Your Friday Morning Impact Fee Update

The Post-Gazette talks to southwestern Pennsylvania county commissioners, about their reservations on Governor Corbett’s proposed impact fee.
As we’ve reported all week, the Corbett plan would leave it up to the counties to assess and collect a levy on natural gas drillers.

Some southwestern commissioners said they would prefer a more uniform method for mitigating their drilling-related costs.
“I think it’s the state’s responsibility to lay out how the policy should work,” said Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder. “We do not want this to pit county against county.”
Under the governor’s proposal, each county with shale gas wells would be able to decide whether to charge a fee, and if so, how much to assess up to a certain figure. Those rates cannot exceed $40,000 for a well’s first year, $30,000 for its second, $20,000 in the third and $10,000 in years four through 10.
That flexibility drew immediate concerns from both Democrats and Republicans, who said it would create a fragmented system where some counties have a fee and others do not.

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