What is it about politicians needing to get their grubby hands on YOUR money? A group of West Virginia state politicians–delegates and one state senator, both Democrats and Republicans–held a town hall meeting at West Virginia Northern Community College last Thursday in which they pontificated that the severance tax in WV is too low, and property taxes for Marcellus/Utica Shale landowners are too high. Below is a summary of the back and forth at the meeting. The somewhat ominous (from our perspective) talk at the meeting is that in this down market politicians want to further kill the drilling industry (the one bright spot) in their state by taxing it higher…
