Statewide PA

Pennsylvania legislators went home for the long Fourth of July holiday weekend without a final budget in place. The clock is ticking. The spending part of the budget–some $31.5 billion (a massive amount) has been agreed to by both the Republican-controlled legislature and Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. However, the budget needs to find another $1.5 billion to fund it–the shortfall in the current plan. Wolf wants “sustainable revenue”–by which he means permanent tax increases on something. Wolf’s preference is to slap a Marcellus Shale-killing severance tax on the natural gas industry. That’s a non-starter for the Republican-controlled legislature–people who actually know how economics work. It does appear the two sides are close to getting the budget passed. This week should tell the tale of how the state plans to raise enough money to bridge the shortfall…
Read More “PA Budget Battle Continues, Marcellus Severance Tax Off the Table”

Last Friday MDN told you about the latest plan to tax Pennsylvania natural gas–something called a gross receipts tax (see Ploy to Rename PA Severance Tax as “Gross Receipts” Tax). We now have a bit more detail on what that plan is. A gross receipts tax is nothing more than a sales tax that would be assessed on users of natural gas. It’s meant to transfer wealth from those who use natural gas into the pockets of Big Education (i.e. teachers unions), the same way a severance tax was meant to do. There is an important difference between a gross receipts and a severance tax. A severance tax would tax all natgas coming out of the ground. A gross receipts tax would tax only that gas sold and used in Pennsylvania–by end users (consumers, businesses, power companies, etc.). So the gas that gets shipped out of state wouldn’t be taxed. And therein lies the rub. Not only is Wolf & co. trying to use a shell game to move the tax around and make it appear that it’s not a tax on the drilling industry, their plan (we’re convinced) is to get this idiotic tax in place and then, next year or the year after, begin talking about how “unfair” it is that all of that gas going out of state isn’t taxed the way the gas is taxed in state–and “we have to close the loophole.” That’s how the game is played by tax & spend liberals like Wolf. Our advice to GOP legislators: JUST SAY NO. PA has a spending problem–not a taxing problem. Here’s the latest on the gross receipts tax idea…
Read More “More on PA’s Potential Gross Receipts Tax on NatGas”

Democrats just love to help themselves to OPM–other people’s money. They have a spending habit the equivalent of a crack junkie. Ever notice how junkies use very creative ways to try and feed the habit? One of their favorite tactics is to euphemize–call the same thing by a different name. In Pennsylvania, big-spending Dems in the legislature, along with their big-spending governor, Tom Wolf, are at it again. A severance tax is a tax on natural gas as it comes out of the ground–“at the wellhead.” You measure what comes out and you tax it. Another way to tax the same thing is called a “gross receipts tax”–which taxes the value the gas was sold for. In essence, a gross receipts tax is a sales tax. The price of the underlying good being sold goes up–so does the tax (it’s a percentage of the sales price). At the end of the day, a tax is a tax is a tax. You can call it a severance tax, or you can call it a gross receipts tax–it’s the same thing: a tax. Because Dems have short-term memory issues, we’ll remind the Dems reading this that Marcellus gas is ALREADY TAXED–by two different taxes: an impact fee and corporate income tax (on profits). PA is already paying the equivalent of a very healthy severance (or gross receipts) tax. But all the Dems can see are big dollar signs–that a gross receipts tax could raise $500 million per year or more–to feed their enormous big spending habit…
Read More “Ploy to Rename PA Severance Tax as “Gross Receipts” Tax”

Last year Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf thought he could win in a game of “chicken” with Republican majorities in both the PA House and Senate. Wolf tried to ram down their throats a number of tax increases–including a raise in the personal income tax, sales tax, cigarette tax, severance tax–just about any tax you can think of. Wolf lost. The budget was a disaster because he wouldn’t negotiate, wouldn’t compromise, wouldn’t do anything. He was banking on a liberal media to come to his support. In the end, even the media abandoned him as a hardheaded putz. This year Wolf is singing a different tune. He’s not demanding higher taxes and enormously bloated spending increases across the board. However, Wolf is still obstinately insisting on a Marcellus Shale severance tax–even though the industry is on the ropes and in survival mode. Just when we thought he was wising up…
Read More “PA Budget Progress – But Wolf Still Insists on Severance Tax”