Photo: Jordan for Assembly
Friday, Candidate for the 35th Assembly District Susan Jordan, called on Governor Schwarzenegger to return more than $65,000 in contributions from oil companies.
“I issued a press release demanding that the Governor return $65,000 in donations from oil companies that he received in the last three weeks - a portion of which comes from a company that hopes to expand drilling off Carpinteria and Goleta,” said Jordan.
The California Dream Team, a Schwarzenegger political action committee (PAC) has accepted contributions totaling $65,000 from Conoco Phillips, Occidental Petroleum, Breitburn Management, Vaquero Energy, and Venoco oil companies. Reporting $6,529,203 in contributions this year alone, the Schwarzenegger PAC is a formidable political force. Having already spent more than $4,000,000 this year, the PAC supports Republican issues statewide. The PAC is rather ambiguous as to any specific goals, but with top contributors from the gas and oil industry it’s not a hard to guess one priority.
The Governor supports plans to significantly expand oil drilling off the coast. Plans adamantly opposed by most Central Coast Democrats, including Susan Jordan.
"When Governor Schwarzenegger ran for office, he said that the legislature shouldn't accept contributions during the budget process because, in his words, 'when the contributions come in, the favors go out,' " states Jordan. "He should practice what he preaches, particularly when it comes to money from oil companies with business before the State Lands Commission and his administration."
"You don't have to have too much of an imagination to connect the dots," she said. "The Governor should return these contributions, particularly while he is deciding the fate of legislation and executive actions that would affect the central California coast."
Schwarzenegger has opposed an oil severance tax that could raise “$1.5 billion for public health and safety, education, environmental protection, essential local services and green jobs development and help erase the state deficit,” according to the press release.
Seen as a potentially a partial solution by Democrats to close the budget gap, severance taxes are seen as able to raise revenues while spreading the tax burden widely. This “wellhead tax” is common in oil producing states. According to California Assembly Democrats, “California is the only oil-producing state that does not tax oil that is owned, leased, or extracted from private lands in this state.” Other states tax at rates “from 2% to 15%” at the wellhead. Assembly Democrats were proposing a modest 6% tax in 2006, and early this year.
Contact Susan Jordan at jordan4assembly@gmail.com.
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