BUSINESS POLITICS - El Segundo city manager Doug Willmore didn’t know who he was messing with.
In January, 2012 the LA Times reported that El Segundo, home to a huge Chevron refinery, was considering raising the oil giant’s taxes to help meet the demands of a growing town. Refineries around the state pay far higher taxes to their local governments than Chevron does – which is why Willmore figured the proposal made sense.
Chevron’s El Segundo tax bill is $5 million, far less than other cities receive from their refineries. Torrance got $9.8 million from Exxon Mobil and Carson got $10.2 million from BP. Chevron paid $15.4 million to Richmond for its Northern California facility.
Chevron, of course, wants to hold on to its growing profits and is fighting hard against any tax increase. When the proposal first came forward Chevron reacted with disbelief that the proposal would be made public before they knew about it.
Well it turns out that Chevron’s bite is worse than its bark. The L.A. Times reported February 15 that the El Segundo City Council fired Willmore.
Chevron is, of course, denying they had anything to do with the city manager’s ouster.
Yeah, right.
(Donald Cohen is the director of the Cry Wolf Project, a nonprofit research network that identifies and exposes misleading rhetoric about the economy, regulation and government. He is also the chair of In the Public Interest, a national resource center concerned with privatization and responsible contracting. This article was posted first at fryingpannews.org) -cw
Tags: Chevron, El Segundo, oil, big oil, corporate oil, oil companies, Doug Willmore, El Segundo City Manager
CityWatch
Vol 15 Issue 15
Pub: Feb 21, 2012
