"This industry can be taxed out of existence in Pennsylvania." -- Kevin Harley, gubernatorial campaign spokesman for Republican Tom Corbett, on why it's bad to tax gas wells.

T

hough Mr. Harley delivers a good sound bite, it's not true. If you can put aside the politics for a second, ask yourself this question: If the gas industry doesn't drill here, where would it find a better deal?

West Virginia has the same tax of roughly 5 percent that Gov. Ed Rendell proposes, so drillers would find no break there.

New York? It has a drilling moratorium.

Texas? Its tax is higher, 7.5 percent. The same is true in Oklahoma, which charges 7 percent. Wyoming's gas severance tax is 6 percent and New Mexico's is above 8 percent.

Fact is that every state with major drillers has a gas severance tax. Pennsylvania is the largest natural gas-producing state without one.

You'd never know that from the rhetoric.

"This is the classic mistake that liberal politicians like [Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Dan Onorato and Ed Rendell make,'' Mr. Harley said. "They're looking at a short-term budget hole so they want to tax an industry just getting a foothold in Pennsylvania.''

Foothold? The state has issued permits for 3,800 Marcellus Shale gas wells and about 1,800 of them have been drilled. The state Department of Environmental Protection predicts more than 10,000 permits by 2014. We're supposed to believe that companies are going to walk away from the Marcellus Shale bonanza if even the tiniest tax is imposed?

Not on your autographed picture of T. Boone Pickens.

"They can continue in other states,'' Mr. Hurley argued. "They don't have to be in Pennsylvania."

No, but where would they find a better play? Even with Mr. Rendell's proposed "West Virginia'' tax of 5 percent plus a levy of 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas, Pennsylvania drilling would be more than competitive.

Michael Wood, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, figured that the tax rate for natural gas in West Virginia this year ranged from 26 to 35 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas.

In Oklahoma, the rate is 43 cents, in Texas it's 45 cents and in New Mexico it's 52 to 57 cents, according to Mr. Wood. Those states, unlike Pennsylvania, also levy property taxes on oil and natural gas deposits.

We hardly need to coddle the oil-and-gas industry as if it were an infant. Major players have arrived. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, bought a gas driller in Marshall this year for $4.7 billion. What it would pay the taxman on successful wells is chump change in the grand scheme, as evidenced by the gas booms in higher-taxed states.

Mr. Harley is right about one thing: Passing a tax just to fill a budget hole is not a smart way to govern. But failing to understand the value of your assets isn't smart either.

Pennsylvania has been blessed by geology and geography, with one of the world's largest natural gas reserves within a few hundred miles of tens of millions of potential customers.

A gas severance tax below the Western standard is a reasonable return for extracting Pennsylvania's non-renewable resources. Beyond the inevitable mishaps of the drilling process, each well requires hundreds of heavy truck trips to haul drilling rigs and water tankers. How do we pay for road repairs?

As for the argument that this tax will be passed on to consumers, there's no evidence that Pennsylvanian consumers get any kind of break now when there is no tax. Once gas is produced, it enters a national marketplace.

As Pittsburghers learned when the parking tax was cut from 50 to 37.5 percent and private parking rates never budged, prices are ruled by supply and demand. No taxes mean higher profit margins, but drillers aren't compelled to share their good fortune any more than parking garage owners are.

Being more Texan than Texas on gas taxes is not the smart move here. "No new taxes'' is a great sound bite, but in this case that means Pennsylvanians will need to continue making up for what incoming gas drillers aren't paying.