Yes on 87

As the elections draw near we find ourselves inundated with advertising that does more to confuse us than anything. Proposition 87 is a great example of this. For those of you outside of California this won't apply, but hopefully it will give you some inspiration to look into your local propositions, too.

Proposition 87 is a proposed tax of about $400 million a year on the oil industry that operates in California. Unlike every other state in the union, California doesn't charge an oil drilling tax, so the idea is to tax these huge windfall profits from the oil companies and earmark the funding for alternative energy sources. Crazy stuff, huh?

Opposition to this bill has been completely funded by big oil. Surprised? They falsely claim that such a tax would discourage companies from drilling in California and so we would end up shipping in more foreign oil and the consumer would be hit hard by such a move.

Bullshit. Does anyone recall the Exxon chief who got a retirement deal of $400 million? Now if one oil company can afford to pay one of its employees $400 million, certainly the entire oil industry can scrape together $400 million for the people of California. Afterall, they are stealing our oil. Moreover, even with the $400 million a year they will have to pay out under prop. 87, it is estimated that their profit margin will still be around 60%. Is their any company in the world that would walk away from such high profit margins?

If you see the commercials on TV, turn it off. The oil companies don't care about us. From the looks of it, this is a very descent proposition. Vote yes on proposition 87.

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