Signature-Gathering Push Begins for Oil Tax to Fund Education
A tax on oil companies would supply California's schools with up to $3 billion more a year if a Southern California college professor gets his way.
Peter Mathews got the go-ahead from the California secretary of state late Tuesday to begin gathering signatures to place a measure on the ballot that would impose a 15 percent tax on each barrel of oil extracted in California.
The state's K-12 schools would get 30 percent of the revenue, community colleges would get 48 percent and the California State University and the University of California would each receive 11 percent. The initiative needs signatures from 504,760 registered voters — the equivalent of 5 percent of the votes cast in the 2010 gubernatorial election — to qualify, according the secretary of state's office.
The measure would prohibit producers from passing the tax on to refiners, gas stations or consumers. Nor could the state divert the tax revenue to its battered general fund.
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12mV2)