Democrat Proposes Windfall Oil Profits Tax - Arnie Won't Rule It Out

[Kadie]

Democrat Proposes Windfall Oil Profits Tax
Schwarzenegger Won't Rule It Out

POSTED: 9:44 am PDT April 24, 2006
UPDATED: 9:46 am PDT April 24, 2006


SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As motorists grumble about gasoline costs hovering around $3 a gallon, a Democratic lawmaker is trying to slap a so-called windfall profits tax on oil companies.

Assemblyman Johan Klehs, D-San Leandro, has a bill that would levy a 2 percent surtax on oil company income of more than $10 million a year. It was scheduled to be taken up Monday by the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, which Klehs chairs.

The tax would raise $120 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and larger amounts in subsequent years, according to estimates by the state Franchise Tax Board. The surtax would sunset in 2010 unless extended by lawmakers.

Windfall profits taxes have been proposed several times before, but Klehs' bill is written in a way that could at least get it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has opposed any attempt to raise taxes.

In an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Schwarzenegger didn't rule out the possibility. The Republican governor called record profits by oil producers in recent months "unbelievable ... outrageous," and sympathized with residents whose household budgets are being drained by climbing pump prices.

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http://www.kcra.com/news/8959035/detail.html

[Kolesar]

1. Arnold has no integrity on the energy issue

He was in bed with Enron before the electricity rate ripoff and used that issue to have Governor Gray Davis recalled.

[sam sarrha]

2. 100% on all futures speculation/hedges which equals 20% of the cost of gas