The newly enacted Marcellus Shale legislation should help Pennsylvania in numerous ways, state Rep. Mike Tobash said Friday at the Northeast Pennsylvania Manufacturers and Employers Association Legislative Roundtable at the Pottsville Club.
"We got it done. We are moving the ball forward," Tobash, R-125, said of the bill approved Tuesday by the state Senate and Wednesday by the state House of Representatives.
However, state Rep. Neal P. Goodman, D-123, opposed the bill, and he told about 35 business leaders at the breakfast meeting that the legislation will hurt Pennsylvania more than it will help it.
"I have grave concerns about this legislation," he said. "The industry wrote this legislation."
The debate over the Marcellus Shale bill, which Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign, highlighted Friday's meeting. It also included agreement that legislation modifying the state's prevailing wage law should be passed, that funding education will be the key point of this year's budget debate, that the 2001 legislative district boundaries probably will be used in the April 24 primary election while legislators struggle to draw new ones that the state Supreme Court will approve and that right to work legislation making union membership optional in all jobs might be considered.
Goodman was the only Democratic legislator attending the meeting, and he stood alone in opposing the Marcellus Shale bill, which enacts a county-option impact fee and state review of local drilling ordinances. Goodman said the state could have gotten far more from the natural gas industry from a severance tax similar to that imposed by other states.
"We're getting $20 billion less than West Virginia for the same amount of gas," he said. "The natural gas ... belongs to the people of the commonwealth."
Tobash said Goodman's focus on just one tax is too narrow.
"The fee is just one element. To compare one element, a severance tax, is not a fair comparison," he said.
Furthermore, according to Tobash, the legislation also set standards for the industry and gives guidance to local governments.
Tobash's GOP colleagues agreed with him.
"I think we got it right," state Sen. David Argall, R-29, said. He said the proof of the industry's positive impact is that more jobs are being created in Bradford County than in Philadelphia.
State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122, said the bill will help the areas most directly affected by the natural gas industry.
"The fee is going to deal directly with the impacts," he said. "The industry knows what the standards are now."
Heffley reminded people that Pennsylvania has lost thousands of jobs due to the closure of oil refineries in the Philadelphia area and the natural gas industry has created 140,000 jobs in the state.
In contrast, the legislators agreed that prevailing wage requirements for public contracts must be modified to raise the contract limit to $185,000 from $25,000 above which such wages must be offered.
"That's what it would be up to" if inflation were taken into account, said state Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-124. "That's the most likely one. I'm with you guys all the way."
Argall said the measure would help school districts that are burdened with high building costs.
"There will be no new jobs" without the change, he said.
Other changes with respect to education will dominate discussions of Corbett's $27.14 billion budget proposal, according to the legislators.
"We realize it's a bad business model if we can't educate at reasonable cost," Tobash said. "We've got a finite amount of money to spend."
Goodman agreed, but emphasized the need to fund public schools as opposed to vouchers, which would help subsidize students attending private schools.
"I don't think it's affordable. I don't see how we can sustain it," he said "Our core responsibility ... is public safety and education."
Heffley said a balance must be struck between accountability and affordability.
"Kids don't get a second chance. We owe it to the children," he said. "We need to put in a good system of rating teachers. The funding formula is totally out of whack."
Knowles also stressed that the educational system should be primarily for students.
"It's about educating the kids," he said. "Kids really need to have choices. The important thing is that they get a good education."
As to redistricting, the legislators thought the state would use the boundaries prescribed after the 2001 Census, at least for the primary election, but otherwise had little to add to the uncertainty resulting from the state Supreme Court's disapproval of the Legislature's maps.
"We don't know anything else. Next question," Argall said.
As for right-to-work legislation, which would forbid compulsory union membership, Goodman and Knowles again took opposite sides.
"You can't effectively run organizations where some people are in, some people are out, but everybody benefits," Goodman said.
Knowles disagreed, saying Pennsylvania should pass such legislation, as Indiana has just done.
"If unions are so great, wouldn't people want to join them?" he said. "This is common sense. This is people's rights."