I was interviewed over the phone by a reporter. I always tremble in fear of what can happen ever since my own cousin, an experienced reporter, took a quote out of context with someone else when I happened to be attending at the time. Reporters don't always hear it the same way you do. Hopefully, the article will be accurate. I tried to stress that when royalty owners are charged post production expenses that they were unwilling partners with the gas companies. We should not be forced to take production risks along with them yet most royalty owners are charged post-production charges as well as taxes. Our next board meeting we will be discussing the language opposing the Severance Tax as a topic and hope to join with the Chamber of Commerce's Randy Zook in an effort to educate the public upon who is going to really be paying for the severance tax.
As I pointed out to the reporter (and hopefully she understood) the Severance tax is paid by the end users of gas, and that included the electric coops and utility companies, the consumer, and anyone using natural gas. Further, a portion will be paid by the royalty owners who have little recourse in recouping their tax payments.
We'll see what we see.
