Imagine You Love Revenues. Imagine You're Pennsylvania.

Imagine that everything in economic and global history over the past several  decades and centuries suggests demand will continue to rise for a certain kind of product. That product is energy.  You don't need to imagine. In fact global dynamics revolve around this product. Corporations and countries will do and pay whatever is necessary to get access to this product. There's precedent. You know that because you know a little history.

Imagine you have one of the largest deposits of one type of that  product on the record. That deposit is the Marcellus Shale Natural Gas field. You still don't need to imagine. Imagine you know who your competitors are; you know who else has the product and you know that they're charging companies 6% and more to take the product away. Once again, you need not imagine. Your competitors are West Virginia, which taxes gas extraction at about 6%, as well as other states like Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, which tax at a higher percentage still. You know these are states with conservative constituencies and strong natural resource extraction economies.

You know that you, Pennsylvania, despite sitting on one of the largest natural gas fields the world is aware of and being adjacent to one of the largest buying markets (the great cities of the US Northeast)  for energy in the  world,  choose not to tax extraction. Because you know that other states do tax extraction and still have strong extraction economies, because you  know that  global  demand for energy will only continue to rise, because you know that you're in a comparatively strong position because your gas field is both bigger than and closer to the Northeast  than other gas fields, you must only conclude that you actually do not like revenue for the state as a whole.

You are only left with the conclusion that your governor is more concerned with his individual campaign contributions from natural gas companies than he is with leading the state out of tough economic times through application of smart public policy that is a no-brainer in conservative states like Texas,  Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

You, Pennsylvania,  because you do love revenues, good public policy, and educating a globally competitive citizenry through strong K-12 and higher education systems, must resolve to find better leadership. For the good of the state,  for  the good of the country,  for anyone who values a smart, well-educated populace and sound, pro-business public policy that has been  tested and successful elsewhere.    


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If you'd like more resources on this topic, check:

• Post-Gazette Columnist Brian O'Neill 
• Pennsylvania State Representative Greg Vitali (D - Delaware County,  Member, House Committee on Environmental Resources and Energy)
• The State of TX's Discussion of their Natural Gas Tax Rate (7.5%)