Who is funding Tom Corbett and why are they doing it?

During the 97-day period covered by the latest campaign finance reports, Corbett’s campaign received $334,500 from the natural-gas industry, the groups said. That is about 5 percent of the $6.1 million he received from all donors during that period. Onorato received $45,000 during that period, the groups said – about 1 percent of the nearly $5 million he raised.

While economics wasn’t my favorite subject, I understand it well enough to have a firm grasp on supply and demand concept. And Pennsylvania is at the door of a huge supply/demand moment when it comes to Natural Gas and Macellus Shale. The State is sitting on enough Natural Gas to power the country for the next two years.  Enough to power the entire country!

Using some of the same horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing methods that had previously been applied in the Barnett Shale of Texas, perhaps 10% of that gas (50 trillion cubic feet) might be recoverable. That volume of natural gas would be enough to supply the entire United States for about two years and have a wellhead value of about one trillion dollars! [5] (from http://geology.com/articles/marcellus-shale.shtml)

Tom Corbett doesn’t want to tax the Big Oil and Gas companies.  He calls them a young industry that needs to be protected, but the reality is that the Oil and Gas industry has been working on reclaiming Natural Gas from Shale since before 1995 in Texas, and they have been getting Natural Gas from the rock reservoir for far longer.  This is no “new industry.” They may be relatively new to Pennsylvania, but they aren’t new in any way, but rather an experienced profit seeking multi-billion dollar industry.

I understand Capitalism enough too, to know that any company wants to maximize profits, and so cutting the cost to production will help raise profits. Taxes are a cost of production, so if the Oil and Gas Industry can fund a candidate who will not tax them, they will be sitting on ONE TRILLION DOLLARS tax free. How does that sound to you? Who will end up paying the taxes for this ONE TRILLION DOLLARS?  Pennsylvania tax payers will. Corbett expects these companies will come in and hire some Pennsylvania workers, and these women and men will make low to moderate wages, and the wages will be taxed. Corbett is happy to make these workers pay by taking even more of their paycheck away from them for the unemployment fund, because to Corbett, the unemployment fund contribution isn’t a tax, so he doesn’t mind raising that (but only for the employee- he wouldn’t raise the employer’s contribution).

Even some conservatives know that there is no way that Corbett can balance the state’s budget and eliminate the deficit without raising taxes for Pennsylvanians. But he is happy to allow the most wealthy industry in the country, the Oil and Gas industry to collect ONE TRILLION DOLLARS tax free? What’s wrong with this picture?

I suppose nothing from an industry perspective. The Oil and Gas industry has invested $334,500 to make back ONE TRILLION DOLLARS tax free. That’s a pretty good Return on Investment, isn’t it?

via Groups say Corbett received most natural-gas money – BusinessWeek.