By Evamarie Socha
The Daily Item
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LEWISBURG — The Central Susquehanna Citizens Coalition took the next step with its “tax fracking now” petition, delivering more than 700 signatures to the Lewisburg office of state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23 of Williamsport and asking him to support a fair-amount severance tax on natural-gas companies drilling the Marcellus Shale.
In a cordial meeting, Curtis Fay, Yaw’s legislative assistant, met with Jove Graham and Julianna Cooper, chairman and treasurer, respectively, of the Lewisburg-based citizens group that launched the petition online May 16. In about two weeks, the group gathered 714 signatures online and in person. About 500 of those came from Yaw’s district.
The petition calls for a severance tax of fair amount — modeled after that of West Virginia, which imposes a 5 percent tax — to cover proper cleanup after drilling or accidents, infrastructure repair and reclamation.
Graham noted that the petition had signatures from people of all walks of life — young, old, professional and blue collar — and many signers volunteered their political affiliations.
He said this leads him to believe the severance tax is a bipartisan issue among people and one they feel strongly about.
Fay said response across the district has been in favor of a severance tax. “We hear that everywhere,” he said.
Yaw is not opposed to a severance tax, Fay said, but to the money going into “the big black hole in Harrisburg,” noting concern for where the money ultimately would go.
Yaw also still favors his proposal of providing for local governments to include gas wells in property assessments, Fay said.
“The senator believes strongly that local and county governments determine how any money should be spent because they know best what is needed,” Fay said. At Harrisburg, the money could go anywhere, he said.
Graham said other states successfully impose a severance tax on shale drilling while “Pennsylvania seems to want to reinvent the wheel. There are other shale states with a plan in place to distribute such money so it doesn’t all go into a general fund,” he said, noting this could assuage Yaw’s concern.
Because of the deals surrounding each lease, it may not be as simple as a flat severance tax paid by gas companies.
Each lease is written up differently with negotiated amendments from landowners and gas companies as to who is responsible for what, Fay said, so each lease would have to be researched individually to determine where the severance tax money would come from as part of the contract.
“There are a lot of legal issues being closely looked at regarding the leases to try to hammer out some of those details,” Fay said, noting he cannot give a legal opinion as to how it could work out.
