Chevron payments make up nearly 24% of Richmond general fund, CA city reveals accidentally

quote:

---

Chevron paid Richmond more than $58.8 million in taxes and settlement payments — nearly 24% of the city’s budgeted general fund revenue — last fiscal year, according to a spreadsheet sent to Richmondside in response to a public records request.

Taxpayer information is typically kept private under state law and city code, but the city said it “inadvertently” released the information in response to a May public records request.

Richmondside requested Chevron’s tax and settlement payment records because the refinery is the city’s largest employer and single largest taxpayer, and because, historically, it has disputed how much it should pay in taxes.

Most recently, the company agreed to pay the city a $550 million settlement over 10 years to avoid a “ Make Polluters Pay ” measure from being placed on the ballot. If approved by Richmond voters, the measure would have increased taxes on refinery operations. The company has made the first of five annual $50 million settlement payments. Then, the annual settlement payment will be $60 million a year for five years.

---

quote:

---

Understanding the degree to which the city depends upon Chevron financially is of public interest because Chevron executives have indicated in recent months that ceasing operations entirely in California is not out of the question, due to state regulations they describe as unfriendly to refineries. Given Chevron’s contribution to Richmond’s revenue, closing the Richmond refinery would greatly impact the city’s finances and its ability to provide services.

Also relevant is Chevron’s August 2024 announcement that it had moved its corporate headquarters from eastern Contra Costa County to Texas while announcing layoffs in the Bay Area. That included 600 jobs at its corporate offices that were scheduled to be cut in June, 31 of them in Richmond and nearly three dozen more in El Segundo and Bakersfield, according to notices filed with the state.

---

quote:

---

Nearly five months after the city released the spreadsheet, the city attorney’s office sent an email asking that the record be destroyed. The Oct. 8 email from Assistant City Attorney Christopher Dykzeul said that the city had “inadvertently” released protected taxpayer information and that disseminating this information would violate state law and city ordinances. However, there are legal precedents that protect journalists who publish information that is otherwise held privately, particularly if disclosure of the information is in the public’s interest, so long as the no laws were violated.

---

quote:

---

A recent community event hosted by Richmondside explored how city officials are thinking about and responding to the potential closure of its largest and longest-standing single source of income.

---

quote:

---

Richmond City Council member Claudia Jimenez, who has pushed for Chevron to pay more taxes because of the pollution it creates, said Friday that knowing the company’s exact contribution to Richmond’s finances is helpful as the city works to build an economy that’s not reliant on a single industry. She suggested that the company should be taxed at a higher rate than it has been historically.

“If they would have paid the right taxes that they needed to pay since the beginning, there will be more and more money that they will have to contribute to the general fund, and they haven’t done that,” Jimenez said. “Chevron hasn’t paid their fair taxes to the city in forever.”

---