At a time when natural-gas drilling poses a threat to so many Pennsylvania communities’ rivers, streams, lakes, and drinking-water supplies, Harrisburg lawmakers cannot permit the state’s open-space and environmental cleanup effort to run dry.
Yet, the Growing Greener initiative — a signature program launched by Republican Govs. Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker — is running perilously close to the edge on its funding.
A GOP successor, Gov. Corbett, has proposed an austere state budget that would mean annual grants under Growing Greener would decline precipitously. While around $150 million has been available in each of the last six years, annual grants under the Corbett plan would drop nearly 82 percent, to $27.3 million.
That said, Corbett inherited the fiscal plight facing Growing Greener. Trash-dumping fees meant to recharge the fund were diverted to cover debt service in recent years. Former Gov. Ed Rendell was a proponent of Growing Greener, but left office without reaching a deal with lawmakers on added funding.
The new governor’s no-tax pledge, however, has put the state in a bind. In order to free up the trash-tipping fees for new projects to preserve open space, perform stream and other watershed cleanups, and reclaim brownfield sites in urban communities, new revenues would have to be found — all without raising anyone’s taxes, according to Corbett’s governing philosophy.
Fortunately, a coalition representing 250 organizations and government entities — the Renew Growing Greener Coalition — is keeping up public pressure to push the envelope in tax-averse Harrisburg.
Despite Corbett’s pledge, the most obvious solution would be to join every other state that has a natural-gas industry and impose a tax on the drillers exploring the huge Marcellus Shale formation.
In February, state Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware) offered a sensible plan that would impose a gas extraction tax and devote a third of the revenue to Growing Greener. Significantly, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) has offered support for that concept, and may offer a majority-party plan on a shale tax.
With or without a tax on drillers, Corbett’s state Department of Environmental Protection must crack down on any threat to watersheds. But imposing a shale tax that funds the open-space and cleanup efforts of Growing Greener would be a smart strategy to preserve the livability of communities across the state.
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If Growing Greener really cared about cleaning up the environment they would volunteer their time and donate their own money for needed materials and stop petitioning the state to tax productive activities. This is called putting your money where your mouth is.