Dividends, Baby

Governors are still a good investment.

by Isaiah Thompson

What's the difference between a bank and a governor? Banks pay lousy interest rates!

But seriously, folks: The race for governor is heating up, and Pennsylvania being the Temple of Democracy that it is — we're proudly one of just 11 states to have no limit on campaign donations — money is pouring, nay, tsunami-ing, into candidates' coffers. It may be impossible to get 2 percent at the bank right now, but governors, apparently, are still a good investment — depending on the governor: Investors do get picky.

The natural gas drilling industry, for example, has picked Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett as the receptacle of choice for most of the money — some $360,000 worth — it has thrown at the race. They just like him, I guess ... and, of course, his stance against a tax on gas production. The industry, he says, is still too young to tax (not too young, though, for ExxonMobil Corp., which just spent $41 billion to expand natural gas drilling operations in the region).

You might say it's an odd position to take — denying Pennsylvanians the fruits of a massively profitable industry, already taxed in all but four of the 32 states in which it exists — for a guy who cares so much about our pocketbooks that he just sued the federal government for passing health care legislation. But that's the beauty of democracy: Where were the cancer victims' and diabetics' checks the last time Corbett passed the hat?

Still, even Gov. Ed Rendell — who has taken plenty of gas money, and who last year rejected a gas tax, but went ahead and leased state forest land to make the money instead — is calling continued opposition to a gas tax crazy. Rendell, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, recently told a conference of gas drillers that they're losing public support by avoiding taxes. He recounted that he had invited the CEOs of four gas companies to his mansion to discuss a "modest and reasonable" tax — but had been stood up by three of them.

Maybe they had another appointment: all three — Atlas Energy, Range Resources Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. — have made significant deposits to Corbett's campaign. After all, why invest more time or money on a guy who wants to tax you, when Corbett, after just a few hundred thou, is promising dividends, baby?