NY Frack Calculator Shows Tax Revenue from Just One Well

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Just how much money would be generated in taxes by a single Marcellus Shale gas well in New York State? The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) wants you to know, and has created a calculator on their website that will tell you. You can find it here.

“This simple calculator on the IOGA of NY website’s homepage tells a dramatic story in just a few words,” said John Holko, president of Lenape Resources in Alexander and an IOGA of NY director, in a statement. “The calculator shows the amount of ad valorem tax the operator pays to a county in one year if only one Marcellus Shale well would be drilled in that county. This tax revenue stays in the county and supports essential services to county residents.”*

The IOGA of NY website makes it clear that ad valorem taxes stay 100 percent in the local community—they do not go to Albany or to the state’s general fund. MDN is written from Broome County, NY, and the IOGA frack calculator reports tax revenue from a single well in our community for one year would be an astonishing $385,267.94. Multiply that by just 10 and we would have over $3 million in new tax revenue, split between the towns where the wells are drilled, their local school districts, and the county.

*Gotham Gazette (Dec 13, 2011) – Frack Calculator

5 Comments

  1. I am still sure, the NY State general fund will get there piece somehow, some way. But imagine what local communities will be able to do with the money generated. Lets start with improve infrastructure of schools, hire more teachers, fund local projects that have been on hold for years, hire locals for numerous open positions in and out of the gas industry.Wake up Cuomo and Martens!! Open the doors so people can live again, thrive again, earn again. Watch the economy start to move forward and both of you guys can take all the credit for it in your next campaign. 

  2. 1) how much you want to bet those inflated calculator numbers
    are way above the current price of gas, which has now sunk below $3.50/mcf? And
    that the *other* numbers in their formula are also dressed up, but don’t hold
    your breath, they aren’t about to publish THOSE online.
     

    2) how much you want to bet those inflated calculator numbers
    are for the 1st year only, and will drop 65-70% for year 2, and then another 50%
    for year 3, and an avg. of 20% each yr. after that? And your town’s budget will start shrinking every year, so that all those great new services, etc. will disappear just as quickly as they came. 

    3) whatever the real numbers are, how much of it will the gas
    companies pay? ZERO. It will all come out of your pocket, not
    theirs.

    The real purpose of gimmicks like this is to HIDE the current
    UNprofitabilty of shale gas production. Why are they still drilling if it’s not
    profitable? Because, like sharks, they have to keep going or they will die, like
    Norse. They have to drill to retain the leases, and they have to drill because
    they’re all up to the necks in debt, and need the cash flow and have to drill
    more so they can borrow even more.
     

    It’s all part of the gamble, that if they can slow down but
    not stop entirely, and keep hedging, and hang on long enough, or sell out before
    they go belly up, demand will somehow eventually begin to outpace supply, and
    gas prices will begin to rise to profitability, somewhere above
    $6-7.

    It’s all one big shill shell game of smoke and mirrors, and the
    frack calculator is just one more part of the illusion.