NORWICH – A proposed 5 percent tax on natural gas production would create a roadblock for New York’s economic progress and harm individual towns and cities.

That sentiment is shared by members of the New York State Farm Bureau as well as local officials.

“If lawmakers impose this tax, they will drive natural gas businesses out of business, harming our cities and towns and creating yet another roadblock to economic progress and energy independence,” said an e-mail distributed widely by the Farm Bureau this week.

The Farm Bureau is encouraging people to voice their opposition to this new tax by sending letters to legislators via the following website: www.nyfb.org.

Chenango County Supervisor James Bays, D-Smyrna, said he was shocked that he wasn’t personally notified by state representatives that the Assembly Environmental Committee was advancing the proposal to impose the tax.