California’s tax base took a massive hit in the last weeks of December, when a gang of mostly Silicon Valley billionaires hopped on their horses and got out of Dodge.

That billionaire boys club includes such luminaries as former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and David Sacks.

Their moves are prompted by a ballot measure being circulated for next November’s ballot by the SEIU. If passed, it would tax Californians with assets over $1 billion, including unrealized gains, at a 5% rate. Those with $20 billion in assets would face a (one-time, supposedly) tax of $1 billion.  The rush to leave before the calendar turned to 2026 was because the new tax would retroactively apply to anyone who lived in California as of January 1 of this year.

David Sacks, a co-founder of Craft Ventures, announced his departure by posting an image of the Texas flag and writing this:

A follow-up post read, “As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital.”

Vinod Khosla, who cofounded Sun Microsystems, says the measure will soon prompt even more departures:

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who is appalled at liberals who want to chase the wealthy out of the Golden State, wrote: