2 responses to “Tax Time: Doing our share, or more”

1. Joe

   April 12, 2026

   On second thought, I’ll save you the trouble of hunting down the response from USOGA:

   Good evening
   @RepRoKhanna
   . We hope you had a nice Saturday.

   Several people have requested we comment on your post. We will quickly before we take Mrs. USOGA out for date night.

   First – like you, we hope this war will end soon and things will return to normal. Until then – things will be what they will be.

   But high gas prices in your district aren’t “Trump’s war”—they’re Sacramento’s doing.

   California drivers pay nearly double the national average in state taxes, plus cap-and-trade, Low Carbon Fuel Standard, unique reformulated gasoline, refinery limits, and geographic isolation that blocks cheap imports.

   That adds $1.00–$1.78+ over the U.S. average.

   Here is our suggestion. Your proposed windfall profits tax will do nothing to bring relief to your overtaxed and underappreciated constituents.

   Instead -suspend those state-level taxes first and bring California prices in line with the national average.

   Put your state bureaucracy on a diet. They could stand to shed a few pounds.

   Encourage California domestic oil and gas production and expand your refinery capacity instead of shutting it down.

   Stand up to your Governor. You know he is wrong and you can be on the right side of things

   And let’s talk windfall profits tax.

   They don’t work. While you don’t call it a windfall profits tax, California recently passed one and called it a “wealth tax” now you see high net worth individuals fleeing your state.

   History proves it backfires.

   The 1980 Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax cut domestic production 1–8% (hundreds of millions of barrels lost), boosted imports 3–13%, raised far less revenue than projected after deductions, created massive bureaucracy, and was repealed in 1988 because it discouraged supply exactly when America needed more.

   That in turn led us to depend even more on Middle East imports for another 20 years right up until the shale revolution occurred. Kind of like how California is dependent on imports now.

   Your repeated sponsorship of a new Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act would repeat the exact same mistake—shrinking U.S. output and raising costs.

   Crude exports? They expand global supply, narrow price spreads (WTI-Brent) which is exerts downward pressure on world prices.

   It is directly helping allies in Europe and Asia counter China’s skirting sanctions and colluding with Iran to purchase crude at huge discounts.

   Restricting exports would tighten markets, spike costs everywhere—including here—and hurt the consumers you claim to protect.

   Finally we must also point out that
   your voting record shows consistent opposition to our industry you want to tax. For example, you:

   Voted against leasing more public lands and waters for oil drilling (2023, Roll Call 23).

   Voted against reversing land-management protections to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling—multiple times, including 2025 Roll Call 295 and earlier efforts to halt ANWR development.

   Opposed critical oil and gas leasing reforms and fast-tracking fossil-fuel infrastructure (2024 Roll Call 95; 2025 votes undermining LNG authority and blocking fracking bans).

   Voted NO on NDAA provisions that would expedite oil/gas permitting (2022–2023).

   You have a 99% lifetime League of Conservation Voters score—near-perfect opposition to domestic energy exploration, production and leasing.

   You’ve led hearings attacking us and sponsored bills to repeal industry tax provisions.

   Fine—own that record.

   But please stop shifting blame to “Trump’s war” or federal policy while California’s own choices keep your constituents paying the highest pump prices in America.

   Real relief comes from more American supply + streamlined permitting, not recycled 1980s taxes or more restrictions.

   Energy abundance, not rhetoric, lowers prices and bolsters U.S. and allied security.
   ——————
   Ouch!

2. Joe

   April 15, 2026

   Two minds thinking alike–me and John Horgan from his column today……read it and weep

   It is April 15. Gulp. Federal and state income tax payments for 2025 are due. So it’s an appropriate time to consider a financial reality again: We live in one of the most heavily-taxed regions of the nation. And it only gets more onerous.

   Taxes and fees, especially state and local levies, rarely (if ever) go down; they simply rise inexorably. The plaintiff (Ed: I think he means plaintive) pleas for more and more and more taxpayer dollars do not die down; they only grow louder, more intense.

   The current environment is particularly ripe with public agencies planning to tap the wallets of their constituents via big ballot measures brewing in bunches this year. What’s on the horizon could be a tidal wave of fresh taxes and other forms of revenue enhancement.

   No matter where you look, it’s a drumbeat of increasingly purported fiscal need and dire threats of reduced services — whether BART, Caltrain, your favorite public school district/city or county government, you name it.

   There are so many public entities readying new levies it’s tough to keep track of them all. There are lots of reasons offered for what is being presented as what amounts to a regional nightmare:

   • Pandemic funds have dried up.

   • Public transit ridership never recovered from the pandemic.

   • The state is holding back money owed to the county.

   • Federal poo-bahs are trimming cash outlays to California.

   • Some public school district enrollments are dropping.

   • The hyper-wealthy don’t shell out enough in tax proceeds.

   • Operating and capital costs just keep rising.

   On that final note, it’s worth pointing out that it isn’t just worker wages that rise; so do fringe (and not-so-fringe) benefits. Generally speaking, local taxing agencies see their benefits packages (pension, medical, dental, etc.) approaching about 30% of total employee costs.

   In most instances, the authorities never mention the relationship between their own taxes/fees and their effect on inflation and the cost of living here.

   They tend to lament a dire “affordability crisis” while at the same time making moves to worsen that very economic condition for residents who must pay the freight.

   Tone deaf? You bet. Tighten your purse strings. A tax tsunami is heading our way.