Pittsburgh Paper Asks, Is PA Severance Tax Dead? Yes!

Unfortunately a Pittsburgh-area newspaper, the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter, has fallen prey to a lie. Somehow the paper's editors think because there's not something called "severance tax" in the tax code of Pennsylvania, that means the state doesn't have one--when in fact they do. It's called an Impact Fee coupled with a corporate income tax. Add the two together, and PA's drillers pay a "severance tax" rate that is higher than Texas and other shale states. In a recent editorial published in the Observer-Reporter, the editorial board admits that a severance tax is (for now) dead in PA. That's the good news. When your opponent admits defeat, that's a good sign. However, the editors still whine for a nosebleed-high severance tax anyway, accusing the drilling industry of getting a "sweetheart deal" that, they say, should end when gas prices go up again...

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