CORONAVIRUS BRIEFS National Guard plan advances
Revenue would help pay for $3 billion pandemic recovery
A state Senate committee passed a bill Monday to allow the National Guard to get heavily involved in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine in Pennsylvania, and the Health Department reported 1,521 more cases of the coronavirus.
The Monday case count includes 51 in Lehigh County and 65 in Northampton County. Added to the 1,906 cases reported by the state for Sunday, the total number statewide since the start of the pandemic is now 915,018.
The bill pertaining to the National Guard passed the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee shortly after noon, with bipartisan support. It already was approved by the state House and now awaits action by the full Senate.
“I would have liked to have seen them also utilized to help our unemployment system,” said a committee Democrat, Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County. “But I am very happy to see them being utilized for the vaccine distribution.”
A Republican, Sen. Camera Bartolotta, said using the military makes sense because they “live and breath logistics and smooth operations.”
“This really, truly is a crisis and an emergency and if we are going to call it an emergency, then we need all boots on the ground and all hands on deck,” Bartolotta said.
The prime sponsor of the bill, Republican Rep. Timothy O’Neal of Washington County, said the legislation could be considered by the full Senate on Tuesday.
The seven-day moving average of newly reported coronavirus cases was 2,594 on Monday,
down 24% from 3,434 a week ago.
The state attributed 17 more deaths to the coronavirus Sunday. Coupled with 27 deaths reported for Saturday, the total is now 23,614.
None of the newly reported deaths Monday were in Lehigh or Northampton counties. There were 1,963 people hospitalized with the virus as of midday Monday, up four from Sunday.
A state news release said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data ranked Pennsylvania near the top among states for number of vaccine doses
Pennsylvania has an untapped stream of revenue in its natural gas industry, and Gov. Tom Wolf said that is money that could hasten the state’s economic recovery after the pandemic and ensure a strong workforce for decades to come.
Long a proponent of an extraction tax, Wolf said Monday it could pay for improvements to workforce training and support, remove inequities in the state’s workforce development programs and attract businesses to Pennsylvania where one in seven workers was sidelined during the business disruption caused by COVID-19.
First announced in Wolf’s budget proposal this month, the program dubbed Back to Work PA would impose an extraction tax on natural gas in addition to the impact fee producers already pay to state and local governments. Depending on the price of natural gas, the tax would produce an estimated $300 million a year to pay the principal and interest on a $3 billion bond issue over 20 years.
Noting that about three-quarters of gas produced in Pennsylvania is exported, Wolf said the tax would not fall entirely on Pennsylvania consumers. The combined severance tax and impact fee would be about 2.8%, Wolf said.
“These investments in businesses, people and communities willhelpusgetbacktowork,”Wolf said in a virtual news conference. “Businesses will have the talent they need to grow and thrive.”
The plan, as proposed, is unlikely to gain any traction in the Republican-controlled legislature where conservative lawmakers staunchly oppose additional levies on natural gas production. Wolf has proposed a tax on natural gas extraction every year since taking office with plans to use the money to address various gaps in the state budget. In 2020, his budget included a $4.5 billion Restore Pennsylvania infrastructure program that includes money for controlling floodwaters, building rural broadband and cleaning natural disasters and blight.
Jason Gottesman, spokesperson for the House Republicans, said a tax would mean higher energy costs for Pennsylvanians, many of whom are still reeling financially from layoffs and business disruptions during the pandemic. He said the harm a tax would cause to natural gas production jobs would outweigh any benefit from the workforce development plan.
“All this essentially does is borrow $3 billion and saddle future generations with a debt that the natural gas industry may not be able to cover the long term,” Gottesman said.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group for gas producers in Marcellus formation, said the impact fee has provided more than $2 billion for community and environmental programs across the state since 2012. It disputed Wolf ’s statement that the tax would be 2.8%, putting the rate at more than 12%.
“If the governor was serious about accelerating our economic recovery — which should be a top priority for every policymaker — he’d be focused on growing and encouraging natural gas production, infrastructure and use, not punishing this critical industry and its hardworking women and men that are helping combat this pandemic,” coalition President David Callahan said.
Mark Steir, director of the Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy Center, said the workforce development part of the proposal is critical.
“Some jobs aren’t going to come back,” Steir said. “We’ve learned how to do some things differently and we need to make sure Pennsylvania workers are trained appropriately and businesses are equipped to create jobs.”
The administration highlighted three major initiatives focused on workers, businesses and technology.
Wolf said the program would build a stronger and more diverse workforce by investing in rapid retraining and digital literacy programs to make workers eligible for available jobs, expanding registered apprenticeship programs to include health care, child care, information technology and manufacturing and retooling workforce development to include individualized career coaching and comprehensive support to address barriers to employment.
It would also increase child care subsidies and assist child care centers in expanding their hours and reach to eliminate areas where no care is available.
Back to Work PA would put Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector in a position to compete nationally and abroad to address supply chain issues that have hampered businesses during the pandemic. It would develop an initiative to bring business back to Pennsylvania with new capital for programs that help communities develop industrial sites, reuse existing properties and provide government initiatives and loans.
It would provide money for marketing programs to draw business back to the state, support innovation and entrepreneurs to create companies and keep talent in Pennsylvania and provide financial planning help for local governments to address revenue lost during the pandemic and prepare for future disruptions.
The program would also prioritize the development of broadband internet infrastructure in parts of the state that are not served by high-speed online access.
“We know that no two jobs are exactly the same, no two workers are exactly the same, and no two businesses are exactly the same,” acting Secretary of Labor and Industry Jennifer Berrier said. “The individualized services in the governor’s Back to Work PA plan connect job seekers to the education or training that will set them up for success in the labor market, while also helping businesses connect to the skilled workforce they need to thrive.”
Comparing the pandemic recovery to the reinvention of the nation’s economy after World War II, Berrier said the investments could create the most in-demand workforce in the country.
Rep. Greg Vitali, Democrat-Delaware and Montgomery, said he introduced the first legislation to tax natural gas production during Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration and that he believes an extraction tax is part of the solution to Pennsylvania’s structural budget deficit.
“Sales tax, income tax, the corporation tax aren’t funding basic government,” he said.
While Vitali, Democratic chairperson of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, said he generally supports Wolf ’s workforce development proposal, the end result is going to be a compromise, but the funding will not come from a tax on natural gas production with both legislative chambers firmly under Republican control.
“There’s no indication they’re going to approve a severance tax this term,” he said.