Billions At Stake for State in Tax Challenge Going Back to 1997.
Billions At Stake for State in Tax Challenge
by Jim Malewitz March 7, 2016
http://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/07/billions-dollars-stake-court-hear-oil-drillers-tax/
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that could deliver a multibillion-dollar windfall to struggling oil and gas producers by taking a major bite out of state tax revenue.
The issue before the justices may sound arcane: Are metal pipes, tubing and other equipment used in oil and gas extraction exempt from sales taxes? But a yes to that question, brought by a Midland-based driller, could trigger a flood of refunds that would wipe out the state’s projected $4 billion budget surplus, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar warns.
“This one’s as big as they come,” the Republican said in an interview. “The neon light lights up, because of the sticker shock.”
Southwest Royalties, a subsidiary of Clayton Williams Energy, filed its lawsuit in 2009, just before improved technology unleashed a surge of oil production that transformed the U.S. energy landscape. Susan Combs, Hegar’s predecessor, was named in the original lawsuit, which has wound through the court system for years.
The driller is challenging the agency’s refusal to refund the company for certain purchases between 1997 and 2001, when operators were feeling the pain of cheap oil.
more at link
http://www.oaoa.com/news/business/article_a8adac48-ab0e-5f34-98c1-dda8468ba9f2.html
Williams wants the Texas Supreme Court to make the State of Texas taxpayers refund energy industry for sales taxes paid to the state since 1997. What would the State budget look like in 2017? Is Williams wanting us to pay energy company supply taxes in the future? I plan to vote out anyone who is for this.
