This page was last updated on April 17, 2011.
Why won’t Corbett tax gas drillers?; Janet Caldarelli; Beaver County Times; April 17, 2011.
Some previous Caldarelli letters are here, here, here, and here. The last Caldarelli letter I critiqued was “Now’s the time for more public transit.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Gov. Tom Corbett wants to cut funding for education, lay off teachers and staff, and freeze wages - and our property taxes will have to be drastically raised.”
[RWC] Why will “our property taxes … have to be drastically raised?” Are we to believe we absolutely need, not just want, every education program we have? What do we as individuals do when our pay is cut or doesn’t keep up with what we want?
“However, he refuses to tax the natural gas drilling companies that are making millions of dollars in our state, even though it would realize revenue to help reduce the deficit.”
[RWC] “Natural gas drilling companies” pay taxes just as any other business. What PA is not doing is charging a royalty for extracted gas, a charge the Times finally conceded is “a tax that is paid by consumers.” In any case, using Times figures, tax revenue, regardless of who paid it, would only address about 6.2% of the projected deficit and would be less than 1% of the General Fund (GF) budget. On the other hand, education spending consumes 38.9% of the GF budget. The idea taxing gas extraction would have any material effect on the education cuts is misleading at best. Also, as a state we’re not in a good position tax-wise and adding another tax would make a bad situation worse.
“Why? Is it because they funded his campaign?”
[RWC] I wonder if Ms. Caldarelli learned the smear tactic on her own or from Times editorials.
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