A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there...

THE POLITICAL fuss this week about Gov. Corbett taking a $1.5 billion line of credit from the state treasury's investment fund to pay Pennsylvania's bills is really about a fundamental policy dispute in the race for governor.

Corbett, elected in 2010 with the help of high-six-figure contributions from natural-gas drillers, pushed for a lesser "local-impact fee" on their operations rather than a larger "extraction tax" imposed by many other states.

Democrat Tom Wolf uses that in conjunction with the state's ever-present public-schools-funding crisis to paint Corbett as a natural-gas company man who turns his back on children.

Specifically, Wolf keeps claiming that Corbett slashed $1 billion from the public-education budget. Corbett counters that he actually raised education spending, which is true if you count legislatively mandated pension costs.

Corbett tried to fight back this week, noting that Wolf has updated one of his many television commercials, now saying that a 5 percent extraction tax would raise $1 billion per year, up from the $550 million figure cited when Wolf was fighting for the nomination.

Wolf's campaign cited updated projections in a report last month from the liberal-leaning Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center as the reason for upping the extraction-tax estimate to $1 billion.

Corbett's camp disputes that, estimating that the extraction tax would raise $450 million to $550 million per year.

It all reminds us of that old political saw: "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Pretty soon it adds up to real money." Especially in a cash-strapped state.

Here is why Corbett is still spinning his wheels while trying to present Wolf as just another tax-and-spend liberal: Pennsylvanians are fine with fracking, the hydraulic drilling method used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region. They just think drillers should pay their fair share to frack the state.

A poll released last week, conducted by the University of Michigan, Muhlenberg College and the University of Montreal, showed that 62 percent of Pennsylvanians support an extraction tax, while 29 percent oppose it.

More importantly, a solid 57 percent dismiss as untrue the main reason cited to oppose an extraction tax - that it would cause drillers to flee this state.

Adding to Corbett's bad news in the poll, 47 percent disapprove of how he's handling the issue.

The Democratic primary election for mayor of Philadelphia will be held eight months from today, and boy, are the prospective candidates kicking it into gear already.

The usual legion of elected officials, lobbyists, lawyers and executives are making the usual rounds at political fundraisers.

Steve Cozen, chairman of the law firm Cozen O'Connor, had about 40 people to lunch at the Four Seasons on Monday so they could learn more about City Controller Alan Butkovitz, just about an inevitable candidate in the race.

The tables faced a large screen for a slide show. The first slide said: "Alan Butkovitz, a snapshot of the race." Clout was politely booted from the room before lunch landed on the plates.

Mixed in with the crowd: former mayors W. Wilson Goode Sr. and John Street.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, another figure approaching inevitable-candidate status, had some tech to show off for his fundraising crowd in a private room at the Palm on Wednesday. He unveiled his new website.

We didn't even get into that room, but we did show off our nerd skills by alerting Williams that the person posting content on his site had this username: "Tony Williams for Mayor."

We mentioned inevitability, right?

Williams told us we'd solved a mystery for him. That username was showing up on social-media sites whenever someone "liked" the content.

The username has been switched to "Tony Williams for Senate." Williams has no opponent in the Nov. 4 general election as he seeks a fifth Senate term.

In the crowd were: City Council members Maria Quinones-Sanchez, Kenyatta Johnson and Bobby Henon; and District Attorney Seth Williams.

Former Common Pleas Judge Nelson Diaz is drumming up support for a fundraiser in three weeks at his law firm, Dilworth Paxson.

Diaz's campaign treasurer, lawyer Steve Levin, emailed this message to possible contributors Wednesday: "Nelson Diaz is putting together his efforts to run for Mayor of Philadelphia. You know him and have worked with him for many years. Your support at this time is crucial."

Levin included a link to biographical YouTube videos - one in English, one in Spanish - that Diaz posted online last month.

Elliot Curson, a media consultant, this month also registered NelsonDiazPhilly.com.

Phone: 215-854-5973

On Twitter: @ChrisBrennanDN

Blog: ph.ly/phillyclout