Owned, operated | Centre Daily Times

Pennsylvania’s legislature is owned and operated by the energy and health care industries!

I read, with some cynicism, a June 1 article that quoted Sen. Jake Corman, bemoaning the lack of revenue needed to support college education, which provides a 5 to 1 economic return on that investment, plus positions the degreed workforce needed to attract this century’s highest-paying jobs.

It’s time for the senator and his associates to acknowledge that the legislature, particularly the Senate, is owned and operated by energy and health care.

Pennsylvania is the only state that does not impose an extraction tax. A reasonable fee, like those in Texas and Alaska, would more than cover commitments to education and contribute to debt reduction.

The gas isn’t going anywhere, so neither are the jobs. Corman’s fellow Republicans, Rep. Glenn Thompson and Sen. Pat Toomey, voted for exportation of natural gas, rather than contributing to American energy independence, claiming it will increase jobs. The gas isn’t leaving and the jobs loss issue is moot.

I had long believed Corman to be a solid candidate for higher office. Many now realize that he has become nothing more than just another guy doing the will of his moneyed masters.

Does he really believe us all to be that gullible? Corman must present the governor with a budget, before June 30, which includes the massive revenues to be derived from an oil and gas extraction tax. Not doing so will serve as de facto admission that he and his compatriots are indeed owned.