As we have noted many times, it is very hard to get an initiative on
the ballot without hiring signature-gathering firms (which will cost $1-$2
million). And if the initiative gets on
the ballot, millions more will be needed for TV ads, etc., if there is
opposition. An oil severance tax to fund higher ed would clearly have such opposition - from the oil
industry.
All that said, there is such an effort underway (as noted in
prior posts):
…Conceived by UC-Berkeley students,
the California Modernization and Economic
Development Act places a 9.5 percent tax on oil and gas extracted from California; supporters
say it would bring about $2 billion of new revenue per year. Of that, about
$1.2 billion would be allocated in four equal parts towards K-12 education, California Community Colleges, California
State University and the University
of California. Another
$400 million or so would be used to provide businesses with subsidies for
switching to cleaner, cheaper forms of energy, and about $300 million would go
to county governments for infrastructure repair, public works projects, and
funding public services…
At least there is a
song to go with the effort:
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