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Dougherty Leventhal & Price LLP,  DLP, continue to investigate and handle serious truck accident cases in Pennsylvania.  Clients represented include local law enforcement members, individuals struck by gas drilling related trucks and other vehicles and victims of serious truck accident cases.  The twelve lawyers at DLP have handled many seven figure Pennsylvania truck accident cases, the most recent a  $1.75 million settlement in Lackawanna County handled by Attorneys Brian Walsh, Jim Wetter and Patrick Dougherty

Reports today note the Department of Environmental Protection is pushing for tougher regulations on gas drilling companies and drilling rig sites.  Environmental concerns with water and air quality are driving the proposed regulations.  In the meantime talks continue in Harrisburg regarding some type of taxation on the gas drilling rig companies.  Safety issues regarding truck accidents in Pennsylvania due to increased truck traffic volume and highway damage also continue to be discussed.

Attorneys Joseph Price and Paul Oven continue to investigate a two truck accident in Bradford County resulting in the death of one truck driver.  DLP handles truck accident cases throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states.  The lawyers at DLP have handled many truck accident cases resulting in seven figure results for its clients.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection announced today, May 17, 2011, fines totaling over $1,000,000 filed against Chesapeake Energy stemming from unrelated incidents in Bradford and Washington Counties.

To read the Press Release issued by the Department of Environmental Protection, click here.

Taxing and collection of taxes on drill rig gas production continues to be a hot topic in Pennsylvania.  Gov. Tom Corbett remains 100% against any type of gas production tax.  However, many local politicians are pushing for some type of tax or severance fee to protect local communities such as Susquehanna, Bradford, Tioga, Potter, Lycoming, Wyoming, Sullivan, Luzerne and other counties in Northeast and Northcentral Pennsylvania affected by the drill rig industry.  DLP continues to monitor this issue for it’s clients as it represents individuals injured in drill rig, truck and other serious accidents related to the gas industry.

Dougherty Leventhal & Price LLP, “DLP” continues to represent individuals injured in truck accidents in Northeastern and Northcentral Pennsylvania. Recently DLP was retained by the driver of a school bus in Bradford County  which was hit by a gas industry truck which went through a stop sign causing the school bus to roll over.  The lawsuit is ongoing. The twelve attorneys at DLP are available to represent  people injured in drill rig accidents, truck accidents and automobile accidents throughout Pennsylvania.

With the ever expanding installation of drill rig sites throughout Pennsylvania, the levy of a “gas tax” or severance fee continues to be a controversial issue throughout the Commonwealth.  The attorneys at Dougherty Leventhal and Price LLP, “DLP” continue to monitor this issue as it proceeds through the Legislature.  DLP continues to represent drill rig accident victims and other gas related accident victims throughout Pennsylvania, including Tioga, Susquehanna, Bradford, Lycoming, Luzerne, Potter, Clinton, Lackawanna and other counties.  For gas industry, drill rig and related accidents contact one of the twelve lawyers at DLP.

Dougherty Leventhal and Price LLP, DLP, has recently been contacted to handle drill rig accident injuries suffered in West Virginia, Louisiana and Texas.  DLP is working with local law firms to represent the workers seriously injured in these accidents.  The twelve lawyers at DLP are available to assist you in your case if you suffer injury in the drilling fields of Pennsylvania including Potter, Tioga, Bradford, Lycoming, Susquehanna or any county throughout Pennsylvania.  DLP has represented residents of Wellsboro, Mansfield, Coudersport, Montrose, Towanda and many other towns.  Please contact DLP if you suffer injury in a drill rig accident.

University Park, Pa. — The ongoing utilization of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas deposits has the state weighing the pros and cons of taxing the drilling activity. A study recently released by faculty in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences used state tax information in an effort to begin an objective analysis of the drilling’s impact on local economies and state tax collection.

The research, summarized in a four-page booklet titled “State Tax Implications of Marcellus Shale: What the Pennsylvania Data Say in 2010,” compared counties where there is Marcellus Shale drilling and production activity with non-Marcellus counties. The study was authored by Timothy Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics and Penn State Extension state program leader for economic and community development, and Charles Costanzo, an undergraduate student majoring in community, environment and development.

Data are drawn from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s report, “2010 Wells Drilled by County as of 02/11/2011,” as well as from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s “Personal Income Statistics for 2007 and 2008″ and its “Tax Compendium (2007-08 through 2009-10) with Statistical Supplements.”

Kelsey said while it’s still early in the natural gas drilling process, the analysis indicates that Marcellus Shale development brings some positive economic activity for communities.

The study found that state sales tax collections were up by an average of 11 percent in counties with major Marcellus activity, while collections dropped an average of more than 6 percent in counties without any Marcellus. Sales tax collections are an indicator that retail sales are booming in Marcellus counties.

“Tax revenues are only one side of finances, however, so this analysis only considers half of the issue,” Kelsey said. “The impact of Marcellus drilling on state and local government costs is yet unclear, so it is too early to understand the overall impact of Marcellus on the state government. This state tax analysis does not indicate the impact of Marcellus development on local government and school district tax collections, since royalty and leasing income is exempt from the local earned income tax, and local jurisdictions cannot levy sales taxes.”

Kelsey said researchers wanted to find out if state tax records could yield objective financial data on how local economies are being affected by Marcellus Shale development.

“The state tax information provides a glimpse at how sales activity and personal income are changing,” he said. “The state collects objective tax collection information every year, and that can provide a good snapshot of how residents’ income is changing and the amount of retail activity going on.”

Kelsey explained that the booklet can help the average citizen to understand that Marcellus Shale development is having a discernible economic impact on residents and in communities.

“We’re early enough in the development of the shale that much of what we ‘know’ is based on anecdotes and personal stories,” he said. “This analysis provides some real numbers behind those anecdotes. The data show clearly that there are economic benefits that are accruing because of the gas activity — higher personal tax collections, higher sales tax collections. Realty tax incomes in drilling counties are decreasing, but less than in non-drilling counties.

“The booklet will not tell you how those benefits relate to costs, because we weren’t able to look at that,” he added. “So, it is only a partial picture of what’s going on. You know there are dollars coming in but you don’t know if it’s a net gain or a net loss to the community.”

Kelsey cited increased highway repair and maintenance, greater administrative demands, changing human service needs, and law enforcement and courts among the costs that determine whether the drilling activity is adding to or subtracting from a county’s bottom line.

Kelsey stressed that, because the study focuses only on state tax collection, it doesn’t support assumptions about local tax changes. He points out that local governments don’t have the option of a sales tax, and that the personal income tax increases seen in the study are largely the result of leasing and royalty income, which are both exempted from earned-income tax.

“So we know from this analysis that state revenues are going up, but we don’t know if local tax revenues are increasing or decreasing as a result of the activity,” he said. “That’s a huge caveat.”

Single copies of “State Tax Implications of Marcellus Shale” can be obtained free of charge by Pennsylvania residents through county Penn State Extension offices or by contacting the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Distribution Center at 814-865-6713 or by email at AgPubsDist@psu.edu. For cost information on out-of-state or bulk orders, contact the Publications Distribution Center. The publication also is available on the Web athttp://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/ua468.pdf.

Copyright: PSU.edu