Given that these companies are profiting as never before with the increasing shipments of Bakken crude by rail to Washington State, this tax break is long overdue for closure. If you want to contact your legislators and let them know you support it, it will help counterbalance the irrational claims of the oil industry lobbyists to keep it. The savings that will come back into the state treasury will be earmarked for the public schools, sorely in need of more funding.
SEATTLE — Washington lawmakers considered a plan Thursday that would eliminate a decades-old tax break now used by oil refineries to save millions of dollars each year.
A state House committee heard testimony on a bill that would narrow a tax exemption for extracted fuels and direct the new revenues to the state education system. The state projects the change would raise an extra $30 million a year for the state and another $10 million a year for local governments.
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Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/02/06/3460811/wash-looks-at-eliminating-oil.html#storylink=cpy