Sep 11, 2009 2 min read

Deep state budget cuts and an aversion to broad-based tax increases are pushing down a heavy fiscal burden to counties and local service providers. During the current state budget impasse, every day brings news of layoffs, program cuts, worrisome tax anticipation loans and missed school district subsidy payments. But there is a fair and long-term way to help ease this burden – and stave off likely real estate tax increases from this brewing “Perfect Storm.”

Now that Gov. Ed Rendell has yanked a Marcellus shale severance tax off the negotiating table, I am calling for a full-scale revival of my House Bill 10, which would permit the assessment of natural gas, coal bed methane and oil for taxation purposes.

HB 10 imposes no new tax structure; it would simply let counties, school districts and municipalities go back to taxing natural gas – including the trillion-dollar Marcellus shale – the same as coal and above-ground real estate. More importantly, 100 percent of the money would stay “at home,” helping the numerous counties where this lucrative natural resource exists.

As the state grapples with its own budget shortfall, it is abundantly clear that the subsidy landscape has changed, perhaps forever.

Implementing HB 10 is an uncomplicated, efficient way to make sure a burgeoning industry pays its fair share, while helping counties, municipalities and school districts mitigate a sharp reduction in state funding.

By one estimate, restoring natural gas to the tax rolls would yield $202.8 million in yearly revenue at the local level.

As drillers continue flocking to Pennsylvania to tap the Marcellus, despite the industry’s gloom-and-doom lobbying against a severance tax, it makes perfect sense to treat them the same as the homeowner.

Let’s pick “Perfect Sense” over the “Perfect Storm.”

State Rep. Bill DeWeese

House Majority Whip