PA’s “Independent” Fiscal Office Says Drillers Pay Low Taxes

It appears PA Gov. Tom Wolf's severance tax proposal isn't the slam dunk he thought it would be. Must be time to sneak in a supposedly "impartial study" that says raising taxes on drillers won't hurt anybody--they ain't goin' nowhere 'cause that gas in under Pennsylvania soil. And right on cue the partisan so-called Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO)--populated with Democrats appointed by Ed Rendell and paid with taxpayer's money--has issued a "research brief" which says the "effective tax rate" on PA drillers four years ago was 5.3%--but today it's a measly 2.1% (robber barrons!). The new "brief" delights Gov. Wolf and the soak-the-drillers-we-hate-fossil-fuels-anyway Democrats in Harrisburg. This is not the first so-called research issued by the IFO calling for high taxes on drillers. They said the same thing last year--only last year's report was longer (see PA Partisan Study Finds PA Needs to Soak Drillers with New Taxes). Here's the latest pathetic attempt to build a case for stealing the money from one industry (oil & gas) to give it away to another (big education)...

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