Every landowner oppose PA Senate Bill 744 regarding royalty owner taxation

Please join me in opposing PA Senate Bill 744.  Here is a link to the bill:

Link to PA Senate Bill 744

This bill is currently in committee.  It could emerge at any time.  The bill is a serious threat to the financial welfare of royalty owners all across Pennsylvania.  It seeks to countermand a decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, very much to our disadvantage.

Gene Yaw, a sponsor of this bill, has made a serious mistake.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on February 11, 2013 at 5:09pm

Richard

You mean same as we did last November?  Don't count your chickens.  The inmates are running the asylum these days.

Permalink Reply by darla McFadden on February 11, 2013 at 8:58pm

Remember the drink tax to help pay for the Johnstown flood in 1889?  We are still paying the tax- and have you seen Johnstown lately - wonder where the money goes?

Permalink Reply by john williams on February 12, 2013 at 10:38am

Frank how do I sign up to oppose this bill  John Williams

Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on February 12, 2013 at 12:17pm

PA Senate Bill 744 was proposed in the 2011-2012 Senate Session.

We are now in the 2013-2014 Senate Session.

 

It has been pointed out by others that the immediate prospects of the proposed 2011-2012 Senate Session Senate Bill 744 ceased to exist at the end of the past session.

That certainly does not mean that someting like it will not, in the future, rear its ugly head.

 

What to do?

We can stay informed and engage others in staying informed and vocalizing our opinions.

We can approach our respective PA Senators and ask them about their views on the exploitation of the unconventional shale wells.

We can inform our respective PA Senators about our interests and our wishes.

We can inform our respective PA Senators that we are taking great care in following legislation that would effect us as citizens of the Marcellus and Utica.

 

ALL IMHO,

                        JS

 

 

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on February 12, 2013 at 12:28pm

John

Prob'ly your best bet is to contact your PA State Senator.  Say you're opposed to this proposed legislation, SB 744.  Dunno what else to tell you.

As other posters here already have pointed out your Senator, I think, will likely act dumb, proclaim ignorance, or protest their innocence.  I don't see SB 744 as an immanent threat.

Trouble is, this legislation remains in committee, presumably dormant.  Please allow me to offer you an example of what I'm talking about:

In NY, Governor Cuomo had powerful anti-gun legislation written, ready to go, and lying in wait.  It was dormant until Sandy Hook went down in CT and all those little kids were horribly  murdered in cold blood.  Cuomo saw his opening.  He was ready with his sweeping, ridiculous, draconian, anti-gun legislation.  And after Sandy Hook, he was able successfully to ram his anti-American crap through the NY legislature.  It was Rahm Emanuel who said:  "You never let a crisis go to waste".

This is not the time for SB 744, but its time almost surely will come.  And I don't mean ten years from now.  PA is facing intractable pension funding costs.  The Commonwealth needs money, just as most states do.  SB 744 provides a way to wrest funds from a relatively small number of Pennsylvanians, that would be us, and distribute those funds widely.  In today's world, this is precisely the kind of legislation our government is craving. That goes double if Governor Corbett loses his re-election bid next year.  Corbett is currently invested in the impact fee as his approach to tax NG development.  A new Democrat Governor will be looking to expand on Corbett's approach and find new, additional ways to tax NG.  In that regard, SB 744 is hugely attractive.

So bottom line and back to your specific question:

If your PA Senator is a Democrat I don't think there is much you can do.  The Democrats will glom onto legislation like this with abandon given any opportunity whatsoever.  But if your PA Senator is a Republican, it probably is worth your contacting him or her and protesting SB 744 as vigorously as you are able.

Permalink Reply by Richard Droske on February 12, 2013 at 4:28pm

The massive taxes they collect when a lease is signed is not enough? The taxes they will collect if a well is drilled and producing is not enough? It is close to the point where landowners will not sign leases and they will get nothing.

Permalink Reply by melissa humphrey on February 12, 2013 at 10:37pm

Mr. Williams- all proposed legislation dies when the session ends. You are looking at 2011, we are in 2013. 90% sure, Senator yaw realized this was a mistake and retreated.

For instance 80% of PA's land sitting over Marcellus isn't likely to be prospective, pretty extreme to tax 0 value?

I believe yaw was a pusher for the tax on wells paid for by operators  Harrisburg is going to raise revenue somehow and that was A OK with landowners.

Many expect significant O&G legislation in 2013, we all need to be aware!

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on February 13, 2013 at 5:17am

I apologize for having messed up ever so slightly.  I am sorry.  I thought surely I had posted this link, but apparently I did not.  Here, belatedly, is the link:

Link to Senator Yaw's Prime Legislation

Kindly note carefully here the good Senator's use of the word "prime".

Also, please be aware this is his most recent iteration of this data.

The following is only JMHO:

Were I a PA Senator, I would not list in a public place, among prime legislation I had sponsored with pride, legislation I "realized was a mistake".  Maybe it's just me.  But I'm not one who goes out of his way to draw attention to my own mistakes.

Permalink Reply by fred riley on February 18, 2013 at 3:19pm

I don't usually reply to articles, as I usually just read and hope to absorb.

However, I'd like to state (complain?) that it it is becoming easier to comprehend the headings we are being corraled to...

It's (drilling in general) all a state by state issue, which the respective governments and drillers have slid all new rules and regulations, leasing, taxation, etc. under and by our very noses. We've had no recourse, as the dancing is still ongoing between the two factions. A divide and conquer attitude.

I'm from Clearfield County, PA, where it seems to me that the major exploration.drilling is mainly on State Game Lands. Pretty simple plan. The major monies go straight to the state coffers. ...there are some private holes, of course, but in comparison...?

A year or so ago, we were beginning to see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for drillers to become active here, but...poof....everything stopped, all the home base sites for the drillers shut their doors and moved on to Ohio...better gas, no pipelines here able to transfer the gas anyways, and the PA legislators didn't 'have it together.', plus the 'glut' we hear so much about.

 

Every time I read something about 'what's happening' overall with the industry, it is anti-landowner. The taxation changes, which are coming about by negotiations between Harrisburg and the drillers, is being set up to defray a lot of costs which should NOT be our responsibility. Who, if anybody is our would be champion(s)?

 

Permalink Reply by myles fetterhoff on February 18, 2013 at 7:43pm
How to stop it

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