June 30, 2014
HARRISBURG, June 30, 2014 – Because it fails to address Pennsylvania’s real issues – like property tax reform and taxing Marcellus Shale companies – state Sen. Sen. Judy Schwank today voted “no” on Pennsylvania’s $29.1 billion 2014-2015 budget.
“We have worked hard in Harrisburg to help Republicans and Gov. Tom Corbett understand that Pennsylvania is deeper in its financial quagmire because of the policies of the past four years,” Schwank, the Democratic chair of the Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee said.
“Pennsylvanians, unlike Marcellus Shale companies that are reaping billions of dollars in profits taking natural gas from beneath our earth, are struggling. Yet we can’t even agree to a small tax on the gas Marcellus Shale companies extract because Republicans and the governor are only interested in protecting them,” Sen. Schwank said. “Pennsylvania is the only state not to tax the natural gas that is being pulled from our ground.”
Had Pennsylvania levied a 5 percent severance tax on gas drillers, as Senate Democrats proposed in March, Schwank said the tax would have generated $700 million in new revenue to improve education, better protect the environment and spark new economic development.
Coupled with the $400 million that also would have flowed to the commonwealth under Medicaid expansion, most of the state’s $1.5 billion deficit would have been painlessly covered and 500,000 residents, including 23,000 veterans, would finally have received health care insurance.
“Instead, our $1.5 billion Corbett deficit has been ‘covered’ by inflated projections and deep cuts to essential economic development, environmental protection and job creation programs. And, no new funding streams mean we will have less ability to offset fiscal shortfalls if projections fall short, as some are anticipating could happen by early 2015 to the tune of $2.5 billion.
“Billions of dollars are being squandered by the commonwealth. This should be money we can invest with to offset education funding shortfalls that schools districts continue to pass on to local taxpayers through higher property taxes.
“School property tax bills are being mailed out now and I am painfully aware the effect this is having on residents, particularly seniors and those on fixed incomes,” Sen. Schwank said.
“The window is closing on the chance for us to deliver true property tax relief to our homeowners, but the General Assembly has some time to address this critical issue before the 2013-14 session ends later this year,” she said.
While Democrats in the Senate and House have been vocal about what they believe needs to be done to right Pennsylvania’s financial ship, Schwank said they were invited late to budget talks.
“If all parties would have been at the table, perhaps a consensus could have been found to find real solutions. Instead, partisan politics took center stage to the detriment of our commonwealth and our residents,” the senator said.
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March 28, 2014
READING, March 27, 2014 – To improve the education of children, better protect Pennsylvania’s environment and spark long-awaited economic development, Sen. Judy Schwank (D-Berks) today announced her support for new legislation that would impose a severance tax on natural gas drilling in the state’s Marcellus Shale region.
The 5 percent levy, which would raise $720 million in the coming fiscal year, would make critical investments in public education, job creation, and the environment.
Standing before a paint factory in Reading that has been vacant for the past seven years, Schwank said the tax on the very profitable Marcellus Shale companies would provide much-needed funding for critical areas that have suffered in previous state budgets, especially economic development and the environment.
“With the modest 5 percent severance tax we are advocating today, Pennsylvania would be able to restore countless vacant sites throughout the commonwealth,” Schwank said. “We would be able to invest $195 million in 2014-’15 to programs that spark local economies and grow jobs. That pool of resources would increase to $250 million the following year.
“Equally important: our proposal makes sure that natural gas drillers, which include some of the largest corporations in the world, are paying their fair share going forward,” she said.
The Marcellus Shale severance would also help to infuse more investment into the state’s Growing Greener program.
If approved, Sen. Schwank said the 5 percent tax would increase Growing Greener’s annual investment from $18 million this year to $75 million 2014-’15. The popular program would receive $120 million in year two of the levy; $150 million the following year.
Sen. Schwank said this proposal would generate far more revenue than the state currently receives from natural gas drilling. Pennsylvania is only projected to receive $217 million this year as a result of the current drilling impact fee. The proposed legislation would generate $937 million through a combination of the fee and severance tax.
Thirty-six states assess some kind of severance tax on natural gas drillers. Nearly all of them apply that duty on the extraction of oil and gas.
Pennsylvania is the only major state to not tax natural gas drillers, and that fact alone, the senator reminded, defeats opponents’ argument that the levy is a jobs-creation killer.
“Over the past three years, Pennsylvania has gone from 8th to 48th among in job creation,” Schwank said. “Secondly, where natural gas companies are paying an extraction levy – jobs ARE being created and the natural gas companies continue to profit … handsomely.”
Most importantly, Schwank, who was joined at the press conference by Reading City Councilwoman Donna Reed, Kutztown Mayor Sandy Green and IBEW Local 743 Business Manager Mel Fishburn, said public opinion polls show overwhelming support for a tax on the companies that drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale play.
The most recent Mercyhurst University poll found that Pennsylvanians favor the levy, 70-17.
Sen. Schwank’s press conference to announce her support for the severance tax was one of three in the commonwealth. Senate Democratic Appropriations Chairman Vince Hughes highlighted the benefits of the levy on education during a rally in Philadelphia. Sen. John Yudichak (D-Carbon/Luzerne) emphasized the positive impact the Marcellus Shale duty would have for Pennsylvanians during an event in Hanover Township, Luzerne County.
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November 15, 2011
HARRISBURG, Nov. 15, 2011 — State Sen. Judy Schwank today issued the following statement on legislation that creates a Marcellus Shale impact fee (Senate Bill 1100), which passed the Senate today by a (29-20) vote:
“We have a responsibility to restore and protect our ground water and streams, but Senate Bill 1100 makes a meager attempt at best to do so. It fails to reasonably require the natural gas industry to make a realistic and reasonable contribution in fair exchange for the wealth it is extracting from our ground,” said Schwank, who voted against the measure. “In the epic struggle over whether we will have a ‘tax’ or a ‘local impact fee,’ environmental stewardship has become not much more than a sidebar.
“This issue does not just impact the Marcellus Shale region. It impacts every single Pennsylvanian,” Schwank said. “The fresh water, the soil, and the air belong to all of us.
“Natural gas drilling is booming in Pennsylvania and there is no doubt that it will have a lasting economic and environmental impact on Pennsylvania. It is important that we properly regulate the industry with careful and thoughtful measures that will benefit this commonwealth now and for generations to come. This legislation could have been an important opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past to make ourselves stronger in the future. But I’m afraid we’ve missed the mark with this vote.”
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