Projects for Marcellus shale impact fee limited by law
The Marcellus shale impact fee, which will provide money to counties and municipalities to deal with the effects of the deep natural gas wells, can be spent on about a dozen approved expenditures, including lowering taxes.
The legislation, Act 13 of 2012, was signed into law in February by Gov. Tom Corbett and will mean hundreds of thousands of dollars for counties. Estimates are that Fayette County will receive between $1.2 million and $1.4 million next year.
The Fayette County commissioners are poised to enact the legislation, and have voted to place a motion on Tuesday’s agenda to consider enacting the fee.
During a webinar Thursday hosted by Penn State Cooperative Extension Office, Timothy W. Kelsey, a professor of agricultural economics, and Stanford M. Lembeck, a certified planner who is retired from Penn State Cooperative Extension, presented a forum geared toward the public understanding the new law.
Kelsey said the authorized uses are listed in 13 separate listings. They are: 1. Roads, bridges, public infrastructure; 2. Water, storm water, sewerage; 3. Emergency preparedness, public safety, law enforcement; 4. Environmental and recreational programs, such as conservation districts, open space, agricultural preservation, trails, parks; 5. Preservation and reclamation of water supplies; 6. Tax reductions; 7. Projects to increase safe and affordable housing; 8. Records management, GIS, (global information Technology); 9. Delivery of social services; 10. Judicial services; 11. Deposits into capital reserve for use on projects authorized under this section; 12. Career and technology centers for training related to oil and gas; 13. Local, regional planning initiatives under the Municipalities Planning Code.
Kelsey said there is no time frame on spending the money, which can be put into a capital reserve fund for future use.
Kelsey said the law is 174 pages long and details how much of a fee is to be paid for each well, how the fee will be distributed and what the fee can be used to fund.
Kelsey said through 2011, 37 out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties had at least one Marcellus shale well.
The largest number of wells were in Bradford and Tioga counties. Washington County has 11 percent of the wells with 534; Greene had 8 percent with 384 wells and Fayette had 4 percent with 177 wells.
Kelsey said because natural gas is a non-renewal resource, “when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Before any money is distributed to counties and municipalities, certain amounts of money will be given to state and local agencies such as county conservation districts, the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Department of Transportation and the Public Utility Commission,which administers and distributes the funds.
Of the remainder, 60 percent will be distributed to counties and municipalities.
That amount would be divided to give 36 percent to counties with wells, 37 percent to municipalities with wells, and 27 percent to other municipalities in counties with wells.
The remaining 40 percent will be deposited into a state-run Marcellus shale legacy fund.