The Daily Item : Senator heckled

LEWISBURG — What was billed as a severance tax discussion with state politicians Thursday night turned into a confrontation over gas industry interests, and public and environmental health.
State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23, speaking with state Rep. Rick Mirabito, D-83, found himself in pointed exchanges with audience members almost from the beginning of his turn during “Community Impact: Severance Tax,” a discussion at Bucknell University.
Mirabito spoke first, telling the audience of nearly 100 that he favors a tax on extracting the natural gas out of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. That, he said, would accomplish what he sees as three major impacts: infrastructure costs, such as repairing roads and developing tools to manage the gas industry; environmental impact to soil, water and air; and societal needs, such as more police and human services for a growing population.
But the tenor of the audience changed almost immediately when Yaw took the podium.  Asking the audience “Who here is concerned with our $4 billion budget deficit?” an audience member replied “Not as concerned as we are about the gas industry.”  The exchanges between Yaw and some audience members continued throughout his time speaking.  When Yaw noted “Pennsylvania, for the first time, is being called to compete in the global market. And what do some say? ‘Let’s just tax ’em to death’” — some audience members replied “Good.”  “You obviously are a hostile group,” Yaw said to the crowd, particularly addressing some audience members in the front who refused to let up. “You don’t have to agree with me. … but you seem to have a pre-determined idea of what I’m going to say.”
The sharp remarks continued until Scott Meinke, a Bucknell professor and the event’s moderator, restored order.
During the question period, almost all queries were directed at Yaw, calling on him to divulge information about his dealing with gas companies and how he may have profited from it.
David Young, a Lewisburg environmental activist, told Yaw he had a “moral responsibility to disclose to your constituents” what contributions he may have received from gas companies and any business his law firm has done for them.  “Until you do, you’re a mouthpiece and a traitor,” Young said, to which Yaw responded, “I didn’t come here for this.”  Meinke again reminded the audience to keep a level of civility, to which another member shouted, “Maybe if your participant was civil in his heart…”
Yaw said all contributions made to his campaign are listed on his website, and that his law firm doesn’t work with gas companies.  Yaw was able to get in that he’s proposed a bill to overturn a law the state Supreme Court set in 2002 that ended taxes on gas wells. With 71,000 active gas and oil wells in Pennsylvania, “If there has to be a tax, I prefer it be put into play and levied that way,” Yaw said. “It’s better than sending a lot of money to Harrisburg and getting little in return.”
Yaw also noted he has the support of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania in getting rid of the 2002 law.  Bob Getz, a Sullivan County commissioner, gave Yaw rare praise during the event, saying CCAP has been working for eight years to overturn the law and get the taxes restored.  Lost in the evening’s tension were both politicians’ views for how they would govern a severance tax and why they believe Pennsylvania needs one.  “Every day we don’t have a fee, taxpayers lose money,” Mirabito said, adding that Pennsylvania has lost an estimated $145 million in untaxed profits, and that 60 percent and 70 percent of state residents are in favor of a fee.
“Coal wasn’t taxed, and we spend billions in cleanup today,” he said.   Yaw said that other states that levied severance tax on natural gas drillers eliminated some other tax on the businesses. In Pennsylvania, the tax would be another fee.  He is very much against any collected taxes going to Harrisburg and the “black hole” of the general fund, feeling the counties with active gas drilling should benefit first from such funds.  Yaw also said the gas industry has paid $1 billion to date to do business in Pennsylvania.
Yaw said regarding the coal industry that, at the time, there were no regulation agencies or environmental laws governing it.
— E-mail comments to esocha@dailyitem.com