加州选票提案40号旨在对十亿美元以上财富征收一次性5%的税，以资助该州的医疗和教育，截至周二晚间该提案处于落后地位。
Proposition 40, the California ballot initiative that would enact a one-time 5% tax on billion-dollar fortunes to fund healthcare and education in the state, was losing as of Tuesday night.
根据美联社统计，虽然仅约一半选票完成计数，但已有56.5%的选民投了反对票。这一结果并不令人意外：预测市场在周二大选前预测其通过概率约为23%。
While only about half of the votes had been counted, 56.5% of voters had voted against it, according to the Associated Press. The result was not a surprise: prediction markets placed its probability of passing around 23% going into Tuesday’s election.
尽管如此，该投票提案仍是全美最受关注的提案之一，部分原因是加州科技界的反对。倡导组织“建设更美好的加州”从科技界知名人士处筹集了3.3亿美元用于反对该提案，捐赠者包括谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林、Stripe联合创始人帕特里克·科利森、前谷歌首席执行官埃里克·施密特、风险投资家维诺德·科斯拉以及克莱纳·珀金斯的约翰·多尔。包括州教师工会在内的多个大型团体也表示反对。
Still, the ballot measure was among the closest-watched in the country, in part due to opposition from California’s tech industry. Advocacy group Building a Better California raised $330 million from tech notables including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Stripe’s Patrick Collison, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr to fight the measure. A number of large groups like the state teachers’ union also opposed it.
《The Information》1月对加州读者的调查显示，约56%的受访者反对该提案，三分之一表示支持。
Some 56% of The Information’s surveyed California-based readers said in January they opposed the measure, while a third supported it.