San Francisco Billionaire Punches Back Against ‘Overpaid’ CEO Tax

Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple Labs, in San Francisco. Photographer: Bryan Banducci/Bloomberg Photo by Bryan Banducci /Photographer: Bryan Banducci/Blo

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(Bloomberg) — Chris Larsen didn’t start out rich. He was born in San Francisco, the son of an aircraft mechanic and a freelance illustrator. After starting a string of successful companies and amassing a $13 billion fortune, he’s become the face of a billionaires’ revolt. 

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In June, voters in San Francisco will decide whether to impose an eight-fold increase to a gross-receipts tax on any large company doing business in the city where the highest paid executive earns 100 times or more than their median employee. Fighting the union-backed proposal, along with a separate push for a California wealth tax, has thrust Larsen into a head-on clash with labor.

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“Labor correctly has determined that business is weak and they won’t stand up to them,” Larsen said in an interview. “It’s the same calculation here in San Francisco, that we just don’t have the guts to fight.”

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The so-called Overpaid CEO Act would generate more than $250 million a year, according to an official estimate, making up for some of President Donald Trump’s spending cuts and helping close the city’s structural deficit, supporters say. Companies ranging from major technology firms such as Salesforce Inc. to retail giants like Target Corp. and Gap Inc. could be subject to the levy. 

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Scott Mann, a spokesperson for the campaign backing the measure, said if businesses can afford large pay packages for top executives, they should be able to send more money to city coffers. “What we’re witnessing now is the billionaires’ vision for California,” said Mann. “They are essentially willing to defund public services to protect their own wealth.”

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Larsen and other entrepreneurs, unnerved by the election of democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York and increasing calls across the US for taxes on wealth, fear that the measure could undo efforts to make San Francisco more business-friendly. They’re backing a competing measure to lower the tax, which was approved by voters in 2020 and scaled back four years later as San Francisco sought to coax back business activity that fled during the pandemic.

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In 2024, voters elected a new mayor, Democrat Daniel Lurie, who is an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune. Lurie’s centrism earned accolades from business groups and executives like JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and Blackstone Inc.’s Jonathan Gray — and Lurie wanted union and business leaders to make peace over the CEO tax. Three days before Christmas, he called key players to Room 201 at City Hall and demanded they compromise. He spoke for about 15 minutes and then left the warring sides to hash out an accord.

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“He made his pitch, then he asked us basically to work it out,” said Wade Rose, who leads a business coalition called Advance SF and attended the sit-down. The meeting became testy, Rose said. “It just wasn’t going to happen.”

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Less than a month later, the two sides gathered again, this time at the sleek offices of Larsen’s cryptocurrency company, Ripple. (Ripple, which is a private company that doesn’t disclose CEO compensation, declined to comment on whether they would be subject to the tax.) The meeting was brokered by Louis Giraudo, a well-known lawyer and businessman whose family popularized San Francisco sourdough.