He's whittled down the numbers, but Gov. Tom Wolf still wants a severance tax.
And the timing couldn't be worse, industry advocates say, as sinking oil and gas prices have Pennsylvania drillers slashing jobs and expenses just to stay in business.
Wolf's 2016-17 budget proposal includes a 6.5 percent severance tax. Whatever drillers pay in the existing impact fee would be subtracted from their severance tax payments, according to the plan.
But there's no energy tax the industry can afford right now, according to executives with the industry's three largest trade groups. The groups made their case against a severance tax during a conference call Wednesday afternoon.
"If you keep piling on additional energy taxes, it's going to spell disaster for this industry in Pennsylvania," said Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of the Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania.
In the current market conditions, the governor estimates a severance tax will yield $218 million in new revenue for the state.
That's a revenue decrease from the $225 million that was supposed to be generated by the 5 percent severance tax in Wolf's 2015-16 budget proposal.
The governor has said the state needs the new revenue to help plug it's $2 billion budget deficit.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania oil and gas companies are slashing thousands of jobs, but it's hard to get an accurate count, industry advocates said.
"It's a pretty tough number to come up with," said Dave Spigelmyer, CEO of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. "I don't think anyone's been able to fully calculate it."
Lou D'Amico, president of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, said, "We're too busy crying in our tea over how many of our friends are out of work right now."
As the Wolf aides have pointed out numerous times, Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state without a severance tax.
And as the trade organizations have pointed out numerous times, Pennsylvania already has a tax in the impact fee.
Would drillers here really leave if a severance tax is enacted? Which state without a severance tax would they find?
Drillers are actually already leaving for other shale regions, even during the worst market downturn in decades, according to Spigelmyer.
"Things are far worse now than they were a year ago," he said.
A number of the shale coalition's members are already moving capital investments to other places, Spigelmyer said. One of the companies, which he said didn't want to be named, is moving business to North Dakota because of the cost of doing business in Pennsylvania.
According to the coalition, in the last year, several operators in Pennsylvania have collectively cut nearly 80,000 jobs throughout shale regions across the country.
Another indication of how the industry is doing can be found in the decreasing number of drilling rigs. The rig count in Pennsylvania is lower than before the Marcellus Shale boom began.
However, Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said those rigs are much more productive than they were a few years ago, drilling more wells per year at a much lower cost.
He described gas production in Pennsylvania as "stable."
Because of advances in productivity, some drillers can make substantial returns, even with natural gas prices below $2, and prices are expected to move above $3 in 2016-17, Sheridan said.
Getting a pipeline infrastructure in place to move gas to market will also help. Some new pipelines have already come online, more will come online this year, and a major increase is expected next year, he said.
"The infrastructure buildout is robust, but not where needs to be," to carry resources to other states, Spigelmyer said.
It's another reason this is the wrong time for a tax, shale advocates said.
"The governor's proposal to place an additional 6.5 percent severance tax on natural gas production on top of these poor market conditions and regulatory burdens is simply an effort to punish our industry," D'Amico said. "If enacted, it will put people out of work, drive more businesses into bankruptcy, reduce energy production and result in less net tax revenue to the state."
Wolf's spokesman strongly disagrees.
"As it has always been, that is an absurd argument that has zero merit," Sheridan said. "Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state in the country without a severance tax. Has every other state with a severance tax also driven the industry into bankruptcy? No, which once again highlights how ridiculous the argument is."