Around the nation: Alabama’s ‘Big Oil’ tax

"When Alabama’s legislature completed next year’s budget, they weren’t counting on having to refund $63 million in overpaid taxes to offshore oil companies. A recent court ruling, however, has compelled Alabama’s politicos to get that money back. Solution: a punitive tax hike of $200 million over six years on energy companies. That’ll teach those nasty oil companies to win a lawsuit. Gov. Bob Riley went so far as to accuse opponents of the tax hike of “lining the pockets of big oil companies.” Believe it or not, Riley and his fellow pickpockets are Republicans.

As we have noted before, in the end, it will not be the big, bad oil companies paying the taxes, but consumers at the gas pump. Furthermore, Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union writes, “A study by economists Robert J. Shapiro and Nam D. Pham found that 98.5% of oil company stock is owned by some combination of individual investors and managed investment vehicles, like mutual and pension funds. Only 1.5% is owned by oil company insiders such as board members. Any attempt to target a tax hike, even toward politically convenient oil companies, will ultimately mean a one-two punch to middle-class pocketbooks already softened up by a slowing economy.” If this keeps up, residents of “Sweet Home Alabama” may even become bitter and begin clinging to their guns and religion."

-Patriot Post