Dan Markind
You know how MDN feels about a new/extra severance tax in Pennsylvania--we're dead set against it. We have been from the beginning. We think the impact fee (i.e. tax) is doing just fine, having raised over $1 billion in revenue from 2013 to 2017 (assuming the Independent Fiscal Office's 2017 projections are accurate). The best part of the impact fee is that 60% of it stays local--in counties where drilling happens--instead of going to the black hole of Harrisburg overspending. However, there are Republicans in the state legislature addicted to spending, just like Democrats, and they continue to lobby for a new severance tax, to be placed on top of the existing impact fee. As we saw yesterday, PA's rig count has been static to slightly down all year long (see Marcellus/Utica Rig Count Race Tightens: OH Count Closes in on PA). Does PA want to drive even more business out of the state and into neighboring Ohio and West Virginia? That, in our humble opinion, is exactly what a severance tax will do. Although, MDN doesn't play favorites, we love all our state children equally! We don't want PA to make a serious mistake. However, there are opposing opinions on the severance tax issue from people we respect. One of those people is Dan Markind, a partner with law firm Weir & Partners. Dan writes a regular email newsletter covering the Marcellus Shale in PA. Last week he wrote about the budget negotiation collapse and the (admitted) debacle of House Republicans clutching at alternative straws--first a warehouse tax and then a hotel tax--anything but a severance tax. Dan believes the shale industry in PA has alienated other industries, and has boxed itself into a corner by not accepting some form of a severance tax. We disagree with Dan's view on this matter--but his view is shared by many. Which is why we bring you his email newsletter from last week (with his permission), to present an alternative view on the severance tax issue...
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