Leaders in the Republican-controlled Senate are expected to offer details of their own plan next week. They generally have rejected Rendell's as untenable.
"We're not confident that the House Democratic caucus and the governor can be reasonable on the tax rate," Andrew Crompton, chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson), said Wednesday.
The comment signaled new trouble for the so-called gas severance tax, a plan that collapsed about the same time last year. The governor revived the idea this year, and, as part of budget negotiations, he and lawmakers agreed to reach a deal by Oct. 1. Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma said Wednesday night that "no legal or practical reason" prevented all sides from working toward a tax until the legislative session ends in mid-October.
Dozens of bills are floating around Harrisburg, and the next few weeks are expected to bring with them a frantic dose of lobbying and deal-making over the fate of the proposed tax.
In the balance could be one of the biggest single sources of state funding to emerge in decades - potentially hundreds of millions of dollars flowing from wells in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation beneath the state - and tens of thousands of jobs.
The Pennsylvania deposit underlies most of the state except for its southeastern corner. Thousands of drill permits have been issued in the affected counties in the last two years, and more are expected.
The surge has sparked water-pollution and safety concerns from environmentalists, along with worries from municipalities that fear being overburdened.
