How would AG Corbett like Gov. Corbett?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
By Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Gov. Tom Corbett is recovering from back surgery in Pittsburgh, and I know firsthand, or at least fifthvertebra, how hard that can be.

Despite the pain, Mr. Corbett needs to get back doublequick to his jobs in Harrisburg.

I say jobs because many of us still think of Mr. Corbett as the attorney general attacking corruption in Harrisburg, and we know we need that man now more than ever.

"When is Attorney General Corbett going to do something about the governor we have?" Bob Dickson of Shaler asked in a recent e-mail.

"I can't believe he is letting someone who took all of that campaign money from the Marcellus Shale gas folks before he got elected, then kisses their rings by refusing to consider a severance tax, leaving us the only state that doesn't levy one.

"That just doesn't pass the smell test. I'm sure that the Corbettinator is just getting his ducks in a row before taking him down."

In fairness to the governor, there is no evidence of any actual ring-kissing in Harrisburg. Drillers did give him some $900,000 in campaign contributions, and he's been awfully nice to them, but rings? They haven't been kissed.

Still, one can't fault Mr. Dickson for being nostalgic for the old Mr. Corbett. As attorney general, he cut a wide swath through America's Largest Full-Time State Legislature. Eight people have been sentenced thus far in the corruption trials collectively dubbed "Bonusgate."

Former Democratic Whip Mike Veon of Beaver Falls has been the biggest fish taken in Mr. Corbett's net, but the attorney general's office has been trying to keep a line moving from the statehouse to the jailhouse. Two former House speakers, Republican John Perzel of Philadelphia and Democrat Bill DeWeese of Waynesburg, also have been accused of using state staff and the people's money on their political campaigns.

That's the kind of non-partisan action that Mr. Dickson would like to see again from Mr. Corbett.

"Could someone find him and persuade him to come back to the AG office?" Mr. Dickson asked. "Someone has to do something about this governor."

It is, of course, a truth universally acknowledged that what is legal in Harrisburg is often more dangerous than what's banned. There is nothing illegal about oil drillers all but dropping bags of Benjamins at the governor's feet, provided the proper paperwork is filled out.

Nor is there anything illegal about a governor with an anti-tax pledge sticking to that, but with the state facing a $4 billion budget hole and industry officials saying they'd be OK with a tax, it's hard to make sense of Mr. Corbett's position.

No less a conservative stalwart than Sarah Palin instituted a state tax on oil profits in her brief time as governor before she became a reality television star. As Joshua Green points out in the June issue of The Atlantic, Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share has left that state with a $12 billion surplus, and Gov. Palin cooperated with Democrats to get that done.

Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, we're told that the gas industry is in its infant stages and thus Pennsylvania alone cannot impose a tax that the industry expects everywhere else. But this industry is hardly a babe in Penn's Woods.

The state Department of Environmental Protection announced Tuesday a $1.1 million fine against Chesapeake Energy for drilling operations that led to water contamination in Bradford County and a February fire at its Avella site. This is only just, given the fire that injured three workers and gas migration into the drinking water supplies of 16 families in Bradford County.

Chesapeake can take a $1 million hit and keep drilling. No one in the industry worries overmuch about the increase in drilling impact fees that Senate Republicans are proposing. Mr. Corbett says he'll consider that fee, as the lion's share of the revenue will stay in the counties and municipalities with drilling activity.

As for dedicating a portion of that money to the general fund the way other states do, the governor says no.

Mr. Corbett isn't exactly rolling over for the gas industry. In addition to the recent DEP fines, Mr. Corbett has stood against the "forced pooling" practice that would allow drillers to take gas out from under property owners who hadn't signed a lease. But his explanation for that seemed odd. He told an audience last month that "the industry will take the tax but only if it gets the regulations on forced pooling."

That sounds like the industry, not the people of Pennsylvania, is setting the terms -- after passing around piles of money. That's the sort of thing Attorney General Corbett used to get upset about.