How will Trumbull residents spend $331 million in shale payments?

How will Trumbull residents spend $331 million in shale payments?

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

BP’s recent Utica Shale investment means Trumbull County residents will have $331 million in extra income during the course of the next year.

But how will that money be spent?

Or will it be saved?

According to a Pennsylvania State University study, a little of both.

The study, “Economic Impacts of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania,” published in 2011, looked at how 412 individuals who leased their land to drilling companies spent their share of nearly $2.4 million in bonus payments.

About 55 percent of that money was invested or saved through financial institutions.

Not surprisingly, the No. 2 expenditure was taxes, which consumed about 17.5 percent leasing dollars.

Motor-vehicle (nine percent), real estate (five) and farming (four) made up a majority of the other expenditures.

The report found that households receiving lease and royalty dollars used the money “differently than normal income.”

That extra cash led to a direct impact for businesses, according to the study.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.