Coal tax reduction bill heads to Senate

The Wyoming House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would reduce the severance tax on coal from 7% to 6.5%.

“It’s a fair change, because there’s a 7% severance tax on coal, and it’s only 6% on natural gas and oil,” Rep. Tim Hallinan, R-Campbell County, told the House ahead of the vote. “And they’re the chief competitors for coal. So if we want to give coal a fair shake, we should lower their severance tax.”

Over the last decade, the 1% difference amounted to $250 million more in taxes paid by the coal industry, Hallinan said.

“That is not a small figure,” he said. “The companies that suffered throughout this time period, and some of them went bankrupt and went under, they could’ve had $250 million, possibly, to survive this rough time they’ve been through.”