Subsidizing Corps with Profits Bigger than the State's Budget

By Linda E. Small

The state's biggest problem: $2.9 billion a year subsidies to fossil fuel corporations with profits bigger than PA's budget

Having all corporations, including fossil fuel corporations, pay a fair share will allow the state to cover the 50% of education costs it did in the early 1990's. 75% of corporations don't pay the Corporate Net Income tax. Closing the loopholes that allows them to escape paying taxes is vital to effectively cutting property taxes. With state funding for education restored, we can stop the pressure on local school boards and taxpayers to both cut services and raise property taxes.
When Pennsylvania subsidizes large corporations, small businesses and renewable energy companies are put at a disadvantage. Small businesses are the true job creators. Conservation and renewable energy companies create jobs, boost the economy, cut pollution and begin to solve the urgent climate change problem we face. PA must stop giving money to the centuries old fossil fuel industry to allow a 21st century economy based on conservation, efficiency and renewable energy to emerge. More importantly, it must stop the subsidies to be fair to future generations who will otherwise live in a world of dustbowls, flooding rains, and rising seas.
Gardeners know that last year was difficult. A very wet spring delayed planting. Then a drought arrived, stressing both plants and the gardeners. Then, York County experienced two punishing rain events which flooded roads and basements. Those rains affected the harvest and ended some gardens early. Scientists are finding that this kind of extreme weather is happening because of manmade global warming. Giving the fossil fuel industry $2.9 billion is negligence of the highest order.
It bears repeating. If we ignore global warming, scientists now predict a permanent dustbowl in the U.S. Southwest by 2050- within our lifetime for many. They predict more extreme weather. As the added heat from the additional greenhouse gases builds up and evaporates more moisture into the atmosphere, there is more energy and water available for flooding rains. These changes won't just affect the United States, they will occur around the world. Sea level will rise one foot by 2050, and forecasts now range from 3-18 feet higher by 2100. It will be hard to produce food under these conditions. We can expect our children to face an unstable world as people have to move from rising seas and deal with dustbowls. It will be worse for our grandchildren. Many scientists believe there is a tipping point beyond which man can't stop the changes, and runaway warming is a possibility. A $2.9 billion subsidy to the industry causing this problem is a disaster.

Pennsylvania's $2.9 billion subsidy to huge coal, oil and gas corporations with profits that are higher than Pennsylvania's entire budget is the largest problem. Shell, which had $31 billion in profits last year, is in line for an additional subsidy deal of 15 years free of both local and state taxes to bring a "cracker" plant to the state. The subsidies are handed out while small businesses and the middle class struggle to make ends meet and shoulder the load of the state budget of $27.2 billion. Scientists today are finding clear evidence that man made global warming is causing extreme weather, harmful droughts and rising sea level; and that the US will have a permanent dustbowl in the southwest by 2050 if we do nothing. Yet Pennsylvania taxpayers subsidize the fossil fuel industry. These billions in unnecessary subsidies stifle the free market. They block investing in our children as Harrisburg cuts public and higher education to enable giveaways to the corporations that are willfully damaging our world.
Having all corporations, including fossil fuel corporations, pay a fair share will allow the state to cover the 50% of education costs it did in the early 1990's. 75% of corporations don't pay the Corporate Net Income tax. Closing the loopholes that allows them to escape paying taxes is vital to effectively cutting property taxes. With state funding for education restored, we can stop the pressure on local school boards and taxpayers to both cut services and raise property taxes.
When Pennsylvania subsidizes large corporations, small businesses and renewable energy companies are put at a disadvantage. Small businesses are the true job creators. Conservation and renewable energy companies create jobs, boost the economy, cut pollution and begin to solve the urgent climate change problem we face. PA must stop giving money to the centuries old fossil fuel industry to allow a 21st century economy based on conservation, efficiency and renewable energy to emerge. More importantly, it must stop the subsidies to be fair to future generations who will otherwise live in a world of dustbowls, flooding rains, and rising seas.
Gardeners know that last year was difficult. A very wet spring delayed planting. Then a drought arrived, stressing both plants and the gardeners. Then, York County experienced two punishing rain events which flooded roads and basements. Those rains affected the harvest and ended some gardens early. Scientists are finding that this kind of extreme weather is happening because of manmade global warming. Giving the fossil fuel industry $2.9 billion is negligence of the highest order.
It bears repeating. If we ignore global warming, scientists predict a permanent dustbowl in the U.S. Southwest by 2050- within our lifetime for many. They predict more extreme weather. These changes won't just affect the United States, they will occur around the world. Sea level will rise one foot by 2050, and forecasts now range from 3-18 feet higher by 2100. It will be hard to produce food under these conditions. We can expect our children to face an unstable world as people have to move from rising seas and deal with dustbowls. It will be worse for our grandchildren. Many scientists believe there is a tipping point beyond which man can't stop the changes, and runaway warming is a possibility. A $2.9 billion subsidy to the industry causing this problem is a disaster.