Kasich Giving Severance Tax Another Shot

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From the Akron Beacon Journal:
Twice before, Ohio House Republicans have rejected John Kasich’s proposals to increase severance taxes, requiring oil and gas drillers to compensate the state fairly for extracting one-time resources. The governor tried again in recent weeks, including a modest increase in his mid-biennium review. 
What’s likely to emerge early next month is a scaled-back version of the governor’s plan, one more to the liking of the oil and gas industry and its powerful lobbyists. While the governor would like a new 2.75 percent tax on gross receipts from horizontally drilled, hydraulically fractured wells, a bill introduced by state Rep. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, would impose a lower rate, 2.25 percent, on net proceeds. 
Last week, a study by the consulting firm Ernst & Young made plain that industry warnings about higher severance taxes causing drillers to abandon the state’s lucrative Utica Shale areas are vastly overblown.
You can read the rest of this editorial here.

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