The Assembly Appropriations Committee took action against Assembly Bill 656 on Thursday, halting the bill for this legislative cycle.
Introduced last February, Assembly Bill 656 was created by Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, to fuel California’s education system by placing a 12.5 percent severance tax on oil and gas produced within California and creating a California higher education fund.
The committee removed the tax portion of the bill allocated for the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems. It was replaced with an amendment requiring that the state board of equalization report annually to the Legislature the amount of revenue that would have been generated if the oil and gas tax had been implemented.
According to the California Faculty Association, which represents CSU faculty, the bill’s potential costs to the state general fund, as well as the inability to collect a two-thirds vote required for Assembly passage — only possible with the support of Assembly Republicans — directly led to the amendment.