Pa. counties like gov’s drill plan, not their role

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MARC LEVY,Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — An association of county commissioners on Thursday gave a split opinion on Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposal to allow counties to impose a fee on the thousands of wells being drilled by the state’s booming natural gas industry.
Corbett’s proposal to state legislators, announced Monday after months of anticipation, would keep 75 percent of the revenue in the hands of local government for a range of uses, earning support from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
The maximum fee would be $160,000 over 10 years on productive wells in the Marcellus Shale formation, which lies primarily beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio and is regarded as the largest-known natural gas reservoir in the nation.
However, the association also said county governments and the industry will be better served by a uniform, statewide levy that is imposed by and administered by the state.
"(We) don’t want to get into the political and local battles of should we levy a fee and if we do what should the rate be and what are our neighbors doing, and all the rest," said Doug Hill, the association’s executive director. "It isn’t productive for us and certainly not for the industry."
Hill pointed out that each drilling company would have to send a check to each county, instead of one to the state Department of Revenue, and some of those checks would have to be calculated at different rates.
He also said the option in Corbett’s plan not to impose a fee would create an inequity, because counties that do impose the fee would send 25 percent of it to the state for environmental protection, road and bridge improvements, health studies, emergency response and pipeline safety, primarily in drilling communities.
Counties and municipalities that are home to the drilling would split up the money for a range of uses, such as improvements to roads and bridges and water and sewer systems, social services, affordable housing projects and emergency response.
Corbett, a Republican, took a campaign pledge not to increase taxes or fees, but he views his proposal as being in line with the pledge. The money would not help the state’s general fund, public schools or statewide environmental improvement programs, which could meet substantial opposition from lawmakers in counties that aren’t part of the drilling boom but fear environmental damage.