[Vigilanteman]

That would replace the current "impact fee" assessed on each well - which has generated $630 million, mostly for the towns and counties where drilling occurs . . .

IOW, the hogs who would benefit most would be the densely populated places like Philadelphia which has the most greedy schools and where no drilling happens. The places which would suffer would be cities like Washington, PA or Punxsutawney who actually need the impact fees to build and repair roads, schools and other infrastructure needed to support the growth produced by drilling.

[Pietro]

Well, I live in a drilling area and my attorney told me that these additional taxes will come out of my royalties.

Royalties which are already taxed as income, but apparently that's not enough.

The people that live in the cities think the gas companies are stealing from them and getting away w/ it.

Meanwhile, Washington County is booming because of gas, but its too much to expect that the morons that live in Washington, the city, will understand that this tax will take $$ from us and send it to Philly and Pittsburgh and, most emphatically Harrisburg.

[Ditto]

IOW, the hogs who would benefit most would be the densely populated places like Philadelphia which has the most greedy schools and where no drilling happens. The places which would suffer would be cities like Washington, PA or Punxsutawney who actually need the impact fees to build and repair roads, schools and other infrastructure needed to support the growth produced by drilling.

Bingo. As it stands now, the Philadelphia mob can't get their sticky fingers on the money from drilling in the Western and Central parts of the state. The tax money now stays where the drilling takes place. The Philly mob does not like that.