This page was last updated on July 12, 2015.
Time for gas industry to pay its fair share; Larry Busack; Beaver County Times; July 9, 2015.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Initially, the gas-drilling companies came to Pennsylvania relying on many services provided through government tax expenditures. These include an education service that supplied many qualified workers and that is now being extended by the Community College of Beaver County and others to create courses geared specifically to meet industry needs.”
[RWC] Isn’t this true for all relevant industries?
“The state Legislature even created a market for gas in the form of grants and low-cost loans to help to convert trucks and buses to liquefied natural gas.”
[RWC] The “Natural Gas Vehicle Program” (NGVP) was part of Act 13 of 2012. As far as I can tell, NGVP funding comes from the impact fee collected from gas-drilling companies. In other words, the gas-drilling companies pay for “grants and low-cost loans to help to convert trucks and buses to liquefied natural gas.” That said, I’m not an expert at reading legislation so another pair of eyes reading the bill would be nice.
Whether or not NGVP funding comes from the impact fee, the General Assembly had no business setting up such a plan. If the drilling/production companies wanted such a program, the GA should have told them to do it on their own. Of course, it’s possible the NGVP was the GA’s bright idea to insert itself where it shouldn’t.
“It’s time for the gas industry to pay a fair share for the many government financed services. This could be made tax neutral for the gas companies by calculating the cost of the Impact Fee plus the sum of the monies paid to lobbyists and legislators and dividing it into the current amount of gas extracted to arrive at a simple extraction tax. The monies collected could still use the existing distribution formula.”
[RWC] Mr. Busack seems to forget gas drilling and production companies and their employees and customers already pay the same taxes as other businesses and their employees and customers, plus the impact fee. Why does Mr. Busack single out gas drillers and producers?
“Secondly, the Legislature could begin to convert the existing liquor retail operation to a commercial operation. Set up legislation to allow a pilot program that would allow a few of the government stores to be sold off, collecting both a licensing fee and money from the direct sale of each store. The existing employees of the store could be offered transfers to other government stores and there could be a limitation on new retail hires.”
[RWC] What does this have to do with gas drilling?
© 2004-2015 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.