Here's a little Pennsylvania state budget prediction.
Our friends in Harrisburg are about to resolve the state's budget mess.
And it will include a severance tax on the state's natural gas drillers.
This comes from a source I trust who is involved in the process.
As you know, the state has had a budget in place since July 1. But our fearless leaders forgot one thing: They don't have a plan in place to pay for it.
The Senate came up with a plan that raises a lot of taxes - but not the two biggies, the personal income or state sales tax. Their plan would hike levies on utilities and cell phone bills, and does include a new tax on the state's natural gas drillers.
The House didn't like the sound of that. They instead want to borrow a bunch of money, raid the tobacco settlement fund, and skim off what they are calling "surplus" funds from many departments, including education and transportation.
They've been at loggerheads ever since, with the state hanging precariously over the fiscal abyss.
Now I'm told a budget funding package will be in place within the next 10 days.
And our Delco house delegation was smack in the middle of the deal.
House leaders attended a meeting and are apparently finally on board with some kind of severance tax on the Marcellus Shale industry.
That did not stop my source from saying something that many of us have believed now for years. The process in Harrisburg is broken and needs to be fixed.
"This thing has been mismanaged from the start," the source said.
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