There will be a delicious bit of political irony on display here in Delaware County today.
A group of Democrats - including unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Katie McGinty - will gather in Norwood to turn up the heat on Gov. Tom Corbett to enact a severance tax on the state's Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations, with the revenue being funneled into Pennsylvania schools.
McGinty is heading the Campaign For a Fresh Start for Democratic standard bearer Tom Wolf. She'll be joined by several other Democratic candidates, including Vince Rongione, who is seeking the seat held forever by state Rep. Nick Micozzie, R-163, in Upper Darby, and John Kane, who is running for the open state Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Ted Erickson, R-26.
To the best of my knowledge, Tom McGarrigle will not be there.
That's too bad. McGarrigle would fit right in - at least when it comes to the push for an extraction tax.
McGarrigle, the chairman of Delaware County Council, is the Republican looking to keep Erickson's seat in GOP hands, and in the process helping them keep control of the state Senate. His race again Kane is expected to be one of the most high-profile state Senate races in the state. Half of the seats in the Senate will be up for grabs on the November ballot.
McGarrigle actually has beaten the Dems to the punch.
He's already on the record as saying he wants to see a 4 percent levy slapped on gas drilling, with all that revenue ticketed for education funding.
I have an op-ed piece from him that likely will run this weekend. In it he laments what he calls "a summer of missed opportnity in Harrisburg."
It's interesting because the guy at the top of the GOP ticket in Pa. this fall, incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett, has made it clear he is not in favor of an extraction tax. He is standing by his push for an impact fee instead, noting that the often-heard claim that Pa. is the only state not to do so rings hollow because other states don't have the high business taxes that the Keystone State inflicts on business.
Corbett rode to office four years ago on a pledge not to raise taxes - or put any new ones in place either for that matter.
This week he gave an interview saying he likely would not make that same pledge as he runs a decidedly uphill re-election fight.
Maybe both he and McGarrigle will show up this morning to talk to their Democratic brethren about the idea of a gas tax.
For some reason, I don't think that's going to happen.
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