Increased spending on teachers to come from unstable oil market money

From KOB-TV.com - By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - The governor's announcement of new spending on teachers and classrooms will come out of new state tax revenues that depend heavily on oil and natural gas prices.
      Gas prices continue to drop – they were near $2 per gallon Wednesday in Albuquerque – and nobody knows where the bottom is.
      Oil supply is outstripping demand. West Texas crude, which is the type of oil southeast New Mexico produces, dropped to $60 a barrel at one point Wednesday, which means money from state severance taxes on oil is dropping too.
      You won't find anybody weeping about the low prices at the gas pumps. "It feels great; let's hope it lessens even more," said one man.
      "The bottom line is the market's getting better; the economy is getting better because I'm spending that extra money – whether it's eating out, or at the mall or buying a gun – now, that money's not going in my gas tank; I'm spending it somewhere else," said another local man.
      The bottom price for crude is still out of sight; it's hard for the oil industry to make sudden changes in production. Industry analysts expect it to keep growing well into next year and for prices to keep dropping. More

Increased spending on teachers to come from unstable oil market money