[W]hen the dust settled on the Pennsylvania budget, the natural gas companies escaped taxation all together. What happened? Rendell says that he thought more about it and decided that he did not want to slow "the rush" of development and job creation. But most Democratic legislators know the truth. The natural gas companies lobbied their way to tax freedom.

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Turns out that the money men behind the gas industry were big contributors to Democratic Governor Rendell. Those same men poured $1 million into a lobbying campaign this summer to convince legislators that the severance tax would kill the industry. The industry then paid researchers at Penn State to "find" that a severance tax would have a negative impact on the economy.

View TaxAnalysts' David Brunori's opinion in its entirety on TAX.com.