ACT TODAY! We are closer than ever to enacting a tax on gas drillers to fund the state budget!
Thanks to the persistence of activists around the state who have sent over 4000 letters, made a few thousand phone calls, and visited 12 key House members, a good shale tax bill, without problematic that undermine our efforts to protect the environment, passed the House Finance Committee last week.
And, after cancelling the House sessions scheduled for this week, Speaker Mike Turzai changed direction and is bringing the House back to Harrisburg on Tuesday, October 24.
There is no guarantee that Speaker Turzai will hold a vote on the tax on natural gas drilling or that it will pass. And that's why we are asking Pennsylvanians who care about a fully funded state budget to contact their legislators again, right now, and tell them to demand a vote on a shale tax and to vote for it if given the opportunity to do so.
This is a critical step for Pennsylvania because the state budget is still not fully funded.
Governor Wolf’s bold and necessary decision to borrow $1.2 billion on Liquor Control Board revenues will enable the state to pay for the unfunded deficit from last year and most of the spending plan passed in June. But three problems remain:• So far, there is no funding to provide state support for Penn State, Temple, Lincoln University and the University of Pittsburgh. At a time when state funding for higher education remains historically low — and ever more important — no one should be happy with this.
• Without new taxes that would generate growing revenues year after year, we will face another budget deficit on July 1 and larger deficits each subsequent year.
That’s why we still need a severance tax on gas drillers — a shale tax — like every other gas drilling state already has in place!
Even if part of the tax is passed on to consumers, most Pennsylvania residents will not pay it. Over 80% of the natural gas produced in Pennsylvania is consumed outside the state. We Pennsylvanians who cook or heat with natural gas already pay part of a severance tax--to Texas and West Virginia and other states.
It's time we make the natural gas drillers pay their fair share to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for exploiting our natural resource
