Probably the most tragic part of the way California’s budget crisis is being dealt with in Sacramento is that all solutions being seriously considered revolve around butchery. The only word that has drawn political consensus is “cut,” a word our actor-turned-governor should be accustomed to hearing.
The only real debate seems to be over which vulnerable programs to take the scalpel to, and how deep the surgeon should slice. Education, welfare, health care and public assistance to the aged and disabled are the patients in the emergency room.
Not many legislators are working on actually generating new revenue to keep the state solvent. Sickeningly, some of the potential sources for increasing cash flow are resources in the public domain; resources all Californians should benefit from, but in reality don’t.
Nobody flinches that the only significant budget increase proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for 2009-2010 is $4 billion for corrections. This will surpass what the state spends on education — but we’re afraid of being seen as soft on crime.
The Public Policy Institute of California earlier this year projected the state will fall almost one million short of college-educated workers by 2025 — probably an optimistic estimate. So let’s cut education.
Another revenue source that already belongs to the citizens of California is oil.
Assembly Bill 656, the Oil and Gas Severance Tax to Fund Higher Education proposal written by Democratic State Assemblyman Albert Torrico, would establish a dedicated funding pool for higher education. The bill, if passed, would tax oil and gas drillers 9.9 percent for what they extract — and dedicate that money to the state’s three higher education systems.
AB 656, however, is being pooh-poohed by Republicans as a socialist concept. The Assembly decided on Tuesday to table discussing the bill for a couple of weeks, until they’ve decided what social programs to hack away. Republicans are crazy glued to the “No new taxes” mantra. They claim taxing oil would drive out business, something already shown to be a fallacy; Oil industries can’t pick up the oil and move it to another state.
This concept is already used in Republican states. Alaska, under the leadership of Gov. Sarah “Drill baby Drill” Palin, created just such a law in 2007. Alaska’s oil and gas severance tax is 25 percent, but that isn’t socialism in conservative eyes.
Texas, also Republican, has had a dedicated endowment for higher education since the 1800s, paid for by the state’s oil severance tax. As a result, Texas’s public higher learning isn’t prone to collapse, like California’s.
By having a dedicated endowment for the state’s public higher learning systems through a severance tax on public property, California could free up money from the General Fund to protect other programs being eliminated.
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