By a 16 to 10 vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 10th, Senate Bill 700 took another step toward becoming law. Of course, the full Senate has to consider it and, likewise, the House must approve and it is not clear what the reception will be in that body.
To say the General Assembly has a lot on its plate is a colossal understatement. Liquor store privatization, the budget, transportation, and pension reform along with many other less controversial pieces of legislation.
From all accounts natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation has been an economic boon for Pennsylvania. While the exact overall impact may be up for debate, what is not debatable is the benefit for owners of the land and/or mineral rights where wells are located. This is evidenced by the increase in royalty income shown on state income tax returns. As we first reported in a 2011 report (Report #11-05), the number of tax returns containing rental and royalty claims has increased greatly since drilling began in 2007 and “offers the clearest and most conclusive evidence of the potential financial impact arising from Marcellus Shale drilling activity.”
Facing a large budget deficit, the Plum School Board has voted to lay off 23 teachers. The principal causes of the $1.48 million deficit are salary increases of over $900,000 and a requirement to boost the District’s pension contribution by $1,000,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. Limited to raising tax revenues over the current fiscal year by a state imposed index, the School Board has opted not to apply for an exemption from the Department of Education to increase tax rates.
Consultants engaged by the Pittsburgh Public Schools at the beginning of 2013 released a finding that the per-pupil cost in Pittsburgh is about $7,000 more than similar districts in Pennsylvania. Reacting to the finding, the Superintendent noted that the school board needs to “…have the facts on the table”.
Is this the year changes come to Allegheny County’s Retirement System, a self-insured defined benefit plan covering more than 7,400 non-uniformed employees, jail guards, deputy sheriffs, and County police officers?
On April 1st, drillers operating in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation were required to pay their annual well fees to the Commonwealth. As discussed in Policy Briefs Volume 12, Numbers 11, 21 and 51, Act 13 of 2012 gave counties with unconventional (Shale) drilling within their borders the option of charging a fee on each well. All counties have in fact done so. Revenue from this new fee, collected in 2012, provided $206 million to be shared among state agencies, counties, and municipalities. However, in 2013 fee revenue slipped to $198 million. Is the revenue reduction a one-time event, or the start of a trend?
March’s employment news for the Commonwealth was quite unwelcome. Both the household survey and the establishment payroll survey brought signs of marked weakness in employment.
The results from the Lincoln Institute’s Spring 2013 Keystone Business Climate Survey reveal a lack of optimism among Pennsylvania’s business executives. They were queried about the business climate, as well as the sales and employment levels at their company over the last six months and their outlook for the next six. Their responses were surprisingly similar to last year’s results (see Policy Brief, Volume 12, Number 25) which were also lacking in enthusiasm for the current state of the economy and the prospects for the near future.
In 2011, the debt per capita in Pittsburgh was $1,901, based on the Census count of 306,000 and $581.8 million in general obligation debt of the City. A decade earlier the average resident carried a much heavier debt load of $2,651. Both the debt and the City’s population were higher in 2001 but debt has fallen faster than population in the intervening years resulting in the per capita debt drop.
