 he says school districts across the state are severely underfunded now pennsylvania's new governor wants to change that yeah this morning governor tom wolf unveiled his plan to raise money for education by taxing natural gas drillers I witness news reporter erie dabel is live in our scratch the newsroom of the details for us Eric drew in monica the idea of a severance tax for the gas industry has been a hot topic in harrisburg for years former governor tom corbett was against it but now new governor tom wolf is in favor of it saying pennsylvania ranks 45th in the country in terms of the amount of money spent on public education governor wolf says something has to change there's no doubt the natural gas industry has changed parts of pennsylvania especially in the northern tier wednesday governor tom wolf who just took office last month followed through on a campaign promise to impose a five percent severance tax on gas drillers while touring a school west of philadelphia texas does it oklahoma does it north dakota does it alaska louisiana they do it governor wolf calls his proposal reasonable saying he expects it would raise more than one billion dollars in the fiscal year 2017 a majority of that would fund education the standards have dropped for our school's tests and i think that students are being pushed through and i think that a little bit of funding and backing from the government with new funds like this would help to stop that in sesquihana county where gas drilling has helped to create jobs but also caused contamination concerns people seemed in favor of the severance tax schools in this particular area really need to help right now natural gas companies pay what's called an impact fee for doing business in pennsylvania governor wolf says his proposal would not be on top of that but would include it and payments would continue to impacted communities we cannot continue to disinvest in our education system this is our future for all when asked if people think the severance tax would make drillers go elsewhere locals say no gas companies have made plenty of money on us without having to pay anything you know so you support this idea yeah i think it's a good idea governor wolf says his proposal is moderate modeled after one in west virginia he says it's already been field tested there the proposal must still be approved by the state legislature if it passes it would go into effect on january 1st 2016 with the first money being implemented in the fiscal year of 2017 reporting live in our scranton news or americ table eyewitness news all right