MIAMI and PALM BEACH, Fla. — Last December, a large coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires descended upon Miami to attend Art Basel, the ritzy, contemporary art fair that marks the end of the moneyed set’s yearly social calendar.
Much of the buzz surrounded the spectacle of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among the world’s richest men, docking his 466-foot, $450-million yacht, the Dragonfly, in Biscayne Bay while he stepped ashore to view the art installations.

But the chatter pivoted quickly among a contingent of a dozen California billionaires.
Weeks earlier a new ballot measure — backed by the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West — was floated that would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires to shore up the Trump administration’s federal healthcare funding cuts.