This measure would authorize the Legislature, with a majority—rather than a two-thirds—vote in each house, to impose a severance tax of 15 percent or more on the value of all oil and gas extracted in California or its state offshore waters, which extend out three miles from the coastline. Oil and gas produced in federal waters would be exempt. The severance tax revenues authorized by a majority-vote measure could only be used for a state bank described in this measure.