Taxation

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    OH Repubs Sell Out on Severance Tax, Kasich Wants Even More!

    As we predicted, Ohio Republicans caved and voted a high severance tax out of committee on Wednesday (see Bend Over Ohio – You’re About to Get a Frack Tax). The Republicans think it’s fine to steal money from one industry to give away to people who didn’t earn it. The Democrats are even worse. But here’s the funny thing. Ole’ Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich isn’t satisfied with the Republican plan to raise the rate to 2.5%. He wants more (more more more!).

    Since the Repubs have already bent over once, will they do it again for Kasich?…
    Read More “OH Repubs Sell Out on Severance Tax, Kasich Wants Even More!”

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    Bend Over Ohio – You’re About to Get a Frack Tax

    In classic socialist manner, a Republican-controlled Ohio House committee is set to vote today on a “compromise” (meaning it will hurt just a little less) bill that will raise Ohio’s severance tax on shale drilling, thereby reducing the economic miracle in the state. We’re still “months away” from final passage of the measure, but if this vote goes in favor of a high frack tax, you can be sure it will pass the full House and Senate. Which is unfortunate for Ohio’s landowners, drillers and the many people who now work for the industry and related businesses that sell to the industry. It will certainly mean a slow-down in drilling.

    All because Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich wants to transfer wealth from those who produce it (landowners and drillers, out of whose pockets it will come) to those who do not produce (via a state income tax cut). It’s sleazy–but there you go. Of particular interest is that most of the new tax (85% of it) will go out of the communities where drilling actually happens. The political calculation is that a few pennies on the dollar will buy those communities’ silence that they’re being robbed (better something than nothing, right?). In Pennsylvania, 60% of the money raised through a reasonable impact fee stays in the communities where drilling happens. That’s the right way to do it…
    Read More “Bend Over Ohio – You’re About to Get a Frack Tax”

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    Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England

    As MDN reported back in January, the governors of six New England States want ISO New England (the regional cooperative transmission organization) to assess a tax on electric customers throughout New England so they can build a new natural gas pipeline to the region (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). The problem is not so much residential customers running low on natgas but electric generating plants. Obama’s war on coal is rapidly shuttering coal-powered electric generating plants in New England and so to keep up the electric demand, they’re turning to natural gas to fire the plants. And because natgas is in short supply in New England, particularly in the winter months, it makes the price of electricity skyrocket. Hence–tax electric rate customers to build a natgas pipeline.

    However, Frank Katulak, the CEO of GDF Suez which operates a big LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal in Everett, MA, is trash-talking a tax on New England electric rate payers to build a natgas pipeline. If the pipeline gets built, that means less import business for GDF Suez. But Katulak says oh no, that’s not why he thinks a healthy tax hike is a bad idea (of course not!)…
    Read More “Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England”

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    Complicated Deal for Proposed WV Gas-Powered Electric Plant

    Last week MDN told you about the proposed Marcellus gas-powered electrical generating plant proposed for Moundsville, WV (see Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Coming to Marshall County, WV). To make the plant profitable to run, the owners have proposed a complicated deal whereby the county would end up owning the land and assets and lease them back to the operators (“owners”) thereby reducing what would have been hundreds of millions in property and school taxes to virtually nothing in taxes. For example, the local Moundsville school district would get something like $4 million instead of $181 million over 30 years, under the deal–if it’s approved.

    Those numbers may seem out of kilter until you consider this: Currently the property is a contaminated EPA Superfund site with nothing on it–earning the school district and the county nothing in taxes. Zero. Under the deal proposed by Moundsville Power, the school would get $4 million, and the county would receive nearly $40 million in lease payments over the next 30 years. So let’s do the math: $0 or $44 million over the next 30 years, plus an added 30 permanent jobs at the plant and all of the economic stimulation the plant will bring to the local economy with purchases of goods and services. Pretty easy decision if you ask us. Here’s more on the complicated deal to build the power plant in Moundsville…
    Read More “Complicated Deal for Proposed WV Gas-Powered Electric Plant”

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    Anti-Drilling PA Gov Candidate Allyson Schwartz Spits and Sputters

    Queen BeeIn a hilarious set of meetings with reporters in Harrisburg, PA, Democrat primary candidate for governor Allyson Schwartz had a spitting and sputtering fest. We truly wish we were there. She repeatedly attempted to lob verbal molotov cocktails at both Republican Gov. Tom Corbett (running for re-election) and at her chief primary rival and fellow anti-driller Tom Wolf. But the verbal bombs she lobbed just wouldn’t go off–and one of them exploded in her own face. At times pleading and at other times scolding, Schwartz essentially begged reporters to criticize Wolf and Corbett on her behalf.

    One of those reporters had had enough and asked her: since Tom Corbett has released 10 years of tax returns, why don’t you? Schwartz went nearly apoplectic. How DARE a reporter challenge the Queen Bee!? Her response was, essentially, “good for thee but not for me.” Which is the way anti-drillers like Schwartz always operate, with double standards…
    Read More “Anti-Drilling PA Gov Candidate Allyson Schwartz Spits and Sputters”

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    Ohio Business Roundtable Sells Out – Endorses High Severance Tax

    With Friends Like TheseUnbelievably, the Ohio Business Roundtable, comprised of CEOs of big businesses in Ohio, has endorsed a high severance tax on Utica Shale drilling. The OBR is using (abusing) an Ernst & Young “analysis” to say, in essence, go ahead and screw drillers and landowners–the drillers will stick around because they get screwed worse elsewhere. We’re somewhat befuddled at how the OBR can say it’s OK to steal the wealth from a specific industry and transfer to others who didn’t earn it. But we’re simple folks in our reasoning power. All’s we can say is that, with friends like these…

    Below is the statement from the OBR and a copy of the “analysis” done by E&Y that blesses a high severance tax and makes it OK for Ohio’s RINOs to force it through.
    Read More “Ohio Business Roundtable Sells Out – Endorses High Severance Tax”

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    OH County Commissioner Says ‘No Thanks’ to Severance Tax Increase

    A lone voice crying in the wilderness! Amid all of the calls for more socialism–redistributing the hard-earned money from landowners and drilling companies to people who didn’t earn it via a higher severance tax–a Washington County, OH commissioner says “No!” He says raising the severance tax is a fundamentally bad idea and he does not endorse the Republicans’ dalliance with the idea.

    And so we bring you a letter to the editor reprinted in the Parkersburg (WV) News and Sentinel from Washington County, OH commissioner Ron Feathers, a man we salute!…
    Read More “OH County Commissioner Says ‘No Thanks’ to Severance Tax Increase”

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    PA RINO Claims 50 Repubicans Ready to Vote Yes on Severance Tax

    If you believe a left-leaning AP reporter and a few RINO sources, Republicans just can’t wait to vote for higher taxes in PA. According to the Democrat who pretends to be a Republican, Eugene DiGirolamo (R-Bucks), there’s “50 Republicans” in the state legislature who would vote for a nosebleed-high severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling and do so right the heck now.

    Really? How about some names Gene? Besides yourself and two or three other southeastern PA RINOs. Frankly, we think it’s smoke and mirrors to prop up your own pathetic campaign. And by the way–when will the Democrats in southeast PA boot people like DiGirolamo and replace him with a real Democrat, and not a pretender?…
    Read More “PA RINO Claims 50 Repubicans Ready to Vote Yes on Severance Tax”

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    Pressure Rises for Fair Tax on News Industry (Absurdity Illustrated)

    Since no one else but Gov. Corbett is sticking up for the existing impact fee on Marcellus drilling in PA that raises millions of dollars (and not doing all that great a job of it), on Monday MDN took a stab at making a case for the fundamental unfairness of targeting a specific industry or group of people for high taxes by justifying such an action as being “for the children” (see PA Dem Candidates’ Siren Song: Severance Tax “for the Children”). We told you that Democrats and their sycophantic supporters in the media would turn up the volume on a call for high severance taxes on the natural gas industry. We didn’t know just how quickly our words would come true!

    Today, after having met with and getting stoked by extreme liberal Allyson Schwartz (who is running for governor), the liberal Democrat editorial propagandists at the Scranton Times-Tribune dedicated their precious editorial space to a call for high severance taxes–and to bludgeon Republicans into supporting those high taxes. So we thought we would take the opportunity to tweak their editorial and in every instance of “severance tax” and “natural gas industry” replace those words with “news tax” and “news industry.” We wonder if the Times-Tribune editors would be in favor of this tax if it specifically targeted–or included–their operation and the operations of their liberal brethren? And what if the severance tax bill also included a new, extra 5% tax on the salaries of PA legislators. Would it pass then? You get the idea. Targeting a specific industry or group of people, no matter how “noble” the cause in using the money raised, is an obscene governmental abuse. It is theft. Here is our attempt to illustrate the absurd by using absurdity and turning their argument right back on them…
    Read More “Pressure Rises for Fair Tax on News Industry (Absurdity Illustrated)”

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    PA Dem Candidates’ Siren Song: Severance Tax “for the Children”

    not for the childrenOnce upon a time there was a man who worked really really hard. He was the type to arrive at work early, stay late, and go the extra mile. He paid (as we all do) nearly half of the money he earned in taxes–federal income tax, social security tax, Medicare tax, disability tax, property tax, school tax, state income tax, sales tax on everything he purchased, and fees on just about everything his hands ever touched. It adds up to about 50% of the man’s income (as it does for every single person reading this), whisked away and given to other people. However, because the man made a pretty good salary, the man’s neighbor had a brilliant idea: Each day when the man arrived home the neighbor was waiting, with gun in hand. He would point the gun at the man’s head and demand the man give him “just 5%” of what the man earned that day. It was so easy, the neighbor did this every day–and he targeted other nearby suckers, er hard-working people too–collecting 5% from them.

    Getting shaken down for 5% (on top of 50%) isn’t all that bad, is it? Sure it belongs to the people who worked so hard to earn it. Sure the people who earned it played by the rules, were super careful and considerate of those around them–upstanding members of the community. But the money is going to a good cause–the neighbor’s pocket! (Did we mention the neighbor with the gun doesn’t work nor earn a dime on his own?) Of course, in time, the neighbor with the gun got more greedy and 5% eventually turned into 10%, but hey, the people earning the money still got to keep 40%. I mean, good golly, 40% out of 100% ain’t all that bad, is it?…
    Read More “PA Dem Candidates’ Siren Song: Severance Tax “for the Children””

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    OH Severance Tax Blues – Kasich Says the Tax Trains’ a Comin’

    With apologies to the memory of the late, great Johnny Cash, to be sung to the tune of Folsom Prison Blues…

    I hear the severance tax train a comin’
    It’s rolling round the legislative bend
    And I ain’t seen a better vote-buying scheme since, I don’t know when
    I’m stuck in Tea Party prison, and time keeps draggin’ on
    But that severance tax train keeps a rollin’, on down to a legislative vote.

    RINO Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich is so excited, he may pee his pants. After a year of debating stupid Tea Party Republicans, his administration is “really close” to reaching an agreement with those in his own party to start soaking the Utica Shale drilling industry in his state. Really close. Really. But, you’ll have to wait until next month to find out just how much the industry will get soaked. They want to announce it and slam bam vote on it before anyone can raise the alarm. So deliberative. So open and transparent. What paragons of authority and leadership to emulate. What jerks.

    Here’s the story of a RINO governor and Republicans who apparently are willing to cave on their principles…
    Read More “OH Severance Tax Blues – Kasich Says the Tax Trains’ a Comin’”

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    2 Spineless PA RINOs Join Call for High Marcellus Severance Tax

    Several mainstream media outlets are trumpeting that “Republicans join the call for tax on Marcellus drillers.” Of course you have to read the fine print of the story to learn the so-called Republicans, which are really Republicans-In-Name-Only (RINOs), are really just two Republicans from the Philadelphia area where there is no drilling. They both want to stick their fingers into the pockets of landowners and drillers so they have funny money to throw around and buy votes with. Yes, we’re talking to you Gene DiGirolamo (Bucks County) and Tom Murt (Montgomery/Philadelphia counties). Shame on both of you.

    The real story is this: Two spineless RINO sellouts from the Philly area “join the call” for obscene taxes on the drilling industry. There is no mass movement among Republicans in Pennsylvania to kill off the drilling industry with high severance taxes being advocated by just about every Democrat legislator and Democrat candidate in the state. We sure hope the people of PA have wised up to the Dem drivel about taxing one industry (shale drilling) to give the Dems (and RINOs) boatloads of money to squander on pet projects–the chief pet project being to put money into the pockets of people who will vote for them…
    Read More “2 Spineless PA RINOs Join Call for High Marcellus Severance Tax”

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    2013 PA Impact Fee Sets Record: $224.5M, Grand Total Now $630M

    On Friday, PA Gov. Tom Corbett announced the Act 13 impact fee for 2013 will deliver the biggest haul yet–$224.5 million, which is up 11% from the monies collected under the impact fee for 2012. The official tallies are not yet released by the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency charged with collecting the fees. However, the bills have gone out and drillers have until April 15 to pay the tax man.

    There may be a few quibbles about how the numbers were calculated, but overall, the PUC knows about how much it will receive and so Gov. Corbett, feeling pressured by the tax-and-spend Democrat candidates running for his job (cough *Tom Wolf* cough), wanted to release the good news now…
    Read More “2013 PA Impact Fee Sets Record: $224.5M, Grand Total Now $630M”

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    York County Park Getting $150K Upgrade Courtesy Marcellus $

    Even though there is no Marcellus Shale drilling in York County, PA, residents of the county will get $150,000 of improvements to a county park courtesy of Marcellus Shale drilling. MDN sees at least two or three of these kinds of stories–every week. We ignore most of them, but every now and again we bring you one of them to remind you of what the state is about to lose thanks to the “selfish seven” townships that sued the state to gut the Act 13 Marcellus drilling law–a law that provides for an impact fee that raises over $200 million per year that is distributed throughout the state–some of it in places like York County.

    Here’s the story of the $150,000 upgrade coming to a York County park courtesy the drillers and landowners out of whose pockets the money comes…
    Read More “York County Park Getting $150K Upgrade Courtesy Marcellus $”

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    Dangerous Economic Road Ahead for PA if Shale Economy is Topedoed

    In a letter to the editor published (amazingly) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Consumer Energy Alliance Mid-Atlantic executive director Mike Butler points out, in just a few paragraphs, the grave danger now hovering over Pennsylvania because of the PA Supreme Court’s poor decision to side with seven selfish towns to overturn important and large portions of the Act 13 law, and in danger from PA Democrats who want to stop all future Marcellus drilling in the state with an ongoing moratorium.

    Pennsylvania is at a crossroads and if her citizens choose poorly in the next election, they risk plunging the state into an economic disaster, as eloquently pointed out by Mr. Butler:
    Read More “Dangerous Economic Road Ahead for PA if Shale Economy is Topedoed”

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    PA Partisan Study Finds PA Needs to Soak Drillers with New Taxes

    The partisan Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) last week released a so-called study on oil and gas taxes and concluded (surprise!) PA doesn’t pay enough in taxes (see PA Shale Industry Demonized for “Lack” of Severance Tax). The group compared apples with oranges and did it’s “best” to try and make a “fair” comparison and of course concluded PA drillers need to be drilled themselves–you know, to spread the wealth around in good socialist fashion. A full copy of the “study” is embedded below.

    It seems the IFO and PA Democrats are a bit thin-skinned when sources like MDN poke holes in their precious studies and dare to call them what they are: partisan hucksterism. And so news outlets like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rush in to try and prop them up with “look at how fair and balanced this study really is” kinds of articles, like this one:
    Read More “PA Partisan Study Finds PA Needs to Soak Drillers with New Taxes”