Alabama Education Department to go after BP
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The Alabama Department of Education is joining the legion of organizations and individuals asking BP to cover losses that occurred as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and leak.
State School Superintendent Joe Morton announced Thursday that the education department will file claims with BP for lost tax revenue resulting from the leak.
Alabama is heavily dependent on sales tax revenue to fund education. Morton said in a press release that sales tax revenues from the fishing, shrimping and tourist industries are likely to suffer because of the leak.
“If people are unemployed, they can’t pay taxes or buy things,” said Anne Graham, an education department spokeswoman.
The state intends to file claims in the next 30 to 45 days, as soon as it gets recent sales tax collection numbers and calculates estimated losses. No estimate of how badly tax revenues will be hurt exists yet.
If BP doesn’t pay up, Morton intends to take the company to court.
The Alabama Education Association released a statement Wednesday backing Morton’s plan and offering its support.
“There is no doubt that the BP disaster will cost Alabama schools tens of millions of dollars, just like they have cost the Alabama tourism and seafood industry millions already, and millions more before this is done,” AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said in the release. “They must pay every dime that is owed. We have suffered two years of proration because of the malfeasance of Wall Street firms, we will not allow going into proration again because a giant oil company’s negligence and its