Ten billionaires with connections to USC would be affected by California’s Proposition 40 if passed on Nov. 3. Four of them either sit on or have ties to the USC Board of Trustees. Collectively, these billionaires have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to USC.
Prop 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on individuals with over one billion dollars in assets. Revenue generated from the tax would primarily be directed towards health care.
The tax would apply to billionaires whose primary residence was California as of January 1, 2026, leading some to move entities out of state prior to the deadline.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are two such individuals, moving to Florida and Nevada, respectively.
According to Forbes, Page spent $173 million on two homes in Miami, while Brin spent $42 million on a Tahoe home and over $100 million opposing Prop 40.
Brin’s tax due would have been around $13 billion against his fortune of over $276 billion, according to Forbes in August.
In light of the potential effects of Prop 40, below are 10 billionaires with ties to USC:
1. Don Hankey
Turning a Ford franchise dealership into a $33 billion auto-services company, Don Hankey is the founder and chairman of the Hankey Group. Hankey has a net worth of $10.5 billion.
Hankey completed his Bachelor’s and post-graduate work at USC in 1965. His son, Bret Hankey, is also a USC alumnus. In 2021, the Hankey Foundation donated $2 million to the Keck School of Medicine.
After hearing about Prop 40 in the fall of 2025, Hankey told Forbes that he began looking for properties in Nevada. He moved before the Jan. 1 cutoff.
“I just felt a bit like I wasn’t wanted,” he said.
2. Marc Benioff
Founder of Salesforce, the world’s leading customer relationship management platform, USC Marshall graduate Marc Benioff has a net worth of $9.3 billion.
He served a five year term on the USC Board of Trustees beginning in 2011, and now remains as an Honorary Trustee.
After living in both San Francisco and part time on the Big Island of Hawaii for decades, Benioff switched his voter registration to the island in 2021, according to the San Francisco Standard.
3. Michael Milken
Financier Michael Milken has a net worth of $8.6 billion. He joined investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1969, making a large share of his wealth through investments and high-yield junk bonds.
In 1990, Milken pled guilty to six felony counts, including securities fraud, mail fraud, and market manipulation. He was pardoned by President Trump in 2020 and now co-teaches a course at USC Marshall on building prosperity. Milken has long lived in the San Fernando Valley.
4. Rick Caruso
A self described business innovator, civic leader, and philanthropist, Rick Caruso has a net worth of $7.1 billion as of 2026.
After graduating from USC Marshall in 1980, he founded Caruso, a privately held real estate company that builds retail centers, high-end residential and offices. He later served as chairman of the USC Board of Trustees from 2018 until 2022, when he stepped down to run for mayor of Los Angeles, ultimately losing to current Mayor Karen Bass.
He remains a voting member of the USC Board of Trustees. In 2015, he and his wife, Tina, donated $25 million to USC’s Keck School of Medicine and named the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology.
The Caruso family donated another $7.5 million in 2006 for the Our Savior Catholic Church and adjacent USC Caruso Catholic Center. As of 2019, his donations to the university had exceeded $50 million. In a statement to the LA Times in January, Caruso said the tax is a very bad policy.
“It will deliver nothing it promises and instead hurt California with lost jobs and hundreds of millions a year in lost revenue from existing income taxes,” he wrote.
Caruso’s primary residence as of the 2022 mayoral election was in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
5. Edward Roski Jr.
Edward Roski Jr. is the President and Chairman of the Board of Majestic Realty Co. and a co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Crypto.com arena, with a current net worth of $7 billion.
An alumnus of USC, Roski went on to join Majestic, his father’s company, expanding it to become one of the largest privately held development companies in the country.
Roski remained active with his alma mater, serving on the USC Board of Trustees as a voting member, and now maintains the role of life trustee. His daughter, Patricia Reon Roski, is a current voting member.
In 2006, Roski and his wife, artist Gayle Garner Roski, made a joint $23 million contribution to rename the USC Gayle Garner Roski School of Art and Design.
In 2016, after Gayle received cataract surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, the couple gifted another $25 million that led to the naming of the USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute at Keck.
According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, Roski resides in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
6. Edythe Broad
Art collector and philanthropist Edythe Broad has a net worth of $7 billion. Her husband, the late Eli Broad, built their multi-billion-dollar fortune through his homebuilding company, Kaufman & Broad, and his insurance company, SunAmerica.
In 2006, the Broads donated $30 million to USC’s Keck School of Medicine, creating the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. This was followed by separate $1 million and $10 million gifts to further stem cell research.
In 2015, Eli and Edythe opened The Broad museum in Downtown Los Angeles. Edythe was last known to reside in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
7. George Lucas
Filmmaker and creator of the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas boasts a net worth of $5.4 billion as of 2026, according to Forbes.
Lucas graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and in 2006 gave $175 million to fund new buildings and launch an endowment campaign.
As recently as 2023, Lucas resided in San Anselmo where he sued to protect a piece of land he uses as a driveway.
8. George Argyros
Real estate mogul and founder of real estate and investment company Arnel & Affiliates George Argyros and family have a net worth of $3 billion.
Forbes changes listings to “& family” when the individual has restructured wealth so it is no longer exclusively held by one person.
Though Argyros graduated from Chapman University, he and his family have extensive ties to USC. Argyros’s daughter, Stephanie Argyros, is a USC alumnus and current voting member on the USC Board of Trustees.
In 2018, the Argyros Family Foundation donated $7.5 million toward the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum renovation, with the Julia and George Argyros Plaza named in their honor.
In 2024, the foundation gave another $10 million towards the Ronald H. Bloom Football Performance Center.
Though Prop 40 accounts for distributed family wealth, real estate is excluded from taxable net worth. Because much of their net worth is in Arnel & Affiliates, which owns 5,500 apartments in Orange County and nearly 2 million square feet of commercial real estate in California, they could be exempt after a final calculation. According to his Forbes profile, Argyros resides in Newport Beach.
9. Gary Michelson
Dr. Gary Michelson is a retired orthopedic and spinal surgeon worth $1.8 billion. Through his numerous inventions, Michelson holds over 300 U.S. patents on surgical instruments. After settling an intellectual property dispute with medical device manufacturer Medtronic Inc., Michelson received $1.35 billion in 2005.
In 2014, Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson, donated $50 million to USC to fund the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. Michelson resides in Los Angeles, according to Forbes.
10. Dick Wolf
Dick Wolf is the creator and executive producer of Law & Order and its spinoff, Law & Order: SVU. He has a net worth of $1.5 billion.
His company, Wolf Entertainment (originally Wolf Films), produces network and streaming shows in partnership with companies like Universal Television and Amazon.
After an unspecified “significant contribution” by Wolf in 2024, USC announced the renaming of the Dick Wolf Drama Center. Forbes lists his primary residence as Montecito.