City Brights: Rebecca Tarbotton : Big Oil v California Students

City Brights: Rebecca Tarbotton : Big Oil v California Students

Big Oil v California Students

Elizabeth Popham for Politics Daily

On March 4th thousands of elementary and college students, teachers, parents, and grandparents marched past my office. Across the state, students, labor unions, and concerned Californian's echoed their call opposing massive budget cuts to our state's already flailing public education system.
If oil companies in our state paid their fair share, students could afford college and we could begin to close our massive budget deficit.
If you're one of the millions of Californians who understand the value of a strong and thriving education system - from pre-school through post-grad - you can thank Chevron and its Big Oil buddies for the budget cuts that are breaking it down.
California is the 3rd largest oil producing state in the nation, and yet the ONLY oil producing state in the United States without an extraction tax. Texas has an extraction tax, Louisiana has a 12.5% tax, even Sarah Palin increased Alaska's oil severance tax (upwards of 25%) to pay for education programs. It's time that California joins the rest of the US, imposes a tax on oil companies for removing our state's resources, and uses the funds for real education finance reform.
In California we have a $20 billion dollar deficit. Massive tuition hikes and cutting education


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rtarbotton/detail?entry_id=58754#ixzz0hm8CNbLv