Category: Tom Wolf

Stories involving Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf who was elected in 2014 and assumed office January 2015.

Harrisburg Broken. Really, Really Broken

Harrisburg Broken. Really, Really Broken

Harrisburg Broken. Really, Really BrokenBy Sen. Scott Wagner

In my past articles, I have reported repeatedly many of the findings in Harrisburg where I see first-hand waste, fraud and abuse.

Here is another great example of how mismanaged Harrisburg really is. Last Thursday (Sept. 29) the Auditor General held a press conference and reported the findings of an audit that was performed at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS). 

It was reported at the press conference that from July 2013 to June 2014 DHS paid public assistance benefits (CASH) to over 2,300 deceased (DEAD) people.

Click here for a report from TV station WNEP- http://wnep.com/2016/09/29/audit-2300-deceased-people-on-welfare/

I continue to pound on the table that “Harrisburg does not have a revenue problem – Harrisburg has a spending problem.”

Well here is another slogan – “Harrisburg is out of control – zero accountability – who cares, it is not our money.”

I have reported previously that there is a total lack of accountability in the various state agencies. DHS is the best example of an agency out of control.

You may ask yourself how an agency could be out of control. Here is the best and most accurate answer: Lack of leadership, direction and accountability.

Where should leadership, direction, and accountability start in Harrisburg you might ask – here is the simple answer – the Governor’s office.

Gov. Wolf has been in office for almost two years and I have not seen any large initiatives in any single state agency to determine how well a specific agency is performing or not performing.

In the last several months I have met with two separate companies and their representatives who have presented to me a scenario where, due to fraud and abuse, there are between $1.8 billion to $4 billion of fraudulent claims being paid by Medicaid through the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services annually – the $1.8 billion and $4 billion are numbers that the federal government has provided based on total Medicaid dollars spent in Pennsylvania. Medicaid is the subsidized health care program for low income people that is managed by DHS.  What is being done about this fraud and abuse?

Absolutely nothing.

Since the beginning of this year I have received continued complaints from private sector companies and the natural gas industry that the Department of Environmental Resources (DEP) is delaying earth disturbance permits for pipeline projects.

Why are these permits being delayed? Here is the answer:  No leadership, direction and accountability.

Just a few weeks ago I received a complaint from a constituent that a specific agency was not returning telephone calls to discuss the constituent’s issue.  I directed a person in my Senate office to work on a resolution and guess what? Our telephone calls went unanswered.

How could our telephone calls go unanswered? No Leadership, direction and accountability.

I could go on for hours of how mismanaged Harrisburg really is. No leadership, No accountability, career bureaucrats and an attitude that instead of doing any heavy lifting and managing the money that already flows into Harrisburg. The first quick solution is to just raise taxes.

Governors come and go. House and Senate members come and go. Career bureaucrats stay below the radar screen to keep their jobs, generous benefits, and their coveted pensions when they retire.

At the end of September I completed my 30th month (two and a half years) in the Pennsylvania State Senate. All I can say is – WOW. I knew that state government was out of control in Harrisburg before I arrived and guess what?  It is 10 times worse than I expected.

I anticipate that in January of 2017 the Pennsylvania Legislature will be presented with a budget from Governor Wolf that will ask for substantial tax increases.

Who cares?

The current mentality from Governor Wolf is that Pennsylvania taxpayers can afford to pay more taxes.

If you are willing to pay more taxes instead of Governor Wolf providing leadership, direction and holding every person who works in state government accountable, please send me an email so we can put your name on a list so Harrisburg can send you a tax bill.

Out of control government in Harrisburg – the gift that just keeps on taking !

Harrisburg Broken. Really, Really Broken

Wolf Ignores Budget Restrictions

Wolf Ignores Budget Restrictions By Leo Knepper Wolf Ignores Budget Restrictions

Included in the 2014-2015 budget was $200 million in additional funding for schools. The budget also included language that required “enabling” legislation to spell out how the new funds would be distributed. That enabling legislation was the “Fiscal Code”, which the governor vetoed. In other words, Governor Wolf is breaking the law in spending the money.

Adding insult to injury, the Governor is spending the money according to a formula he essentially made up on his own without input from the legislature. The Fiscal Code included changes recommended by a bipartisan education funding reform commission. Governor Wolf ignored those recommendations in determining how he was going to distribute the funds illegally.

The Harrisburg Patriot-News highlighted some of the discrepancies between the Governor’s distribution and the distribution spelled out in the vetoed Fiscal Code:

“Philadelphia’s share of the $200 million in new education funding is $76.8 million – a full 38 percent – under the restoration formula, wheras [sic] under the bi-partisan-backed formula, it would have received $42.4 million.
“Pittsburgh receives $7.5 million under the governor’s formula; $3.1 million under the one lawmakers would prefer be used. Chester-Upland receives $16.3 million under the restoration formula compared to $2 million under the other distribution system. ”

The changes in those three school districts’ funding levels under Wolf’s illegal plan, consume over $53 million in funding designated for other schools. The Governor’s decision to redirect a quarter of the new money to three schools districts, without legislative authorization, is one more example of Wolf’s “my way or the highway” approach to governing.

It is worth noting that according to the news article mentioned about, the legislature is looking into taking legal actions against the Governor to stop his latest executive overreach.

Wolf Ignores Budget Restrictions

Wolf Furniture Chain Unrelated To Governor

Wolf Furniture Chain Unrelated To Governor
We don’t know this man.

Wolf Furniture Co. of Blair County, which operates nine stores in central Pennsylvania, has taken out television commercials in which proprietor Doug Wolf says “I’d like to clear the air. We’re not related to anyone in public office.”

It’s sure sign of Gov. Tom Wolf’s unpopularity when a connection to him is considered bad for business.

The Governor achieved his 1-percenter status from the York County kitchen cabinetry company he inherited, and that appears to be the source of the confusion.

Repeat: There is no connection with the Blair County furniture chain.

Wolf Furniture Chain Unrelated To Governor

Governor Wolf Handshake Dishonorable

Governor Wolf Handshake Dishonorable by Sen. Scott Wagner

Governor Tom Wolf delivered his 2016-2017 budget address for Pennsylvania, Feb. 9.

The Governor’s budget address was delivered on the back of an unfinished 2015-2016 budget.

Governor Wolf did not mince words when he placed all of the blame for the  2015-2016 budget mess on House Republicans.

I must confess that I was taken back by the Governor’s comments and arrogance – during his budget address he made this statement to PA House Members – “If you won’t take seriously your responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania – then find another job.”

The Governor directed blame towards the House Republican Leaders for the budget impasse.

Governor Wolf stated, “We had a deal. And then the House Republican leaders walked away.”

How ironic – I had a similar personal experience with Governor Wolf.

On Dec. 20, I attended a holiday Open House at a home in Southeastern PA  – Governor Wolf showed up at the Open House – after a brief period I was approached by a Democratic Senator to ask if I would have a discussion with the Governor – a discussion took place with another Republican Senator, the Democratic Senator, the Governor and me.

I was asked if I would help the Governor and consider talking to Republican House Members that I have relationships with about the budget and help bridge the gap.

I agreed to meet with the Governor and the other two Senators on Tuesday – Dec. 22 – I asked the Governor to clear three hours of time so we could have the discussion and come up with various resolutions – the Governor looked me in the eye, shook my hand and said “we have a deal.”

When we arrived on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. for our meeting at the Governor’s office, I immediately sensed that something had changed – the Governor commented that he had another meeting in 35 minutes – so much for the three hour hand shake deal.

Governor Wolf Handshake Dishonorable
His handshake can’t be trusted

The Governor was quick to let me know that he knew that I was focused on reining in out of control spending – he stated, “I have to get this budget done and then next year in January we can meet to discuss spending controls” – January has come and gone – no call from the Governor – in the private sector business world when someone shakes my hand and says we have a deal, I take that gesture as a gesture of honor – Governor Wolf broke that gesture of honor.

My prediction is that Governor Wolf is going to play the same hostage game as he did last year with schools and non-profit agencies.

Yesterday afternoon (Feb. 11) a mass email was sent by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to readers kicking sand into the faces of  Republican House and Senate Leaders, two other House members, and myself for saying no to Governor Wolf’s tax increases.

I can only speculate that as a child Governor Wolf was picked on at his elite boarding school – little rich bullies run up and kick sand in the other kids faces and run away – Governor Wolf is attempting that same technique with the legislature and then running to his public sector union friends to defend him, and then asking them to give him millions of dollars collected from their members paychecks to fund negative TV ads and mailers in Republican House and Senate Districts slamming those members, and now yesterday’s email blast directed towards leaders and members of the legislature because they didn’t vote for his tax package.

Governor Wolf has quickly driven a wedge into any relationships that might have been possible with House and Senate Republicans – to be clear – Governor Wolf has gone toxic – and he has burned many bridges and may have lost any opportunity to have a positive outcome with his remaining time in office.

It is also worth pointing out that most Democratic House and Senate Members do not want to vote for any tax increases either  – these same Democrats are being thrown under the bus by their own Democratic Governor – many Democrats will secretly agree with my assessment but their leadership is keeping them in line with intimidation tactics.

I have a different perspective of the budget and the Pennsylvania economy – very different from the perspective of Governor Wolf.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I along with other Senate colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, will begin to participate in budget hearings over the next six weeks with all state agencies.

I have an advantage coming from the private sector – I continue to operate several business so I get to see first-hand the current business climate.

I continue to see massive amounts of waste and out of control spending in Harrisburg – if you have been regularly receiving my emails you will know I have not changed my opinion on this.

Many businesses in Pennsylvania are laying off employees because of weak business conditions.

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, and the rest of the country, has been clobbered because of historic low oil and gas prices – the ripple effect to suppliers and service providers of the oil and gas industry have also been affected.

Click here for one example: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-air-products-posts-quarterly-earnings-20160129-story.html

Governor Wolf and his administration have not delivered any sizable cost reductions or efficiency savings over the last year – Governor Wolf cares about one thing – raising taxes on Pennsylvanians.

It is time to “Restructure Harrisburg” – the time is now, not next week, next month, or next year.

The bad news is that Governor Wolf will not do any “Restructuring” while he is office – so the next three years are going to be tough for everyone – especially Pennsylvania Taxpayers.

Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

 

Governor Wolf Handshake Dishonorable

Wolf Campaign Never Ends

Wolf Campaign Never EndsWolf Campaign Never Ends — Joe Shafer, who was Gov. Tom Wolf’s former deputy chief of staff, has a new job as director of independent expenditures with The Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA).

The DGA is affliated with America Works USA a 501(c)(4) group which is considered to be a “dark money” group in the sense it doesn’t have to disclose its donors.

America Works USA has been and continues to be active in Pennsylvania’s budget debate spending money on fliers and ads attacking Republican legislators unwilling to succumb to the Wolf’s ultimatums.

So much for being a governor willing to consider other points of view and seek compromise. For Wolf, it seems, the campaign never ends.

Wolf Campaign Never Ends

Wolf Offensive In Use Of Offensive

Wolf Offensive In Use Of OffensiveWolf Offensive In Use Of Offensive

By Sen. Scott Wagner

America is facing an epidemic that is plaguing the nation right now and it seems to be seeping into Pennsylvania politics at the moment.

Everybody wants to sit back, be quiet, and not speak up because they are afraid they are going to offend someone.

It is a mindset that is crippling our culture and creating a nation of cowards.

Well guess what….I have a voice and I am not afraid to use it.

Governor Wolf and his allies are “offended” over a figure of speech I used at the Republican State Committee Winter Meeting this past weekend when I gave an update on the status of the Pennsylvania state budget.

We need a leader in Pennsylvania who has a backbone – not one who is so sensitive.

Do you want to know what I find “offensive”?

I think it is “offensive” that Governor Wolf continues to use his campaign slogan “jobs that pay, schools that teach, and government that works” even though he vetoed the balanced and responsible budget House and Senate Republicans sent to him ON TIME on June 30th.

Governor Wolf has held schools hostage, his style of governing is not working, and Pennsylvania’s job growth is 38th in the nation, which is worse than all neighboring states except dead-last West Virginia.

I think it is “offensive” that Governor Wolf blue-lined a budget sent to him on December 29th because he wanted to “keep the pressure on” forcing schools and charities to borrow money, cut services and workers, and in some cases even close because he didn’t get his massive tax increases.

I think it is “offensive” that Governor Wolf has stood with his special interest allies to veto pension reform that would save the taxpayers billions.

I think it is “offensive” that Governor Wolf stood with the public sector union bosses and vetoed a common sense plan to get the state out of the liquor business.

I think it is “offensive” that Governor Wolf continues to try to balance the budget on the backs of working Pennsylvanians who make up the middle class in order to reward the public sector unions and special interests that funded his campaign.

Taxpayers are “offended” by Tom Wolf, Barack Obama, and other liberal politicians who reflexively think the answer to every problem is higher taxes.

Governor Wolf has decided to use his voice to fight for the public sector unions and special interests that funded his campaign.

I’ll always use my voice to stand up for Pennsylvania’s families.

I guess that’s another difference between the two of us.

Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Wolf Offensive In Use Of Offensive

Wolf Exposed By Scrappy Scott Wagner

Wolf Exposed By Scrappy Scott WagnerWolf Exposed By Sen. Scott Wagner

This post is my first for 2016 – it is long – so please be patient – there are plenty of facts for you to read.

Before I get into that, I want you to know one thing – there is a huge difference between Governor Wolf and me.

Governor Wolf was born into an upper class family, he attended a private high school, attended Ivy League colleges and by all accounts, had a privileged upbringing.

He was also given an opportunity to buy his family’s business which was started over 100 years ago.

My background is much more humble – I grew up on a farm, graduated from Dallastown High School, and only attended college for one year.

In fact, I was not a very good student because I loved to work at my parents’ farm and neighboring farms, my uncle’s construction business, and I wanted to learn how things worked in the real world.

I started my first waste company from scratch over 30 years ago with two trucks and one other co-worker.

I drove the trucks for the first three months in business until we hired our first driver – and by the way, I still maintain my commercial drivers license and I can drive and operate any truck in our fleet.

Within 10 days after I started my first waste business, the new company was sued by Waste Management, and within 60 days we had accumulated over $100,000 in legal fees.

It took three years to pay off the legal fees to the two law firms that defended us.

Nothing has been handed to me – I have survived through at least five recessions starting with the 1980 recession when the prime interest rate went to 22 percent.

When I started my current waste company in 2000, I was again sued by the public company that I had sold my first company to three years earlier.

These lawsuits by public companies are routine in an effort to bury a small start-up competitor with legal fees and drive them out of business.

I am in an industry that is highly competitive, as are many other industries – smart business people are willing to compete as long as the competition is fair.

I had to learn to work hard, work smart, not to give up and to fight for things I believed in.

Defending what you believe in, whether it is starting a business, surviving in business, or defending a cause, fighting the fight is routine for me.

I fight for things I believe in because of my background and experience and I guess Governor Wolf does too. Unfortunately for the people of Pennsylvania, it seems all he believes in is scoring political points and raising taxes.

On June 30th of last year, the Republican House and Senate sent Governor Wolf a balanced and responsible budget that DID NOT increase taxes.

Governor Wolf chose to veto the budget completely – He DID NOT approve a single item.

Governor Wolf’s veto of the budget on June 30th and his continued fight over the budget until December 23rd when he approved certain items and vetoed others in another budget sent to him, may have set an historic record for his actions.

To be crystal clear, Governor Wolf has declared war on Republicans because he is not getting his union-friendly, liberal agenda approved.

Governor Wolf and his public sector union friends unleashed TV ads and sent mailers last summer bashing Republican lawmakers.

Last week more TV ads were aired again bashing Republican lawmakers.

It is time to take off the gloves with Governor Wolf and get out on the field and settle this once and for all.

Governor Wolf’s actions have caused hardships for many non-profits, charter schools, school districts, government entities and vendors.

In my Senate District, a charter school was going to close at the end of October if it did not receive funding.

I have not said much about the fact that I loaned money in October to a York City charter school to keep it from closing.

I will be loaning them an additional $169,869.73 this coming Wednesday so they are able to make payroll and pay necessary expenses – in total , I will have provided loans totaling $889,264.43 since Oct. 30.

I am borrowing from a personal line of credit and in turn, lending money to the charter school.

Why did I make the decision to lend money to this charter school?

It was simple – there were 530 students who would have been dumped onto the street and there are also almost 75 employees at the school, teachers and support staff who only wanted to do their jobs – unfortunately Governor Wolf did not care.

From July 1  to today this Charter School has not received any state funding even though Governor Wolf released funds to other schools in late December.

The first payment from the state that is anticipated to be received by the charter school is on Jan. 28  – the best estimate is that the school should receive more funding on Feb. 25.

It will take funding up to the end of March or April to get this school back on track with its finances and repay the loans to me.

Since July this school and others across the commonwealth have been held hostage by Governor Wolf – enough is enough.

Now let’s talk about Governor Wolf’s tax plan.

People need to be told that the tax increases Governor Wolf wanted for the 2015-16 budget were the equivalent of an additional two paychecks for a middle class family.

In fact, the Independent Fiscal Office looked at Gov. Wolf’s proposal and found that families in every income group – middle-class, rich, and poor – would all pay more.

Here is a link to download the report  –
http://www.ifo.state.pa.us/download.cfm?file=/resources/PDF/Revenue_Proposal_Analysis_April2015.pdf

Pages 21, 25, 37, 38, and 43 describe more in depth the effects of Governor Wolf’s tax plan.

Governor Wolf continues to demand that the natural gas industry pay a severance tax.

Governor Wolf should get a copy of this past Saturday morning’s Wall Street Journal and maybe he would learn that oil closed this past Friday under $30 per barrel, a historic low, and the DOW dropped almost 400 points – natural gas pricing is also at historic lows.
Just last week, the following headlines appeared in several business publications:

“Drug Firms Ring in Higher Prices” Wall Street Journal – Monday, January 11, 2016
“Kohl’s Weighs Sale or Split Up” Wall Street Journal – Monday, January 11, 2016
“Oil Drop Sparks Bankruptcy Fears” Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016
“Arch Coal Files For Bankruptcy” Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016
“Oil, at $31.41, Skids to 2003 Levels” Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016
“CSX Revenue Hit By Coal Slump” Wall Street Journal – Wednesday, January 13, 2016
“PC Sales Decline to Historic Levels” Wall Street Journal  – Wednesday, January 13, 2016
“Stocks Take Beating as Alarm Grows” Wall Street Journal – Thursday, January 14, 2016
“$15 Oil? It’s Already Here, in Canada” Wall Street Journal –  Friday, January 15, 2016
“Wal-Mart to Shutter 154 Stores in US” Wall Street Journal – Friday, January 15, 2016
“Concerns are mounting over whether the U.S. economy and financial markets can withstand global weakness.” Wall Street Journal on Friday, January 15, 2016
“Wal-Mart’s Oakland Store Closure; Oakland’s Minimum Wage is Blamed” Forbes – January 18, 2016
“Oil Hits 2003 Low Below $28 as Iran Sanctions Lifted” Rueters – January 18, 2016

 

I have been a private sector business owner for over 35 years and I can smell that a recession is beginning to develop.

The Democrats and the public sector unions need to get realistic and stop beating the drum that the Republicans are letting the oil and gas industry off the hook.

In addition, due to Governor Wolf’s close friend Barack Obama and his grand Obamacare plan, nearly every American is paying more for healthcare coverage.

Governor Wolf’s tax plan to help his public sector union friends is simple – “Wage War on Pennsylvania’s working middle class.”

My job as a Republican PA State Senator is to stop Governor Wolf from imposing more taxes on Pennsylvanians and to force him to focus on the out of control spending in Harrisburg.

On Feb. 9 Governor Wolf will deliver his 2016 – 2017 budget address and I can assure you he will be proposing tax increases – Governor Wolf has three years left in office and be assured every single year he will be looking for more tax increases before he is willing to address out of control spending.

My job is to fight the war for all Pennsylvanians and protect middle-class citizens.

Welcome to the arena Governor Wolf.

Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Wolf Exposed By Scrappy Scott Wagner

Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

By Leo Knepper Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

On Tuesday (Dec. 29), Governor Wolf used  his line-item veto on the budget lawmakers sent him right before Christmas. He could have and should have done the same thing back in June. However, he was more interested in holding state funding hostage to apply maximum leverage through the negotiation process.

In his address on the line item veto, Wolf continued to repeat the lie that the budget as passed would result in a cut to education funding. First and foremost, Pennsylvania already has the eleventh highest spending per pupil in the country. The argument that taxpayer need to continue to put up more money without seeing any improved results is absurd. However, that is Wolf’s demand; he is more than willing to play fast and loose with the facts and math to make that happen.

During his press conference announcing his decision to exercise the line-item veto, Governor Wolf continued to repeat the lie that the budget on his desk would cut education funding. In fact, as noted by the Commonwealth Foundation the only “cut” one might be able to identify would be the difference in spending between what the Governor wants and what the legislature sent him. When you compare the 2015-2016 budget to the 2014-2015 budget, this year’s proposed education budget outspends last year’s budget when you look at the totals.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania

Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

 

Chesapeake Energy Bankruptcy Seen With Tax

Chesapeake Energy Bankruptcy Seen With TaxBy Sen. Scott Wagner: Chesapeake Energy Bankruptcy Predicted With Wolf Tax: 

Last Friday, Dec. 4, PennLive.com published a story titled “Severance Tax ‘100 percent guaranteed’ to be in next PA budget, Wolf policy secretary says”.

I have a prediction that Governor Wolf and his policy secretary, John Hanger, might find interesting.

I consider myself to be a fairly qualified and experienced investor – I regularly go on Yahoo Finance and check out financials and news of public companies.

Here is my prediction: I predict that Chesapeake Energy (NYSE Symbol – CHK) will file for bankruptcy protection within the next 12 months.

Here is my reasoning:

#1 Natural gas prices are at historic lows – natural gas companies are not able to cover their fixed costs and cover debt payments at the current price – to simplify this – if gas is selling for $2  per gallon and your fixed costs are $3  per gallon the company is losing $1 per gallon, and as a result the company will burn through massive amounts of cash quickly – in business when you run out of cash – you have a HUGE problem.

I researched Chesapeake’s most recent financials – just in the quarter ending September 30, 2015 – their third quarter revenue was $2.893 billion   – after paying ALL expenses they lost $4.695 billion  – that means just in the third quarter alone Chesapeake would have burned through $1,802 billion  of cash. They cannot continue at this rate. Chesapeake will run out of cash.

#2 Natural gas pricing is not going up for quite some time because the natural gas supply is far GREATER than demand – in addition, there are almost 1100 gas wells in PA that have been drilled, and are capped, and are not producing gas. Almost all of the 1100 wells do not have pipe lines in place to carry the gas to the main transmission line so there is still a lot of infrastructure that needs to be installed. This infrastructure costs money. Gas companies do not have the cash to install these pipe lines at the current low natural gas prices.

#3 Another large issue is that oil and natural gas companies routinely hedge their prices to protect for a price collapse – this is a type of insurance – typically these hedges only go out for two years. In simple terms, many of the natural gas companies had hedges in place when prices were a lot higher that paid them double or triple the current market rate for their gas supply. When prices are as low as they currently are, hedging is not an option.

#4 Chesapeake Energy had a class action lawsuit filed against them last week by Pennsylvania landowners because they are deducting from royalty payments the cost to transport the gas from the wellhead to the main transmission line.

Many landowners  receive zero royalty payments after Chesapeake deducts the transport costs, and some land owners have received invoices to back bill for prior years transportation costs.

The class action lawsuit will be settled for cash that Chesapeake is running out of.

#5 If you are familiar with stock market investing there is term called margin. This term means that you can buy a stock for cash and the brokerage house will lend you money to buy more stock – this is called buying stock on margin. SEC rules do not allow a stock to be purchased on margin if it is under $5  per share. Last Thursday at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, Chesapeake stock closed under $5  per share. This means that any investor who used margin or borrowed money to purchase Chesapeake stock had a margin call which is a demand to sell the stock immediately so the loan is repaid. When a stock drops under $5  per share large investors flee. Investors will shy away from Chesapeake because their future does not look good.

This morning as I am writing this  ( 10:10 a.m. Dec. 7) Chesapeake stock is trading at $4.17 per share, down almost $.40 since the open of the stock market.

Chesapeake is one of several companies in Pennsylvania that are choking financially because natural gas prices are so low – there may very well be more companies than just Chesapeake Energy that will be forced to file for bankruptcy protection.

So what is my point? It’s this:  Governor Wolf ran his campaign for Governor telling everyone that he was going to get $1 billion dollars in severance taxes from the natural gas companies. With  current natural gas prices a severance tax would yield $100 million dollars at best.

There is currently an impact fee – tax in place – so the severance tax would cost the gas companies more money, which they do not have.

The reality is that the gas companies will pass any taxes on to consumers – which means YOUR gas bill will go up if there is a severance tax imposed.

Don’t believe me?

Read York Daily Record’s latest article, “Columbia Gas Gets Smaller Rate Hike Than Sought” which talks about the gas company passing on the costs.

And by the way, this morning the price for a barrel of oil dropped under $40 – it is currently at $38.71 at 10:20 a.m..

Oil companies are facing the same challenges as the natural gas industry because the price of oil is at historic lows.

Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Chesapeake Energy Bankruptcy Predicted With Wolf Tax

ISIS Refugees Pennsylvania Bound

ISIS Refugees Pennsylvania Bound
There is no danger you narrow-minded bigots. At least to me anyway, I live in Harrisburg. Who wants to attack Harrisburg?

Fifteen states — including some of the largest like Texas and Michigan, and the most liberal like Massachusetts and Illinois —have announced that they will refuse to allow the Syrian refugees President Obama is insisting on importing.

Do you know what that means? That’s right MORE FOR PENNSYLVANIA as  Tom “I Don’t Care What You Think, I’m The Governor” Wolf has just declared that the Keystone State won’t turn them away.

Hey they don’t pose any security risk. Really.  LOL. Gov. Wolf fully understands that when it comes to priorities your safety just has to take a back seat to being patted on the head at a wine and cheese fundraiser.

ISIS Refugees Pennsylvania Bound