Brace yourself for Turzai vs. Wolf

Welcome to Harrisburg, Mr. Wolf.

So, you think you're having a bad week? Consider yourself lucky. You could be governor of the Keystone State.

Wolf, who rolled over incumbent Republican Gov. Tom Corbett by painting himself as a Jeep-driving non-politician, someone not tainted by the political process, is taking his lumps in the rough-and-tumble of life in Harrisburg.

Last week he saw his much-hyped budget plan get shot down by the House, 193-0. Yes, it was unanimous, even his own Democrats voted against it. Of course, as with everything that goes down in the capital, it's not exactly what it appears. Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, put the entire package of tax hikes Wolf wants to fund his budget, out on the line. Of course, all these people who must run for office every two years gave it a thumb's down. Wolf and the Democrats called it a "political stunt."

While they were still applying ice to that shiner, the governor quickly took another couple of shots to the solar plexus. This week his choice to head the state police got shot down by the Senate. Then Commonwealth Court jumped into the fray, rebuking the governor as overstepping his authority when he fired the new boss of the state Office of Open Records in one of his first acts after taking office.

And I've got news for him. The next few weeks likely aren't going to get a lot better.

The Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, was in Delaware County yesterday. He was joined by a bunch of labor and elected officials in Marcus Hook to tout the possibility of the region becoming an 'energy hub,' fueled by products from the Marcellus Shale region such as propane, ethane and butane being sent by pipeline to the Sunoco Logistics facility in what was the once-proud Sunoco refinery.

Sunoco Logistics already has material flowing in via their Mariner 1 project. Recently they laid out a proposal for a second pipeline to crisscross the state, ending in Marcus Hook, as part of what they are calling Mariner 2.

After the press conference, Turzai paid a visit to us here in beautiful downtown Primos.

He was almost breathless (and not just from the heat) as he talked about the economic possibilities - including lots of good-paying jobs. He stressed how jobs at the nearby Monroe Energy facility in Trainer are paying as much as $106,000 a year.

And he makes it clear his belief that all of Sunoco Logistics' plans could be in jeopardy should Wolf be successful in levying a new severance tax on natural gas drilling in the state.

Wolf wants to use that revenue to fund as much as $4 billion in new education funding in the state. Turzai says it's not going to happen.

He rejects the argument made by many - including this newspaper - that so long as the gas is here, companies looking to extract it aren't going anywhere.

Instead Turzai wants to talk about the impact fee that was put in place by Gov. Corbett. Hell, he's even willing to concede that it is in fact a tax.

He notes that while the severance tax backers are quick to point out Pennsylvania is the only state without such a levy, those other states do not have the high corporate tax structure already in place in Pa.

He said the Wolf plan in reality could amount to as much as a 25 percent hit for companies in the Marcellus Shale region.

So, with three weeks to go as the state careens toward a July 1 deadline to have a spending plan in place, I asked him to give us a timeline of what is going to happen.

I couldn't resist admitting that - regardless of what else you think about Tom Corbett - you can't argue with the fact that he did deliver four consecutive budgets, on time and without a tax hike.

Turzai seems confident he and his GOP brethren will do the same this year.

At least they will pass one and put it on the governor's desk.

What happens then is up to Wolf.

If I were in the state Legislature, I wouldn't be making any big plans for the July 4th weekend.

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