California ’s system of higher education is at a breaking point.
Last month, almost 10,000 students, staff and faculty at UC campuses literally walked out on the first day of classes in protest. The crisis is just as severe on our state university campuses and throughout our community college system.
In order to close the gap caused by ongoing state budget cuts, UC, Community College and Cal State schools have proposed additional fee increases up to 41% and cuts that would devastate academic programs and increase class sizes.
This one-two punch of higher costs and reduced academic programs couldn’t come at a more difficult time, as students face the worst job market in decades and are increasingly burdened by mounting debt.
It’s time to take action to save California ’s higher education system. I have authored a bill to address this problem directly. If passed, my bill AB 656 would raise up to $1 billion for the UC, CSU and Community College system with a 9.9 percent tax on oil extracted within California .
While our state struggles with record deficits, the oil industry has been enjoying record profits. Yet California remains the only state in the nation not to capture directly some of this oil wealth for the public. Other oil producing states levy an extraction tax on oil production – a process known as a “severance tax.” Texas , for instance, generates $400 million yearly for higher education through mineral and oil rights.
This is not some abstract proposal – every single oil-producing state in the nation already imposes an oil severance tax and our proposed 9.9 percent is considerably less than the 25 percent tax levied in Alaska . Last year alone, Exxon Mobil earned a $45.2 billion profit, the most ever by a publicly traded U.S. company. And the year before was nearly as lucrative: Exxon profited $40.6 billion, Shell $31.3 billion, British Petroleum $20.8 billion and Chevron $18.7 billion.
AB 656 will redirect a fraction of these profits to the place where California needs it most: our higher education system. It has never been more important to make sure the Californian workforce is prepared with a quality education. A Public Policy Institute of California study found that at least 41% of workers will need a Bachelor’s degree to meet the state’s projected economic needs by the year 2025. But skyrocketing tuition and fee increases will put a quality college education out of reach for too many Californians.
Our state’s universities generate billions of dollars in economic activity and attract billions more in research dollars, money that fuels key industries like agriculture, energy and biotechnology. We simply can’t afford to let this economic engine sputter.
It will not be easy to take on big oil. It is a multibillion-dollar industry that will spend millions of dollars to preserve its tax loopholes. But we have hundreds of thousands of Californians ready to fight back to save education.
The time has never been better and our tools have never been stronger. You can help our fight today by joining the Facebook page “Fair Share for Fair Tuition” or emailing your local legislator to support AB 656 – the 9.9 percent severance tax on big oil and gas to save California higher education.
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