Minimum funding level for schools increased in May revise

Report of the California Budget Project 5/16/2013

0. Increased Revenues Boost the Minimum Funding Level for Schools
   Approved by voters in 1988, Proposition 98 constitutionally guarantees a minimum level of funding for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the state preschool program. Because changes in state General Fund revenues tend to affect the Proposition 98 guarantee, the Proposition 98 funding levels included in the May Revision reflect changes in 2012-13 and 2013-14 projected revenue compared to January budget estimates. The May Revision assumes a 2012- 13 Proposition 98 funding level of $56.5 billion for K-14 education programs, $2.9 billion more than the level assumed in the Governor’s January proposal. However, the May Revision assumes a 2013-14 Proposition 98 funding level of $55.3 billion, $941.4 million less than the level assumed in the Governor’s January proposal. Specifically, the May Revision:
   
   •   Increases repayments to schools and community colleges by $758 million by the end of 2013-14 compared to the Governor’s January budget proposal. The May Revision provides an additional $1.8 billion in 2012-13 to partially restore previously deferred payments to schools and community colleges, but decreases 2013-14 repayments by more than $1 billion. At the end of 2013-14, payment deferrals to schools and community colleges – that is, the amount still owed by the state – would be $5.5 billion under the May Revision, compared to $6.3 billion under the Governor’s January budget proposal.
     
   •   Provides $1 billion in one-time 2012-13 funding to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In August 2010, the State Board of Education adopted CCSS for California’s K-12 schools. 
     

80% of California Trigger cuts come from K-12 education

The California  Budget Agreement Assumes Voters Approve the Governor’s Ballot Measure in November

Additional “Trigger” Cuts Will Be Made if Voters Reject the Governor’s Ballot Measure in November

The budget agreement would automatically trigger an additional $6.0 billion in midyear spending cuts if voters reject the Governor’s November ballot initiative. These reductions would take effect on January 1, 2013 and would primarily affect public schools, colleges, and universities. If voters do not approve the Governor’s measure, the following cuts would be triggered:

·       ·  $4.8 billion from public schools, with schools authorized to reduce the school year from the current minimum of 175 days of instruction to 160 days of instruction in each of 2012-13 and 2013-14 ;

·       ·  $550.0 million from the California Community Colleges (CCC), with the CCC chancellor authorized to reduce college enrollment proportionately;

·       ·  $250.0 million from the University of California;

·       ·  $250.0 million from the California State University;

·       ·  $50.0 million from the Department of Developmental Services;

·       ·  $20.0 million in reduced funding for a new grant program for city police departments;

·       ·  $10.0 million from the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection;

California budget takes from schools to pay for corporate tax evasion

 Budget May Revise.

The proposed California  budget for next year says that income will be  $15.7  billion less than expected. 

The report is here.  http://www.dof.ca.gov/documents/2012-13_May_Revision.pdf

California does not have enough money to continue the funding of schools, universities, fire and safety, and social services at their present levels.   The Republican Party has consistently refused to raise taxes.  So, the Republican legislative blocking  has forced the following cuts:

MediCal, child care, Cal Works, Nursing homes, In Home Supportive Services, Cal Grants ( college tuition), and a forced employee pay cuts (5%) – such as a 4 day work week.  These cuts are from the current budget. The May Revision provides level funding for k-12 schools.

 If the tax proposals are not passed in November, there will be an additional $5.6 billion dollars  cut from  K-12 schools.  These are called trigger cuts.  They will be automatic if the initiative is not passed.

These draconian cuts are imposed because the state will not- or can not – deal with corporate tax evasions.  We know of $10 billion in tax evasions from Apple, and there probably is a similar tax evasion by Google, Yahoo, and other internet companies. 

California is  Not Broke , but corporate tax subsidies are destroying our schools.

We suffer from two problems: a huge concentration of income at the very top of the income distribution and a tax system that fails to tax  that concentration.  Our tax system asks those with less to pay more and those with more to pay less.

Here come more cuts

      California fell almost $2 billion below estimates in personal income taxes paid in April.  The Legislative Analyst Office says that the state is some $3.5 billion behind the state forecasts for this year which are the basis for the current budget.    Thus, the legislature will again face cuts.  More cuts to schools, more cuts to social services, health care,  child support, police and fire protection.

            This approach to economics is called austerity.  It doesn’t work.  Austerity is being tried in Greece, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and Ireland, among others.  It does not work.  Austerity makes the economy worse – and thus further reductions of tax receipts and further cuts.

The economic crisis of 2007 to the present made matters worse.  The state took in some $30 billion less in taxes and thus had less to send to the schools.  School budgets have been cut by some $10 billion.  K-12 education receives about 40% of the California budget.  Thus any decline in the state budget leads directly to cuts in school services.

            The question for the corporate agenda, promoted by  the Chamber of Commerce among others  is can the economy prosper with a poorly educated work force.  California grew and prospered from 1970- 1994 based upon a well educated work force.  Then, in the 1994-2008 period over $10 billion of tax cuts were passed – making the current crisis much worse. This week we learned that Apple, and other corporations, are avoiding over $10 billion in taxes by moving one small office to Nevada.   California suffers from a decade of  corporate tax cuts and public disinvestment.  Today,  instead of following the education  approach,  conservative anti tax forces have imposed an Mississippi approach on California.

California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a direct result of massive budget cuts imposed by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total per pupil expenditure is down by over $1,000 per student. The result- massive class size increases.  Students are in often classes too large for learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring and art classes have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed, and thousands more face lay offs this fall. This is not the fault of teachers. 

Governor Proposes Deep Budget Cuts

Governor Makes Deep Cuts to the Safety Net and Assumes Voters Approve November Ballot Measure

On Thursday, January 5, Governor Jerry Brown released his proposed 2012-13 spending plan, addressing a $9.2 billion projected shortfall for the remainder of 2011-12 and the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal years. The Proposed Budget was released five days early after a staffer inadvertently posted budget documents to a public website. The Governor proposes $10.3 billion in “solutions” to close the identified gap and provide a $1.1 billion budget reserve. The gap stems from a $4.1 billion shortfall in 2011-12 and a $5.1 billion projected shortfall in 2012-13. The Governor’s proposal assumes that voters approve a measure that would be placed on the November 2012 ballot that would raise $6.9 billion in 2011-12 and 2012-13. His proposed spending plan also includes $5.4 billion of additional spending cuts that would be triggered on if voters fail to approve the proposed tax measure.

The Governor’s proposals include deep cuts to health and human services programs, as well as to student aid and child care. Health and human services and child care programs would be targeted for $2.5 billion of the $4.2 billion in proposed spending reductions. The Governor also proposes $301.7 million of cuts to the Cal Grant Program, which provides financial aid to lower-income students pursuing post-secondary education. The Governor’s Proposed Budget also includes a number of sweeping reorganizations of state departments and agencies aimed at increasing efficiency of state services, major policy changes in health and human services programs, and significant changes to the formulas used to allocate funds among school districts.

Read the California Budget Project Report. http://www.cbp.org/documents/110106_Gov_Budget_Release.pdf

Greece, Ireland, Italy, California -Keynes was Right

By Paul Krugman

“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.”  So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937. Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way.

Unfortunately, in late 2010 and early 2011, politicians and policy makers in much of the Western world believed that they knew better, that we should focus on deficits, not jobs, even though our economies had barely begun to recover from the slump that followed the financial crisis. And by acting on that anti-Keynesian belief, they ended up proving Keynes right all over again.

In declaring Keynesian economics vindicated I am, of course, at odds with conventional wisdom. In Washington, in particular, the failure of the Obama stimulus package to produce an employment boom is generally seen as having proved that government spending can’t create jobs. But those of us who did the math realized, right from the beginning, that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more than a third of which, by the way, took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts) was much too small given the depth of the slump. And we also predicted the resulting political backlash.

California Budget

In response to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) long-term fiscal forecast released today, Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, released the following statement:

“The LAO's new forecast underscores the fiscal challenges that California continues to face. The outlook suggests that revenues will lag the optimistic forecasts used as the basis of the 2011-12 spending plan and that shortfalls will persist absent significant additional revenues. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, both nationally and here in California, and state and local government job losses are weakening overall job growth.

“The LAO's report provides a first look at the state's fiscal outlook for the remainder of this year and beyond. It is important to note, however, that due to the timing of certain personal income tax payments, policymakers lack critical information needed to develop an accurate picture of the state's fiscal situation. Still, the budget shortfalls forecast by the LAO highlight the need for policymakers to take a balanced approach to addressing the state’s ongoing budget gaps. Without additional revenues, policymakers will be forced to make even deeper cuts to our public schools and universities and other public structures that underpin a strong economy and are essential to the lives of Californians.

“Policymakers should strive to address the state’s fiscal challenges with a multi-year approach that fosters long-term stability. Deeper spending cuts, such as those that would be imposed by the so-called 'triggers' in the June budget agreement, will only serve to slow an already struggling economy.”

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The California Budget Project (CBP) engages in independent fiscal and policy analysis and public education with the goal of improving public policies affecting the economic and social well-being of low- and middle-income Californians. Support for the CBP comes from foundation grants, subscriptions, and individual contributions. Please visit the CBP’s website at www.cbp.org.

Republican dishonesty in budget matters

Assemblyman Jim Nielson, R. has a viewpoint in the Sunday Bee. http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/20/4065890/dems-made-choice-not-to-fully.html
This is a response.

             This viewpoint is simply dishonest.  Yes funds for  the needed Veteran’s Home were cut.  But, it is deceptive to pretend that these fund cuts happened independent of the economic crisis we all live in. Also cut were schools, police, fire protection, children’s protective services,  parks, libraries,  senior services, and more. They were all cut because the Republicans, including Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, blocked any tax increases to pay for needed state resources. When you force a cut of everything, that includes veteran’s homes.

The nation  including California is suffering a severe recession – the worst since the Great Depression.  Twenty Six million  are unemployed and under employed. This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of the U.S.  unemployment rate and the loss millions of  manufacturing jobs and the tax revenues produced by people at work.   

We need to create a California state bank

 U.S. companies keeping their money abroad to avoid taxes.  These taxes could be used to hire teachers, police, firemen, etc.

Microsoft.  $42  Billion, Cisco systems. $38. 8 Billion, Google, $16 Billion. According to the N.Y. times, JP Morgan Chase estimates that U.S. based multinationals hold $1.375 Trillion outside of the U.S.

Many of these companies pay more taxes outside of the U,S., and a higher percentage of taxes outside of the U.S. than in the U.S.

What is an alternative?  Well to start with we should create a publically owned California bank to promote California prosperity. We need a bank that is a part of democratic planning in which what is invested, where it is invested, and how it is invested in democratically decided.

For example, the people of California are currently paying for, and will pay in the future for, a trans bay bridge at a cost of about  $13.5 Billion. The original proposal was for a  $3.5 Billion bridge.  The steel  for this bridge is being manufactured and created in China- while California has a 11.5  % unemployment rate. Where were these decisions made? Who made them?  Someone profited from these decisions, not you and I.

If we created a Bank of California, like the Bank of North Dakota, we could create a public utility like SMUD (The Sacramento Municipal  Utility District) to collect, manage and direct our tax money.  This would save us all  money.  When the state needed money, it could borrow from the bank and pay ourselves interest instead of paying Wells Fargo.

California Budget Crisis- Sources of revenue

It is clear that the California budget is in crisis and we can not simply cut our way out of the crisis.  Budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.

School funding reveals the nature of crisis.  In the last two years the k-12 budget “solutions” have cut 4.6 billion dollars from the schools. We have larger classes and fewer teachers.  School reform has stopped- except for the politicians hot air.  School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget.  Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse.

California will need to raise taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net.  Anti tax radicals and Republicans  oppose any tax increases.   The state ‘solutions’ of the last three years depended upon receiving federal stimulus money.  The stimulus monies are almost finished and with the Republican winning control  of Congress there will probably not be more funds.

The world wide economic crisis was created by  U.S. finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of U.S. unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs.  More than 15   million people are out of work.  At the national level almost all of the projected deficit through 2020 will be the result of three factors: the Great recession, the tax cuts of the early 2000s under George W. Bush, and the hundreds of billions of dollars of war spending.

The economic stalemate in California has produced school funding cuts far beyond reasonable levels.  At present,  the state ranks 47^th among all states in its per-pupil spending, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average.

  In California we need to spend more state money to improve schools, to develop roads and infrastructure, and to create jobs.  Those who are well educated are more employed and paying taxes while those with less education, those who leave school, are in a prolonged economic crisis.  It is well documented that our schools and our universities are in a finance crisis.  We need to be preparing young people for new jobs and to create new industries.  The success of students in higher education will significantly determine California’s future competitiveness and prosperity.   Improving education, including both k-12 and higher education, makes California more likely to attract investment and the creation of new jobs and new industries.

California Budget crisis grows

States’ Budget Woes Go Deep Below the Surface

New Brookings report shows seeds of deficit troubles were planted years ago, and problems may be larger than they appear

Washington, D.C. — As state governors and lawmakers begin work on their daunting budget challenges in the aftermath of the Great Recession, new research from the Brookings Institution’s Mountain West project and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University shows this situation actually has been building for several years, and may be worse that it first appears.

The new paper by the two research organizations, Structurally Unbalanced: Cyclical and Structural Deficits in California and the Intermountain West, looks at four states—Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nevada—and shows how these problems may go far beyond shorter- term revenue declines associated with the economic slowdown. Solving states’ budget challenges may be more difficult than is generally thought as they can involve massive, entrenched imbalances than will not disappear with economic recovery.

These four states have been among the hardest-hit by the Recession, and several are contending with deep, chronic imbalances that should serve as a caution to other states.

“The budgetary condition of many states is, if anything, worse than is recognized,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow and the policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. “The gravity of states’ short-term and especially longer-term deficits underscores that this is a time when state policymakers must break their bad habits and turn to more responsible budget planning practices that looks in a balanced way at the long-term fit of revenues to spending.”

Governor Brown and budget cuts

Governor Brown and the Republicans  propose to reduce the budget deficit  through cut backs in services, cuts to public employment, and reduction in public pensions.  This will not work.

Budget cutting to balance the budget will not get us out of this hole.  Look at Ireland, Greece, or Spain.  Budget cuts only start a downward spiral of pain.  Budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.

There are kids who need teachers, hospitals that need nurses, neighborhoods that need police and fire protection.

 As a result of the just passed federal tax reductions,  California’s richest taxpayers –those making over $310,000  per year -will be saving about $ 20  billion annually on their federal taxes. The Legislature should capture these tax resources to pay job creation  for the needed services in our state. 

Natomas school district budget crisis

A news story in today's Bee recounts the budget balancing of the Natomas School District by teachers giving wage concessions.

How did we get into this fix?  Well, first was the economic collapse caused by the bankers and the real estate fraud artists.  That took 13 Trillion from the economy crashing the U.S. and the international economy.  That produced a dramatic drop in sales tax and property taxes and a California economic crisis.  School funding reveals the nature of crisis.  In the last two years the k-12 budget “solutions” have cut 4.6 billion dollars from the schools. We have larger classes and fewer teachers.  School reform has stopped- except for the politicians hot air.  School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget.  Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse.  The crisis will get worse.

California will need to raise taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net.  Anti tax radicals and Republicans  oppose any tax increases.

Natomas was one of the early casualties.  Many more will follow- even with the teachers giving up salary.  The states and California are in a downward spiral and it will continue for at least 3-4 years.  The children, and the working people are paying for the robbery of the financial classes. And, they just held up unemployment benefits until the Republicans gave them a $700 Billion tax benefits. 
See the prior posts on the financial crisis and the state budget crisis.

California Budget crisis

 Feeding the Goose that lays the golden eggs.

It is clear that the California budget is in crisis, and the issues were  clarified in the budget summit sponsored by Governor elect Jerry Brown on Wednesday, December 7. There are no quick nor easy solutions. We can not simply cut our way out of the crisis, budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.

School funding reveals the nature of crisis.  In the last two years the k-12 budget “solutions” have cut 4.6 billion dollars from the schools. We have larger classes and fewer teachers.  School reform has stopped- except for the politicians hot air.  School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget.  Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse.

California will need to raise taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net.  Anti tax radicals and Republicans  oppose any tax increases.   The state ‘solutions’ of the last three years depended upon receiving federal stimulus money.  The stimulus monies are almost finished and with the Republican winning control  of Congress there will probably not be more funds.

The California economy , if it were a country, would be the 8^th. largest economy in the world.   The California economy is larger than that of Brazil, Spain, Canada, India, Russia, Australia and most of the rest of the world.  California can and should use Keynesian economic policies to find  our way out of this economic crisis.  We are, of course, a state integrated into a national economy, so the collapse of the U.S. economy will have a direct effect on our ability to use Keynesian stimulus to grow the economy.   For description of Keynesian economics see here.  http://www.newdeal20.org/2009/07/01/keynesian-economics-101-894/

The California budget crisis

What caused this  budget crisis?

The proposed state budget takes 3.1 billion from k-12 schools, closes parks, forces state worker furlough’s and more.  County and city budget cuts reduce our police protection, cause limits on fire protection, and close mental health facilities pushing some of the mentally ill into jails and prisoners out of our jails early  on to the streets.

While  state budget reforms are needed, the basic cause of this crisis is the economic crisis in the nation.

 Crisis in the states.

The current  economic crisis has forced the cutting of higher education, of k-12 education, and of social welfare systems.  This crisis was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.

First came the housing bubble and the selling of near fraudulent home mortgages.  To make a profit m ajor banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown.  Now, they have been rewarded with bail out money.  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security.   Now we have cuts in parks,  in universities, in nurses, libraries.  School children did not create this crisis.

Clean up the California budget mess

 The budget resolution being hammered out at the Capitol could have been completed and signed by July 1,2010. They are negotiating how schools will be repaid for past spending cuts- a Prop. 98 requirement, and how to deal with the 2.1 billion dollar tax  giveaway to the corporations last year.

This deal was not completed earlier because the two sides; Republicans and Democrats refused to compromise, and because of the 2/3 requirement to pass a budget which allowed the minority party (the Republicans) to block passage of any reasonable tax increase and to insist on harsh budget cuts.

Irrespective of how you support or do not support these tax devices, the 2/3 vote rule imposes minority rule on the legislature and produces these stalled budgets. Prop. 25 would eliminate the 2/3 vote rule for the budget.

Without the ability of a minority party to hold the budget hostage, the Democrats would have passed a budget in June, and the Republican governor would have used his line item veto to eliminate many programs.  At present the Governor is holding out for a deal that would cut pensions for state workers.  Only a 2/3 vote could overturn the line item vetoes.   We would be in the place we are now, but we would have been there in July.

I urge all to vote Yes and Prop. 25 and stop this minority rule.  It does not serve the people of California.  The majority should make decisions and should be held accountable.

I urge you to vote Yes on Prop 24.  This would take away the tax windfall given to several corporations in the budget negotiations last year.  The Republicans insisted on a tax windfall to large corporations  to get the needed 2/3 vote.

It is past time to fix the budget mess. Vote Yes on Prop. 25.

Duane Campbell

This message has not been approved by the Sacramento Bee. 

The economic consequences of state budget cuts

by Ken Jacobs, Laurel Lucia and T. William Lester May 2010

When it comes to jobs and the economy, not all solutions to California’s budget shortfall are equal. Most measures designed to reduce the deficit will have a depressing effect on employment and economic growth in the state, but the magnitude of that impact will vary significantly depending on which measures are enacted.

 In this brief, we estimate the economic impact of Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed 2010–2011 budget using IMPLAN 3.0, an industry-standard input-out- put modeling software package. We further compare the economic impacts of these cuts with an alternative approach that mixes spending cuts with targeted revenue increases sufficient to avoid cuts in programs that bring in a federal match.

We estimate that the Governor’s proposed budget would result in a loss of 331,000 full-time equivalent jobs, increasing the unemployment rate by 1.8 percentage points.1 More than half of the jobs lost would be in the private sector. Because many of the jobs lost are part time, the actual number of Californians affected would be much greater. The number of jobs estimated to be lost is much greater than the entire employment growth for the state projected by the Legislative Analyst’s Office for 2011.2

Reactions to the Governor's budget proposals

Jean Ross, California Budget Project

Largely because of the economic downturn, California once again faces a very difficult budget year. But the Governor's May Revision is not the balanced, responsible approach called for at this critical time. It relies too heavily on proposed cuts, threatens the state's economic recovery, and recklessly gambles with our future. It pulls the rug out from under families already struggling with double-digit unemployment rates and the worst economic crisis this country has seen since the Great Depression and would leave the state ill-prepared to compete in an ever more competitive global economy.

Senator Lelan Yee (D)

When you propose to lay off teachers, close domestic violence shelters, and take away critical social services and health care, there is no doubt you have a revenue problem. I have opposed and will continue to oppose all budgets that are balanced on the backs of our students, elderly and working poor. We must claw back tax credits for corporations that abandon California, implement an oil severance tax like all other states, and ensure the wealthy pay their fair share. For too long, we have allowed Republicans to keep taxes off the table. Democrats need to stand strong and say draconian cuts to education and other critical services will not be tolerated.

California majority rule campaign

 Campaigns  are up and running throughout the state  to place an initiative on the  California ballot for majority rule- that is for democracy.  The campaign is particularly strong on U C campuses and is seeking to spread to CSU and Community college campuses as well as to the general public.  Volunteer  field directors and county coordinators are distributing petitions and organizing a structure to gain 1 million signatures by April 3,2010. 

  The California budget  is in deep trouble  for the next several years , and the problem is aggravated the  anti democratic limits on the legislature’s ability to pass a budget.   George Lakoff  sent to the Attorney General a ballot proposition for the 2010 ballot called The California Democracy Act,  which simply says,

All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.

It’s just  this one sentence.  It would change two words in the Constitution, turning "two-thirds" to "majority" in two places.

Money for California's schools

When teachers argue that school funding should not be cut, we are told by the  Republicans in the legislature that there is not choice, there just is no money.

Well, that is not really true.  Here is where reasonable people would get the revenue.

1.     Repeal the September 2008 and February 2009 tax cuts.  As a part of the Sept. 2008 and Feb. 2009 budget deals, the legislature created huge new corporate tax breaks.  That right.  To respond to a budget crisis, they gave new tax reductions to corporations.  These take effect in 2011 and will make the budget crisis worse.  What is to be done ? Repeal of tax credit sharing to  raise 2009-10 revenues by $80 million, over time, the permanent tax cuts will cost the state $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion.

2.      Reinstate 10 percent and 11 percent tax rates to 1991 levels, adjusted for inflation. The February tax increases disproportionately affect low- and middle-income taxpayers. Reinstatement of the top brackets would restore balance to the state’s tax system and raise $4 billion to $6 billion in additional revenues.

3.     Impose on oil severance tax. California is the only oil producing jurisdiction in the world without a severance tax. A tax of 9.9 percent, such as that proposed by the Governor, would raise upwards of $1 billion dollars.

We, the people, own this oil.  It is under California soil.  Oil companies only take it out.  They should pay to take our oil out of the ground and to sell it to us.  Even arch conservative Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska have oil severance taxes.