Oil derricks in early Huntington Beach, CA
By Dale Lendrum
Western Sun staff writer
The Tax Oil to Fund Education Initiative is streamlined and ready to seek a spot on the 2012 ballot after a brief run for this year’s ballot fell short.
The initiative attempts to capitalize on more than half a million barrels of crude oil produced daily by California.
The new initiative allows for a full five months of signature gathering which Peter Matthews, co-author of the initiative, believes will give it a greater chance of passing with more voters turning out for a primary election.
The Tax Oil to Fund Education Initiative would place a “15 percent tax on crude oil and natural gas drilled from California on-shore and offshore” raising some $3 billion annually for education.
Under the proposed initiative, California’s Community Colleges would receive 38 percent for the purpose of “funding direct classroom instruction and access, which is limited to reducing college tuition fees, restoring cut class sections, and hiring needed professors, to be allocated at the discretion of the state community college chancellor.”
It would also pump more than one-third of funding into K-12 to reduce class sizes, hire teachers, and provide instructional materials.
Language in the initiative also calls for stiff penalties should oil companies try to pass the buck to consumers and annual rebates to the consumer.
