Assembly tangles over taxes

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How polarizing is the idea of raising taxes in Sacramento these days? A proposal just to study a tax on oil led Wednesday to one of the longest and most heated debates in the Assembly this week. The measure would have the Board of Equalization estimate how much the state could get if it slapped a 12.5% levy on oil and natural gas pumped from the ground in California.

After a half-hour of acrimonious exchanges, Democrats voted en masse for the tax study and Republicans, suspicious that it is the first step toward actually imposing the tax, voted as a bloc against the measure. Democrats accused their GOP colleagues of protecting rich oil barons at the expense of poor kids, while Republicans charged those across the aisle were embarking on a job-killing crusade to redistribute wealth, a la Karl Marx. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) authored AB 656, expecting a study will show that an oil extraction tax could raise $1.3 billion or more to help finance universities, which have had to raise the amount charged students in the last year. The fees and budget cuts have had ‘devastating impacts’’ on higher education, he told colleagues, adding, ‘We are increasing fees on working families.’’

But Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point) warned an oil tax would create ‘carnage’’ in the state’s economy, raising the cost of doing business and resulting in layoffs. ‘We cannot afford to be killing off jobs,’’ she said. The Assembly voted 41-27 to send the bill to the state Senate for consideration.

--Patrick McGreevy