Action needed
News out of Harrisburg this week concerned word that the state budget deficit is quickly approaching half a billion dollars.
To help make up for the lack of revenue, Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced a pay freeze had been extended for thousands of nonunion management employees in the executive branch.
The move sounded great and had to resonate with residents of the commonwealth worried about looming cutbacks in services provided by the state. But on closer inspection the move turns out to be an empty gesture, signifying absolutely nothing. Nonunion employees have received similar raises to those provided for union workers in the past. But the Corbett administration negotiated numerous union contracts last year providing for no pay increases in the first year. So, even if Corbett had lifted the freeze, those nonunion workers still wouldn’t have got a pay raise.
Talk about political baloney. Meanwhile, the Corbett administration continues to drag its heels on pushing an issue, which could do something real in dealing with the deficit. That is passing a tax or “impact fee” as Corbett called it on Marcellus shale.
Despite being faced with one of the worst recessions in state history, Corbett refused to even consider such a tax or “impact fee” until he was pressured into it by GOP lawmakers earlier this year. But after finally coming out with his own plan, he watched quietly as a standoff developed between the House and Senate, both controlled by Corbett’s own Republican Party.
We couldn’t help wondering if the lack of compromise was just a way of avoiding the controversial issue of taxing the Marcellus shale. Or, perhaps GOP lawmakers were hoping voters preocuppied with getting ready for the holidays wouldn’t notice that nothing had been done on such an important issue. Certainly a compromise of some sort should have been reached. We favored the Senate’s bill as far as fees since it would raise more money. We also favored the Senate bill’s provision, allowing the PUC to distribute the revenue to municipalities, figuring that would eliminate politics that could come into play with county officials doling out the funds.
But we also strongly favored the provision in the House bill that would have returned most of the fees to the counties involved in the drilling. That would give our local officials the resources needed to deal with any problems being caused by the drilling.
One sore spot was the fact that both bills eliminated any type of local control over drilling of the Marcellus shale. Under both proposals, state regulations would supersede any type of restrictions by municipalities. That’s a shame because local officials and residents should have some control over what’s going on in their municipalities. But that’s pretty much water over the dam now, and the most important thing at this point is to pass some type of tax or impact fee. You have to think that some revenue for the state would definitely be better than none.
The dueling bills are now headed to conference committee in hopes of resolving their differences. But time is of the essence. With all the members of the House and half the members of the Senate up for re-election in the spring, any action must be taken quickly before the political campaigns begin to heat up. The longer the stalemate continues, the harder it will be to reach a deal.
Corbett, for his part, should be locking GOP conference committee members in a room and throwing away the key until they come to some sort of agreement. This is one issue that the the Republicans can’t blame on the Democrats. Since the GOP has total control of all the political power in Harrisburg, this issue rests solely on the shoulders of Republicans. And it’s up to Corbett as the top Republican in the state to get both sides to reach some kind of agreement.
Considering that a tax or “impact fee” on Marcellus shale could raise as much as $100 million or possibly even $200 million, it behooves the Republicans to pass some sort of bill which will generate some much needed revenue for the state’s revenue-starved coffers. While the revenue wouldn’t erase the deficit entirely, it would be one big step on the road to financial solvency.
And whatever agreement the two sides come up with will be better than actions such as Corbett’s freeze extension which accomplishes nothing.