Unexpected costs of fracking. Glenn Aikens, a member of the Bradford County Planning Commission, also has three shale gas wells on his land. Signing a lease brought a host of unexpected costs, Aikens says : $22,000 to set up an L.L.C. to make sure that his children could inherit the farms suddenly valuable acreage in spite of estate taxes, pre-drilling water testing for the farms seven wells (“He charged me $14,500 dollars, but I wouldnt have had a leg to stand on had I not,” says Aikens. “If they ruin the water, what do I do with this farm?”), and perhaps most painfully, the permanent loss of a valuable tax credit for farmland, now that the leased land is considered commercial property instead. Land that was assessed at $500 an acre was now assessed at $2,500 – and taxes were due retroactively.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:29:42 +0000
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