


Oil Company Tax Update
The Hamilton Consulting Group
Updated June 1,
2009
2009 Budget Debate
Oil Company Tax Legal Analysis Documents:
WMCA/WATDA Release on Foley Memo (April 22, 2009)
Foley Legal Memo on Oil Company Tax – Executive Summary (April 21, 2009)
Foley Legal Memo on Oil Company Tax – Full Memo (April 21, 2009)
Transportation
Funding Alternative and Related Legal Memos:
Transportation Funding Alternative Memo (March 25, 2009)
Lawton & Cates (Former AG Lautenschlager) Memo (Apr. 19,
2007)
Michael, Best and Friedrich Memo (May 30, 2007)
Wisconsin Legislative Council Memo to Speaker Huebsch
(Feb. 26, 2007)
Related Press Releases and News Articles:
This tax must be magic (opinion): Kenosha News, June 1, 2009. State
expects to tax oil companies but not their customers. But Doyle seems to
think that since what he’s proposed is a tax on the gross receipts of fuel
suppliers, not the fuel itself, it will be just the oil companies that pay,
not the people who use gasoline.
Tax on big oil
companies clears legislative budget committee: Janesville Gazette, June
1, 2009. The committee approved the 2.5 percent tax on oil sold in the
state, with a provision prohibiting the tax from being passed along to
consumers at the pump. Opponents have argued the tax is unconstitutional and
will be tossed out in court.
Tax on
big oil companies survives committee: Duluth News Tribune, May 30, 2009.
Gov. Jim Doyle said Friday he was confident Wisconsin can tax big oil
companies and stop them from passing the cost on to drivers at the pump, but
critics fear it will tie the state up in court for years.
Road money uncertainty plagues industry: The Daily Reporter, May 29,
2009. The oil-franchise fee is on its way to the state Assembly with waning
support from lawmakers and a road-building industry wondering how the state
will pay for projects.
Legal fight expected after endorsement of
proposed oil company tax: River Falls
Journal, May 29, 2009. The New York Supreme Court struck down a similar tax
in that state in 1983, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce
Clause.
Oil tax hits harder as prices climb, co-ops say: Cooperative Network
Press Release, May 7, 2009. If an oil tax proposed in the state budget bill
had been in effect last year it would have added almost eight cents per
gallon to the already-soaring price of gasoline and more than nine cents per
gallon to the price of diesel fuel, according to a statewide cooperative
business group.
Council
opposes oil tax: Superior Telegram, May 5, 2009. Superior’s City Council
is adding its voice to growing opposition on a proposal that would tax oil
revenue. And it’s not alone, according to Council President Dan Olson, who
joined Council Vice President Bob Finsland in presenting a resolution to
oppose the proposed state tax.
State gas tax debated: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, May 1, 2009. Critics
of the plan say that efforts to ban suppliers from passing on the tax to
consumers will not stand up in court.
Demand a guarantee
for gas tax hike in Wisconsin (opinion): Wisconsin State Journal, Apr.
29, 2009. In the short term, lawmakers should combine spending cuts with a
gasoline tax increase to come up with the $270 million that Doyle planned to
raise with the oil tax.
Doyle
says raising gas tax 'worthy of consideration': Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, Apr. 22, 2009. He also repeated comments made in December that the
state probably should not have eliminated annual increases in the gas tax,
even though he signed that change into law in 2005.
Doyle open to gas
tax as alternative to oil company tax: Wisconsin State Journal, Apr.
20, 2009. Doyle wants to pay for roads by raising taxes on oil companies
by $272 million over two years and then requiring the firms not to pass
the tax on to consumers.
Doyle's oil tax plan would be a nightmare (opinion): Eau Claire
Leader-Telegram, Apr. 21, 2009. The tax is a bad idea. It will be
impossible to stop oil companies from passing the tax along, and it will
have a negative impact on business development in the state.
Transportation money ideas running on empty: The Daily Reporter, Apr.
21, 2009. Replacing the state budget’s proposed oil-assessment fee with a
3-cent gas tax increase will do nothing to ease the political battles
brewing over transportation project money, lawmakers said Tuesday.
Wisconsin
Farm groups unite against oil tax: Midwest AGnet, April 21, 2009.
Wisconsin Farmers Union, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and Cooperative
Network said the proposed oil tax threatens to take away millions of dollars
in patronage-based payments now going to members of local non-profit farm
supply co-ops.
Wake from the (oil) pipe dream (opinion): Racine Journal Times, Apr.
19, 2009. If the state simply refrained from using the fund which
shouldn’t have been raided to begin with, we would not now be debating a
tax of dubious effectiveness.
Save Wisconsin
from oil tax nightmare (opinion): Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 18,
2009. Gov. Doyle's plan to impose a special tax on oil companies has the
word "backfire" written all over it. Lawmakers should remove it from the
state budget.
Thinking
long term (opinion): Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Apr. 6, 2009.
Trying to tax Big Oil won't work. A better bet to provide needed funding
for roads is a small hike in the gas tax - for now - and then rethinking
road financing entirely.
WI Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Assoc.
New poll confirms
majority of Wisconsin citizens oppose oil franchise tax. [Key findings of poll.]
One more
open vein (opinion): Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Apr. 4, 2009. The
gas tax is running out of gas. So Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed, yet
again, a sort of back-door gas tax called an "oil profits tax."
[PDF]
I am not Big Oil: FoxPolitics.net, Apr. 2, 2009. Budget hearing.
Opponents of oil tax launch ads: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mar.
31, 2009. A coalition of independent gas stations and convenience stores
launched two 60-second radio spots this week critical of the suggested
tax.
Oil
company fee faces possible lawsuits: The Daily Reporter, Mar. 17, 2009.
The specter of a prolonged legal battle looms over Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed
oil-franchise fee, threatening the more than $271 million the tax could
generate for the state’s transportation system.
Oil tax would harm rural economy: Cooperative Network, March 2009. A
gross receipts tax on motor fuel sales, part of Governor Doyle’s $63
billion state budget package, would likely eliminate distribution of
cooperative patronage capital and harm grassroots economic reinvestment
that could otherwise help revive our state’s battered economy.
Governor promotes budget in Superior: Superior Telegram, Feb. 19,
2009. Locally, officials worry the oil tax could put Murphy Oil in
Superior -- the state’s only refinery -- at a competitive disadvantage
in its own market.
Wis. Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Assoc. goes up to bat
against proposed oil franchise tax, educating consumers and legislators
on ramifications: WPMCA Press Release, Mar. 30, 2009.
Cooperatives on TV in opposition to ‘Big Oil’ Tax: Cooperative
Network Press Release, Mar. 26, 2009.
Darling on oil assessment tax: Wisconsin Radio Network, Mar. 20,
2009. People aren't buying it.
2007-08 Budget
General Position Statements & Support
Documents
Legal Flaws Threaten Transportation Fund
Legal Analysis
Related News/Positions
Merely-a-Gas-Tax Documents
Analysis
Related News/Positions
Analysis Finds Proposed Gas Tax up 64 Percent Since Introduced. WMC, May
23, 2007.
Oil tax seen as raising gas 7 cents: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May
23, 2007.
Opponents of Oil Tax Say Consumers will Pay More: WKBT.com, May 23,
2007.
Opponents Of Proposed Oil Tax Say Consumers Will Pay More:
Channel3000.com, May 23, 2007.
WMC targets Governor's oil tax: Wisconsin Radio Network, May 23, 2007.
Editorials/Articles
Oil tax seen
as raising gas 7 cents: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mar. 23, 2009.
The complicated oil tax argument (opinion): Beloit Daily News, May 31,
2007. [PDF]
Behind the Push for the Oil Tax: Boots and Sabers Blog, May 24, 2007.
Tax on Big Oil
fuels problems on many levels (opinion): Janesville Gazette, Apr. 12,
2007. [PDF]
Doyle's Tax Proposals Not Good Policy: Wisconsin State Journal, Mar. 26,
2007. [PDF]
Reject Doyle’s oil tax proposal (opinion): Coulee news, Feb. 27, 2007.
[PDF]
Doyle’s oil tax will hurt consumers (opinion): Badger Herald, Feb. 19,
2007. [PDF]
Reject Doyle's Oil Tax Proposal (opinion): Wisconsin State Journal, Feb.
17, 2007. [PDF]
Miscellaneous Articles
Oil profits tax advances: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 31, 2007.
Petroleum industry fighting 'Doyle oil tax': Milwaukee Business
Journal, Mar. 2, 2007.
Doyle wants tax on oil companies: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 12,
2007.
Doyle will propose taxing big oil: Racine Journal Times, Feb. 12, 2007.
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