Posted on 06/29/2010 10:06:04 PM PDT by thecodont
Reporting from Sacramento As crude oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, many California Democrats are hoping to seize on the public mood created by the crisis to push through a new tax on oil production to help balance the state's beleaguered budget.
A proposed levy on oil production is at the core of both Democratic budget plans circulating in Sacramento, and thus will be on the table in upcoming budget talks with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. And though the Republican governor has emphatically said he is opposed to new taxes this year, he has supported the oil tax in the past. Perhaps more importantly, his relations with the oil companies some of which are trying to dismantle his signature environmental achievement are at an all-time low.
Democrats are confident they have finally hit upon a source of new revenue that voters won't loathe to help patch the budget shortfall.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
North Dakots had just passed an extraction tax, and the rig count here went from 212 in the Basin to 2.
Yep, two.
When you couldn't buy a house a year before, the tough things in the nearest town to come by were U-Hauls, converted pickup box trailers, anything to haul your stuff--the exodus was that intense.
That was 1982, the crash took 4 years to hit elsewhere as badly, they only lost half their jobs in '82 and held on 'till '86. Needless to say, property values plummeted (60-75%), and people discarded whole households of furniture they could not haul away. Friends who stayed scrounged three upgrades of furniture stacked by dumpsters for their appartment in two months, and ended up with some pretty nice stuff, but the sad part was that someone had had to abandon it after paying premium prices for it.
Sure, California has a more diverse economy, but if California is that desperate to drive any new oil activity away, this is a sure way to do it--get greedy. If there is a small and relatively reasonable tax, it might be better tolerated, but somehow, I doubt any proposal will be so humble.
“All these reprobates can do is TAX. They serve only themselves.”
Well, they do other things, too. I was shocked to learn the following:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=977
Note the party in power when this little tidbit happened.
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