Farm Bureau: Gas production tax would hurt New York
NORWICH – A proposed 5 percent tax on natural gas production would create a roadblock for New York’s economic progress and harm individual towns and cities.
That sentiment is shared by members of the New York State Farm Bureau as well as local officials.
“If lawmakers impose this tax, they will drive natural gas businesses out of business, harming our cities and towns and creating yet another roadblock to economic progress and energy independence,” said an e-mail distributed widely by the Farm Bureau this week.
The Farm Bureau is encouraging people to voice their opposition to this new tax by sending letters to legislators via the following website: www.nyfb.org.
Chenango County Supervisor James Bays, D-Smyrna, said he was shocked that he wasn’t personally notified by state representatives that the Assembly Environmental Committee was advancing the proposal to impose the tax.
Smyrna has been the locale for much of the natural gas exploration and discovery in Chenango County for the past several years. There are approximately 15 wells in the town currently.
“I’m not shocked that the proposal has become a part of the state’s budget negotiations ... What I am surprised about, and really shouldn’t be, is that I’m reading this in the paper rather than having been given a heads up by one of our state representatives, so seemingly well-briefed on the whole natural gas phenomenon,” he said.
It is estimated that imposing such a tax on the upcoming fiscal year would return some $30 million to the state’s coffers. Bays said the severance tax must take into account the fact that the impacts of natural gas and oil exploration and drilling/recovery, both positive and negative, are local in nature.
“As we consider a 5 percent state severance tax headed toward state coffers, we need to point out that the revenue returns to involved localities (meaning those townships where drilling activities are ongoing) are approximately only 1 percent, and in many cases, less than that. So as we debate the 5 percent tax, we must square that level of taxation with the paltry amount coming to localities,” Bays said.
That sentiment is shared by members of the New York State Farm Bureau as well as local officials.
“If lawmakers impose this tax, they will drive natural gas businesses out of business, harming our cities and towns and creating yet another roadblock to economic progress and energy independence,” said an e-mail distributed widely by the Farm Bureau this week.
The Farm Bureau is encouraging people to voice their opposition to this new tax by sending letters to legislators via the following website: www.nyfb.org.
Chenango County Supervisor James Bays, D-Smyrna, said he was shocked that he wasn’t personally notified by state representatives that the Assembly Environmental Committee was advancing the proposal to impose the tax.
Smyrna has been the locale for much of the natural gas exploration and discovery in Chenango County for the past several years. There are approximately 15 wells in the town currently.
“I’m not shocked that the proposal has become a part of the state’s budget negotiations ... What I am surprised about, and really shouldn’t be, is that I’m reading this in the paper rather than having been given a heads up by one of our state representatives, so seemingly well-briefed on the whole natural gas phenomenon,” he said.
It is estimated that imposing such a tax on the upcoming fiscal year would return some $30 million to the state’s coffers. Bays said the severance tax must take into account the fact that the impacts of natural gas and oil exploration and drilling/recovery, both positive and negative, are local in nature.
“As we consider a 5 percent state severance tax headed toward state coffers, we need to point out that the revenue returns to involved localities (meaning those townships where drilling activities are ongoing) are approximately only 1 percent, and in many cases, less than that. So as we debate the 5 percent tax, we must square that level of taxation with the paltry amount coming to localities,” Bays said.
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