Whoa. Richmond Has Money.

Get this: the new tax on the Chevron oil refinery will increase revenue for Richmond, perhaps the Bay Area’s poorest and most desperate city, by twenty percent. Twenty percent. This morning, the Chron asks city leaders what they plan to spend the new cash on. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin wants to hold a few public meetings to ask citizens their thoughts, but offers a few of her own: programs to provide green job training and reduce unemployment. But the real message of the story is: don’t spend that money till Chevron has given up the idea of suing the city.