Taxation

We seriously wonder if some of the legislators that serve in the Pennsylvania State Legislature are on drugs. Seriously. What else can explain comments like those from Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes (Democrat from Philadelphia) in saying the Marcellus Shale industry currently pays no taxes, that the drilling industry is making PA children “suffer,” and he thinks the industry should be hit with a new 8% severance tax PLUS another 1.9% impact fee. It’s absolutely mind-blowing–like psychedelic mind blowing. Does Hughes live in an alternate universe? Oh that’s right, he’s in the back pocket of teacher$’ union$ and is $imply their tool…
Read More “Philly State Senators Want to Slap Marcellus Industry with 9.9% Tax”

Here’s how tax-devouring Democrats and RINOs in Pennsylvania plan to pass a Marcellus-killing severance tax: Step 1: Keep the impact fee (which is really a tax) in place, which amounts to the revenue that a 2% 3.2% severance tax would raise. Never mind the state’s corporate income tax more than makes up the other 3% of a proposed 5% severance tax. The media, and politicians, intentionally ignore that inconvenient truth. [UPDATE: MDN has it from a highly-placed and trustworthy source that impact fees now being paid by drillers are actually closer to a 3.2% severance tax, not 2% as we previously noted.] Step 2: Introduce a severance tax bill of 3.2% severance tax bill, offered as a “compromise” that lets local communities keep their 60% of the impact fee, but steals money from landowners and drillers (the other 3.2%) to give to teachers’ unions, feeding the beast to keep it at bay (and to pay back a campaign debt). Step 3: After a year or two, when it’s apparent that Harrisburg’s continuing out-of-control spending hasn’t been reigned in and drilling slows down so there’s less tax revenue coming in, just goose the 3.2% tax all the way up to 5% or higher. That’s the plan of Reps. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bensalem; Tom Murt, R-Hatboro; Harry Readshaw, D-Pittsburgh; and Pam DeLissio, D-Philadelphia as they introduce their “fair and reasonable” 3.2% severance tax bill…
Read More “PA High Tax Game Plan: Keep Impact Fee, Add Severance Tax To It!”

As newly enthroned PA Gov. Tom Wolf considers his misguided attempt at ramming through a Marcellus Shale-killing severance tax, he better talk to PA’s townships–all of which receive at least some money from the current impact fee. If the state suddenly yanks away impact fee revenue from those towns, many of which rely on that money in their annual budgets, Moody’s Investors Service says such an event will be “a credit negative” for those local governments. In other words, you can expect a Moody’s downgrade–making any bonds issued by PA towns more expensive, requiring more taxpayer money to pay back…
Read More “PA Towns Don’t Like Gov. Wolf’s Severance Tax Plan”

One of Pennsylvania’s top conservative (Republican) strategists and consultants, Charlie Gerow, offers up a sobering picture of the hard work ahead for liberal/leftist Gov.-Elect Tom Wolf when, on Wednesday, he assumes office and we drop the “-Elect” part in his title. Gerow points out that Wolf got elected by offering few specifics about his plans to raise taxes, except for a tax on the Marcellus Shale–he was crystal clear on that. When Wolf assumes office on Wednesday, all of his campaign prevaricating comes to an end and he will have to start offering real proposals for big problems. Gerow evaluates the prospects for a Wolf severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas this way:
Read More “Let’s Slap 5% Tax on ALL PA Natural Resources, Not Just Shale Gas”

Pennsylvania State Sen. Jim Brewster (Democrat from Allegheny & Westomoreland counties) wants to be known as the politician that killed Marcellus drilling in the Keystone State. That’s the only thing we can conclude from his efforts to introduce (yet again) a bill that would tax Marcellus drilling into idleness. Brewster’s plan calls for KEEPING the impact fee and ADDING a severance tax to it–but deducting impact fee payments from the severance tax. Complicated cockamamie? Yeah. Brewster proudly calls his bill/plan “Extraction for Education” because it will give all of the severance portion raised (5% or whatever portion it works out after impact fees) to teachers’ unions. We call it “Excrement for Education”…
Read More “PA Sen Brewster’s “Excrement for Education” Severance Tax Bill”

Two accountants walk into a bar….Wait! No. That’s a story for another blog site. Reboot: The Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) has just released a poll of their members. One of the questions asked: How should PA close the state budget gap? The top three choices from the bean counters: (1) privatize liquor stores (69%); (2) implement a severance tax on shale drilling (67%); and (3) legalize pot smoking (27%). There are 22,000 members of PICPA, so if 22% of them (almost 5,000) want to light up a joint, it looks like more than a few in PA believe like John Hanger, Gov.-elect Wolf’s new Secretary of Planning and Policy. Before Hanger dropped out of the governor’s race, he famously endorsed legalizing pot smoking. Maybe PA will become the new Colorado–full of stoners? But we digress. Does anyone else find it suspicious that the people who would have to file reams of tax forms on a severance tax (generating lots of billable hours) are in favor of such a tax? Can anyone say, conflict of interest?…
Read More “PA Accountants Love Marcellus Severance Tax (and Smoking Pot)”

Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Wolf continues to get the Ed Rendell band back together again–the same bunch that ran PA into the financial ditch under Rendell. First he appointed Katie McGinty, former Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) under Rendell, as his chief of staff. Now Wolf has appointed another Rendell Sec. of DEP, John Hanger, as his Secretary of Planning and Policy. Must be Wolf has a thing for DEP Secretaries. You may recall Hanger ran against Wolf (and against McGinty) in the Democrat primary for governor this year, but dropped out in March (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). Hanger can’t wait to cook up high severance taxes on drillers. Why is it Democrats always salivate when they think about taking other people’s money?…
Read More “PA Gov-Elect Wolf Appoints John Hanger Secretary of High Taxes”

Obama was sworn to uphold the Constitution when he took office. It is the essence of our country–the rule of law by which we live. Obama trashes the Constitution with every executive order he issues, creating new laws (something delegated to the legislative branch under the Constitution) and even treading into the judicial side of things with an out-of-control Attorney General, Eric Holder. Obama’s infamous example of appointing himself judge, jury and executioner hasn’t been wasted on leftists elsewhere, including Pennsylvania. Democrats met in Harrisburg last week to lick their electoral wounds. The meeting was organized by the radically left PennFuture (further illustrating just how far off the left side of the chart Democrats have gone). At the meeting, Dem bigwigs said PA’s Gov.-elect, Tom Wolf, should follow Obama’s example and thumb his nose at the Republican legislature and just make up his own laws, especially when it comes to the environment and gas drilling…
Read More “PA Dems Want Gov-Elect Wolf to Follow Obama’s Lawless Example”

Gee, a politician who lied to get elected? Say it ain’t so! Ah, but it is. And the politician who lied is none other than Gov.-elect Tom Wolf. He said slapping a severance tax on Marcellus drillers would raise $1 billion or more that could then be given to schools (in any other context this would be called theft–holding up one citizen to turn the money over to another citizen). Wolf knowingly used erroneous numbers pumped out by the anti-drilling Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (far-left, partisan Democrat group). They said a 5% tax would haul in 1 billion big ones. The truth? At best, such a tax may haul in half that–still leaving a $500 million hole in the budget. And that’s if drillers don’t stop drilling and leave the state because they’re being bled to death with a corporate income tax on top of a severance tax (which states like TX, OK and LA don’t have). Now it’s time for mainstream media to try and cover Wolf’s lie by pretending it was a mathematics error…
Read More “PA Gov-Elect Tom Wolf’s Severance Tax Lie Exposed”

Payback time for the teachers’ unions. We now know how the Democrats plan to mount a campaign to dump the impact fee and raise taxes on drillers and landowners with a severance tax, and give half of the money to “education” (i.e. teachers unions). We have their game plan courtesy top PA Democrat strategist Tony May, who wrote about it in the Harrisburg Patriot-News…
Read More “PA Dem Strategist Lays Out Game Plan for Selling Severance Tax”

It’s payback time for newly elected Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. He took radical California environmentalist Tom Steyer’s money, millions of it, to get elected (see CA Anti-Driller Tom Steyer Purchasing Tom Wolf PA Governorship). Now that Wolf has been elected, the bill has come due. Time to pay the pied piper. The price? Get a Marcellus-killing severance tax passed. Right on cue that’s just what Wolf is doing–his master’s bidding…
Read More “Time for Gov-Elect Wolf to Pay the Piper – Severance Tax High on List”