Rendell Blasts Legislature for Inaction On Severance Tax
1 min readpost-gazette.com
by Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell thinks the Legislature is showing “recklessness” about a looming budget shortfall by failing to close tax loopholes and leaving several hundred million dollars on the table.
At a news conference today, he said it’s “senseless” for Pennsylvania to ignore the $100 million or more that could be generated by imposing a “reasonable” extraction tax on the thousands of cubic feet of natural gas being pumped from areas of underground Marcellus Shale.
He said he had offered a compromise tax plan that is “fair and reasonable” to the drillers and the state, and it’s also is less than his original tax plan, proposed in February and modeled on the tax used in West Virginia.
