightfully upset,” a source with knowledge of the matter told The Post.Some donors and advisers are growing frustrated that Building a Better California, which raised a fortune from Silicon Valley mega-donors including venture capitalist John Doerr with $10 million, Michael Moritz with $7.5 million, is suffering mission creep in its effort to reshape California politics by backing six different state ballot measures.The group’s original mission was to kill the billionaire tax, viewed as a disastrous policy that would cripple California’s economy by driving wealth out of the state.But some insiders are growing concerned that its spending in other areas, like environmental policy, could threaten its success.

“Once you do that, you’re in a place where you may not be as effective,” one adviser to a Building a Better California donor told The Post, warning about “splintering” the mission.Schmidt’s frustration only intensified after the bruising defeat two weeks ago at the California Democratic Party’s executive board meeting in San Diego.The party not only voted to endorse Proposition 40 — the union-backed measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians worth more than $1 billion — but also opposed Propositions 41 and 42, two measures backed by the Brin-funded operation as counterweights to the tax. Courtni Pugh, a partner at Hilltop Public Solutions and former director for the Service Employees Internati...