Oil Extraction Tax

Under current law, oil companies in California don't pay the state anything for taking oil out of the ground. If it comes from offshore, the oil companies pay the federal government a tax, but if it comes from the state itself, no one is collecting anything. Oil companies have been collecting and profiting off this common good own by all the citizens of the state for a hundred years without any tax revenue being generated for the state.

Just about every other oil producing state has an extraction or severance tax. Alaska charges 25% and it hasn't hindered their economic development in the least. Texas also taxes for the extraction of their oil creating two billion in revenue each year.

So, the fear might be that this tax would raise the price of gas at the pump. Not really. The demand would still be there. The price of oil on the world market would barely blink at this new tax.

This is another one of those easy answers once there is some political will. Just throwing the idea out there so maybe there will be enough will sometime soon.