Pennsylvania’s business recovery will be hurt with federal passage of increased business taxes. As Pennsylvania climbs out of the COVID economic abyss, the U.S. Senate must say no to proposed changes to the corporate tax rate.

The effects upon the Commonwealth’s energy industry and its farmers and other critical sectors are too severe.

Two major contributors to the Pennsylvania economy are energy and small businesses. The state is blessed with an abundance of natural resources that have long powered the state and national economy. Our state is an energy powerhouse. We are the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer after Texas. It is estimated that Marcellus Shale has the largest reserves of any U.S. natural gas field.

Pennsylvania plays a critical role in our nation’s energy independence. Its growth under Act 13 has generated millions in tax revenues to the Commonwealth and millions in impact fees paid to Pennsylvania counties.

Proposed changes in federal tax law will work against the success and economic prosperity from our energy. It is a case of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. My fear is that the federal quest for more money will reduce or even suspend the drive for more energy development and extraction. These proposed tax changes would strike at the very heart of our state, hurting the farmers, workers and families that benefit directly from oil and gas jobs and revenues.

The proposal to raise the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% is misguided. This increase would place increased financial burdens on Pennsylvania’s businesses at a time when they need all the help they can get. The impact of such an increase would not just be felt by the large corporations that the tax hike advocates have targeted, but also the small businesses and workers who have had their financial woes worsened by the pandemic.

Consider this: Many corporations are small businesses. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, one million of the 1.6 million corporations in the U.S. are small businesses. Many small firms have a very limited profit after costs and taxes. The U.S. should not make it even harder for them to survive in our COVID world.

(Vince Phillips of Mechanicsburg retired as an agricultural lobbyist in Harrisburg in January after 31 years of advocacy at the State Capitol.)