Assembly Bill 656, authored by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, was suspended after a second hearing at the Assembly Committee of Revenue and Taxation on Monday.
AB 656, proposing an oil and gas severance tax with revenue going to California's higher education system, was introduced last February and went through the first hearing in May, but the hearing was canceled by Torrico.
During the second hearing, Chairman Charles Calderon and the Revenue and Taxation Committee said they believed the bill needed further discussion and a possible decrease of the 12.5 percent tax rate originally proposed to a more reasonable 6 to 7 percent.
"The real truth here is the bill is going nowhere--it's not getting off the floor," Calderon said during the hearing. "Until we can function properly at the proper as constitutional form of government without these initiatives tying our hands in terms of what we can do and what we can't do, we are not going to solve that here today."
