Taking proposal for severance tax down different road

Tom Wolf has not given up on his dream of a tax on the state’s natural gas industry.

He’s just taking a detour on the road to being able to proclaim, “We Shale Overcome.”

You might remember that the Democrat rode to victory over Republican incumbent Tom Corbett four years ago by pronouncing for all to hear his pledge to restore the education funding cuts — including the loss of federal stimulus funds — that took place during Corbett’s four years in the governor’s mansion.

And he had a way to pay for it as well.

Wolf vowed to enact a new severance tax on the state’s booming drilling industry in the Marcellus Shale region. Corbett had a pledge of his own.

He had vowed not to raise or enact any new taxes. So the Republican instituted an “impact fee” on the industry instead.

Since Republicans controlled both the state Senate and House, Corbett got his way and those clamoring for a severance tax grumbled that the state was losing out on a lucrative new revenue stream.

In the last four years, Wolf has consistently pushed for a severance tax, each year including it in his budget package, and each year seeing GOP leaders in the Legislature allow it to die on the vine.

This year Wolf is taking a different tact, a detour if you will, along a couple of different paths.

Yes, the governor is again calling for a severance tax. But he did not include it in his formal budget address. It will still be debated as part of the fiscal plan, but not within the constraints of the budget.

The governor is indicating he would like to use the money from the tax largely for a different purpose, one he hopes will be a bit more palatable to his pals across the aisle.

Wolf said he would use the revenue, as much as $300 million a year, for a major program targeting the state’s crumbling infrastructure.

Wolf is calling the plan “Restore Pennsylvania.”

In Wolf’s world, Pennsylvanians are already paying for these very same kinds of programs in many other parts of the nation and world through their taxes.

He says it’s about time to keep some of that money working right here in Pennsylvania.

“We’re already paying to other states, to other countries the tax that we’re actually helping them deal with these very issues — the floods, the blight, the lack of internet access, all the things that we’re helping them pay,” Wolf said. “And they’re not helping us with anything.

So I’m simply saying let’s create this tax — a severance tax — that would actually allow other states and other countries to help Pennsylvanians.”

We concur with Wolf, with one large question mark.

It really is silly for Pennsylvania to remain the only large, gas-producing state in the nation to allow these gas companies to operate here in the Keystone State.

It’s like giving away money, and no, we don’t think the impact fee gets the Legislature off the hook.

As for that question mark, it is one that is beating louder by the day.

And it is this.

As the world tries to get its arms around ever dire reports of the effect of climate change and most rational people are looking for ways to reduce their carbon imprint, does Pennsylvania really want to get in bed with the fossil fuel industry to this extent?

It’s at least something that deserves the same style of cogent, reasoned debate that’s going on in Washington, courtesy of The Green New Deal unveiled by freshman New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.

We don’t think for a minute that we’ll be seeing the Green New Deal implemented anytime soon.

But just the fact that it’s being talked about — very likely the most progressive, sweeping measure to hit D.C. in decades — is a start.

Sure, go ahead and debate a new severance tax in Pa.

But let’s also talk about what is becoming increasingly clear.

Climate change is a looming threat.

Wouldn’t it be nice if — for once — Pennsylvania took the lead on this type of plan, instead of playing follow the leader in taxing the gas industry?