Butler County’s Act 13 impact fee revenues jump in 2025
After back-to-back years of declines, Butler County’s share of Pennsylvania’s Act 13 unconventional natural gas well impact fees increased substantially from 2024 to 2025.
According to figures released Monday, June 15, by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Butler County will receive $2,553,247.91 in impact fees for the 2025 reporting year — an increase of 57.7% over the $1,619,230 the county received for the previous reporting year.
Butler County’s share makes it the seventh-highest earning county in terms of impact fees for the 2025 reporting year, trailing only Washington, Susquehanna, Bradford, Greene, Lycoming and Tioga counties.
“We’re right back where we wanted to be,” said Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer. “Last year we were at $1.6 million. This year we're at 2.3 and we've got a lot more energy activity occurring throughout the county.”
“Pennsylvania is a leading producer of natural gas. This part of the economy cannot be ignored,” said state Rep. Tim Bonner, R-17th, in a news release. “We are fortunate to have abundant clean energy in our Commonwealth that supports infrastructure, public safety, national defense and other community priorities.”
On a statewide level, Pennsylvania’s distributed a total of $243,877,400 for the 2025 reporting year — an increase of 48.17% over the $164,592,500 distributed the previous year and the highest amount since 2022 when the state doled out $278,881,450.
Since the signing of Act 13 of 2012 by then-Gov. Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania has imposed an impact fee on producers and operators of unconventional gas wells. A total of $3.12 billion has been collected since the fee was first implemented.
The utility commission, which is in charge of distributing Act 13 funds to municipalities and state agencies, has attributed this year’s jump in impact fees to an increase in new oil and gas wells — 444 in 2025 compared to 309 in 2024. The average price of natural gas also jumped, from $2.27 per MMBtu (one million British thermal units) in 2024 to $3.43 per MMBtu in 2025.
“It’s wonderful to see the increase to all our municipalities,” Geyer said. “It enables our townships to be able to utilize these funds in a useful way that benefits their community.”
Butler County has already decided what it plans on doing with its share of the Act 13 money. According to Geyer, the majority of the county’s share, $1.5 million, will go toward funding Butler County Human Services.
“Twenty-two percent of the allocation is going to go to IT for capital improvement and that equates to about $517,138.88,” Geyer said. “And the remainder of the allocation, which equates to $235,063.12, goes to our general fund.”
Local municipalities also receive a share of the impact fees, through a complex formula that takes into account the number of unconventional gas wells in the municipality or within five miles of its borders, as well as the population and amount of highway miles in the municipality.
The municipality which received the highest share was Winfield Township, which took in $267,290.18 on the strength of 62 eligible wells.
According to township Supervisor Matthew Klabnik, Act 13 impact fees are a key part of making Winfield Township run each year.
“A mill for us is worth $55,000,” Klabnik said. “So that represents almost 5 mills we would have to charge to get that amount of revenue. We would have to pretty much double our property tax rate.”
Counties and municipalities are only allowed to spend their Act 13 impact fee allotments on specific uses, including public infrastructure, housing, information technology, environmental programs, public safety and social services.
According to Klabnik, Winfield Township is planning on spending their amount this year on infrastructure projects.
“We’re doing a culvert on Cornplanter Road. That’s a $110,000 project that likely will be funded by this,” Klabnik said. “We’re doing some major reconstruction on Spiker Road and we needed some of this money to close the gap.”
While the vast majority of Butler County’s Act 13 allotment comes directly from natural gas drilling operations, a small portion — $202,616.66 — comes from the Marcellus Legacy Fund, which was created to redirect impact fees toward statewide environmental initiatives.
“The legacy funds are specifically for the purposes of parks, greenways, trails, conservation and farmland preservation,” Geyer said.
According to Geyer, Butler County plans on allocating half its allotment over the next year to parks and recreation programs, one-quarter to farmland preservation and the remaining one-quarter to the Butler County Conservation District.
