Gov. Tom Corbett said recently that he’s willing to consider a natural gas extraction tax to help close the big shortfall in the state’s budget, but only in exchange for real pension reform. Such a deal would be good for state taxpayers.

Creation of a gas extraction tax is several years overdue. By not having a gas extraction tax, similar to other states stitting on top of the Marcellus Shale Formation, Pennsylvania has left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table — or in the pockets of natural gas producers.

Corbett has repeatedly rejected calls for an extraction tax, backing instead a smaller impact fee on gas production that targets most of the revenue to areas affected by gas drilling.

In rejecting an extraction tax, Corbett and his supporters on this issue have been overly generous to gas producers. As long as Pennsylvania’s extraction tax is not higher than neighboring states and as long as the total tax bill for producing natural gas in Pennsylvania is competitive with other states, there is no good reason to block an extraction tax.

With this year’s budget negotiators facing a $2 billion gap in a $29.5 billion spending plan and with the public employee pension funds about $50 billion underfunded, all revenue sources must be considered.

To his credit, Corbett says he won’t back an extraction tax without legislative action on cost-cutting, particularly pension reform. As things now stand, state and local taxpayers, through their school districts, will soom be paying significantly higher taxes for payments into the pension funds for state employees and public school teachers.

Suspicions about Corbett’s coziness with the gas industry were fueled by the hundreds of thousands of dollars the industry pumped into his first campaign for governor. Most Pennsylvanians realize that a tax environment for gas producers that is out of line with other states will drive them to less-costly states. But that reality does not support being overly generous to gas producers by having no extraction tax. A reasonable extraction tax — one that takes into account the overall tax burden for gas producers in Pennsylvania — will not drive the drillers away.

Corbett is right to link his support for an extraction tax to a plan for real pension reform. A potential deal-closing sweetener might assign some of the gas extraction tax money to the pension funds, with the larger portion of the extraction tax revenue going into the general fund to help close the budget gap.

Taxpayers should remember that at least part of Pennsylvania’s pension crisis was created by the 2001 pension grab. At that time, the pension funds had a surplus, thanks to the “dot.com bubble” on Wall Street. State lawmakers saw the surplus and decided to give themselves a 50-percent pension increase. At the time, they said it would “not cost taxpayers a dime.” But their prediction quickly proved to be a lie, as the stock market crashed and the surpluses vanished.

After the lawmakers’ pension grab, other public employees quickly demanded their own sweet pension boost. So, soon after voting themselves a pension increase, lawmakers approved a 25-percent pension increase for most other state employees and public school teachers.

The 2001 pension grabs were unwarranted and costly. Because of that, pension reform in Harrisburg should require those benefiting from those 2001 votes to contribute more toward their own pensions — enough extra that they pay for the 2001 pension grab, instead of taxpayers. Even if that were to happen, the pensions will remain underfunded by $40 billion or more. Real reform is necessary.

Corbett knows there is public support for an extraction tax — and no appetite for higher taxes on residents. He might also see that passing an extraction tax could neutralize a key issue his November opponent, Tom Wolf, will be pushing as a way to bring more money to state cofffers.

A budget deal with a gas extraction tax as well as real pension reform would be a win for taxpayers as well as a boost for Corbett’s re-election campaign, which polls say is in need of help.