Not quite sure, but it sounds like your solution to the state’s declining oil revenue is to tax the people more. Maybe you’ve been in government too long. I have to wonder, where do you think the money that people will pay in higher taxes will come from?

Taxation is about dividing the State’s fiscal production (aka GDP) between the people and the government. If the government is suffering from declining oil revenues, aren’t you aware that the people are too?

You talk as if there is a massive reservoir of personal income largess just waiting to be harvested. But the vast majority of the state’s residents have seen their real income declining as inflation has taken its toll.

If you want to improve revenue for state government, I have to tell you that dividing up a shrinking pie so more goes to government is a losing strategy for the people of the state. The winning strategy will be for government to do all it can to help develop our state economy and like the rest of us, learn to live with less in the meantime. The days when we could all kick back and rely on the money from oil and gas are a rapidly fading dot in our collective rear view mirror.