House Votes Down Senate Impact Fee, Setting Up January Conference Committee

Scott LaMar / WITF

Pennsylvania’s Capi­tol

Now it’s offi­cial: the next chap­ter of the Penn­syl­va­nia Gen­eral Assembly’s ongo­ing, never-ending impact fee saga will be writ­ten in a Jan­u­ary con­fer­ence committee.

Moments ago, the House unan­i­mously voted to “non-concur” on the impact fee the Sen­ate approved last week. The vote sets the stage for a joint House-Senate con­fer­ence com­mit­tee. What’s that? The PA Inde­pen­dent explains:

The lead­ers of the House and Sen­ate will select the six mem­bers of the com­mit­tee, which will con­sist of two leg­is­la­tors each from the House and Sen­ate majori­ties as well as one from each body’s minority.

The mem­bers are expected to be announced in Jan­u­ary, and com­mit­tee meet­ings are likely to begin that month.

A con­fer­ence com­mit­tee stream­lines the leg­isla­tive process. Once the panel reaches a com­pro­mise between the two impact fee plans, the new leg­is­la­tion would go straight to the House and Sen­ate floors for final votes. No com­mit­tee, no amend­ments, just a final up-or-down vote.

Among the issues the com­mit­tee will be charged with settling:

• How much will the fee charge each well, and how long will it last? The Senate’s mea­sure cre­ates a 20-year fee, begin­ning at $50,000-per-well. The House’s, which is backed by Gov­er­nor Cor­bett, starts at $40,000 and lasts just ten years.
• Who enacts and col­lects the fee? Under the Corbett/House scheme, each county decides whether or not to imple­ment a fee. The Sen­ate bill cre­ates a statewide levy, col­lected and admin­is­tered by the Pub­lic Util­ity Commission.
• Will the leg­is­la­tion restrict local zon­ing of drilling? The House and Sen­ate passed near-identical lan­guage set­ting zon­ing para­me­ters, but the Cor­bett Admin­is­tra­tion con­tin­ues to push for its ini­tial lan­guage “super­sed­ing and pre­empt­ing” all munic­i­pal drilling zoning.

House Major­ity Leader Mike Turzai has made it clear a county-level fee is a “must” for his cau­cus. If that’s the case, look for a final levy closer to the Senate’s $50,000-per-well fee than the House’s lower price tag.