Scarnati says impact fee to be finalized in a week

Pennsylvania’s highest-ranking state sen­a­tor says he thinks an agree­ment on a sweep­ing bill to impose a fee on the boom­ing nat­ural gas drilling indus­try can be fin­ished in a week, right before Gov. Tom Cor­bett unveils his bud­get plan.

Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore Joe Scar­nati told StateImpact.NPR  nego­tia­tors from the House, Sen­ate and governor’s office are try­ing to agree on the size of the fee and the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the money.

He says nego­tia­tors are work­ing toward a “hybrid” solu­tion to iron out dif­fer­ences over whether the state or the county that hosts the drilling should enforce the fee.

Scar­nati says Sen­ate nego­tia­tors are try­ing to make a final bill more appeal­ing to advo­cates of allow­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties to reg­u­late drilling activ­ity than ear­lier pro­pos­als that passed the Senate.