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County Commissioners Disagree With Corbett On Fee Plan

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A drilling rig on a Tioga County farm


Pennsylvania’s county commissioners aren’t on board with a major aspect of Governor Corbett’s Marcellus Shale impact fee proposal.
Corbett wants counties, not the state, to implement and collect a fee. That raises “significant concerns,” according to County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania executive director Doug Hill.  CCAP’s members held a conference call to discuss the Corbett plan yesterday, and will send out a press release on their consensus within the hour.
Commissioners from several gas-producing counties, including Tioga, Bradford, Greene and Indiana, were on the call, according to Hill. Their main concern, he said, was that “we don’t want a hodgepodge. We think [a fee] needs to be done at one time, and uniformly.” A statewide rate, rather than a system where different counties implement different fees, would lead to “predictability,” he said.
Legislative leaders have raised similar concerns, but Corbett is sticking by his county-level plan. At a press conference yesterday, the Republican said local implementation is a critical component for him. “If the impact is in the county, they will deterimine whether they need [a fee] or not,” he argued.

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