Business Tax

City Councilman Edward A. Schwartz said yesterday that he would vote against increasing the property tax and proposed that the city's business community continue to provide its current level of taxes, not less, to help pay for operating the public schools. Rather than support the 6.5 percent property-tax increase that Mayor Goode proposed last week, Schwartz said, City Council should reject the business-tax reduction that Goode proposed in March and that is in the city's revenue estimate for fiscal 1987, which begins July 1. Schwartz said that if the business-tax reduction were rejected, there would $14 million more available for the school district in each of the next two fiscal years.

Councilman Bill Green took aim at the city's so-called blogger tax Thursday, introducing legislation that would exempt bloggers and others whose work is a hobby from certain city taxes. The national media went negative on Philadelphia in August after the city increased efforts to collect fees for the business-privilege tax license and related levies. Some of the people who got letters saying they may owe the city money were bloggers, setting off a wave of criticism that the city's policies would drive away young, tech-savvy residents.

A "tax commando" who earned the nickname collecting millions in unpaid taxes for the City of Philadelphia is pursuing scores of people who are not paying taxes to the borough. Attorney Nicholas Panarella has sent out a cascade of letters in the past month. Some of those receiving them don't live or maintain offices in West Chester. But they profit from work in the county seat and haven't paid the business tax - a licensing fee that is $10 a year for those who make less than $15,000 and $150 for those who make more.

As an alternative to Mayor Goode's proposed 6.5 percent property-tax increase, City Councilman John F. Street recommended yesterday that the city next year delete its $8 million in funding for the proposed Center City convention center, increase one business tax and keep another at its current level. Street also proposed reducing the parking tax by 25 percent and providing the convention center revenue by further increasing taxes on business. G. Fred DiBona Jr., president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, called Street's proposal "counterproductive.

Tax bill negotiations hit an impasse yesterday as House and Senate conferees, meeting together for the first time in more than a week, found themselves unable to agree on how much to raise business taxes. "We are 90 percent in accord," said Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.). "That 10 percent can stop us. We've got a snag. " Bob Packwood (R., Ore.), Senate Finance Committee chairman, said he would offer a new proposal to his own conferees later this week that could narrow what is now a $27 billion gap between the respective business tax increases proposed by the two chambers.

The proposed business-privilege tax, the target of heated opposition in the past, may finally become a reality in West Chester. The tax has been brought forth repeatedly as a way out of the borough's budget woes. Each time, members of the business community lobbied hard enough against the proposed tax to shoot it down. But this time it's different. The tax, proposed by Councilman Mitch Crane, may very well pass. "I've heard all the arguments for and against this tax over the course of the past two or three years," said Finance Committee chairman Richard A. Fazio, "and I don't see any other option.

Caln Township merchants continued their assault on a proposed business tax Thursday, pounding the Board of Commissioners with the now-familiar complaints that the tax would be unfair and would drive away businesses. There was evidence, however, that the business people were making headway in their fight against the proposed tax, which the commissioners are considering to offset a loss of $120,000 in federal funds and to provide more police and highway services in the growing township.

At the last possible minute, Mayor Street yesterday put the kibosh on a bill that would have axed hundreds of millions of dollars in punishing business taxes through 2017. Shortly afterward, this year's grueling budget process officially came to an end. The mayor signed off on City Council's $3.4 billion budget and its plan to further cut the city wage-tax rate, an average savings of $88 a year by 2009 for a person earning $30,746, Philadelphia's median salary. "This is not an easy decision, and certainly not a popular one," Street wrote to Council in a letter explaining his actions, "but I lived through the dark days of our fiscal crisis and I do not want to squander what we have achieved in the last 12 years by returning to them.

A plan to tax businesses to pay for road-improvement projects is being pursued in West Whiteland, and the Board of Supervisors plans to air the proposal at a hearing next month. The board, meeting Monday, scheduled the hearing for 7:30 p.m. April 28 at the Township Building. The proposal was prepared by the township Highway Network Improvement Committee, which was formed by the board to study traffic problems in the township. The committee said in a report that the expected cost of the improvements would be about $6 million, which could be raised through the assessment of business properties in the township.

Another large crowd of angry merchants confronted the Caln Township Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, hoping to kill a proposed business tax. The tax plan was attacked by almost every speaker. The commissioners presented several alternatives, one of which was to skip the business tax entirely. But that probably would delay construction of a planned Route 30 bypass, the G.O. Carlson Boulevard, which is needed to siphon heavy traffic from Route 30. About 225 people have attended meetings to speak out against the tax, but Wednesday, one person spoke in its favor.

TRENTON - In TV attack ads, politicians often put text underneath the images to indicate the sources of statistics used to skewer the opposition. But in the ad that Republican Gov. Christie has been running this week against State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex), his expected challenger in November, the source cited is unrelated to the accusation. That is now changing. On Tuesday, The Inquirer pointed out the discrepancy to the Christie campaign. On Wednesday, campaign spokesman Kevin Roberts said, "We are adding an additional level of specificity when it comes to the source citation.

WE ALL KNOW the school district is in bad shape. But it could actually get worse, because Gov. Corbett's assumptions about revenue coming into the state have not panned out. That could jeopardize the $120 million in state aid the schools are counting on to help fill its own $300 million hole. Unlike the schools, though, the state has an easy fix for the revenue shortfall - though whether it is willing to act is another story. Corbett assumed a $250 million budget surplus that has not materialized.

First in an occasional series. Mayor Nutter's property tax reform has been packaged as the fix for a badly broken and unfair system of assessments, but a powerful undercurrent has also driven the long and difficult effort. Its most ardent advocates believe the Actual Value Initiative (AVI) will allow the city to finally right its notoriously business-hostile tax landscape, often blamed for Philadelphia's lagging behind other big cities in important economic categories. Advocates for a modern property tax system have been arguing for years that the city taxes the wrong things - businesses and wages.

WHEN Dick Yuengling bought a round of beers for more than 10,000 Philadelphians on National Drink Beer Day last year, he said "the city has truly shown our family business brotherly love, and we'd like to raise a glass to that. " Now, Dick Yuengling may be throwing back a few of his own brews after receiving a civil lawsuit from the city that claims his brewery, D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc., has failed to pay more than $6.6 million in city taxes, interest and penalty fees. How does a Pottsville-based beer company that doesn't have a brewery or a plant in Philadelphia come to owe millions in business-income and -receipts taxes to the city?

By Sharon Ward Gov. Corbett and his staff have crisscrossed the state over the past few weeks, previewing the state budget to be unveiled Tuesday. The change in style is welcome for a governor who has seemed reluctant to explain his priorities or defend his positions. Pennsylvanians also appear to be clamoring for a change in substance. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows that only 36 percent of Pennsylvanians approve of Gov. Corbett's job performance - while 46 percent disapprove. It's not a mystery that the governor's popularity tumbled after last year's budget debate: An on-time spending plan is not enough to compensate for a budget out of step with Pennsylvanians' priorities.

The bad news for Warrington Township, Bucks County, is that it needs to refund more than $1 million collected for a business tax that was ruled illegal this week. The good news is that the township never spent the money and is prepared to refund up to $13,000, plus interest, to each of 150 businesses, officials said Thursday. "We're ready to send the checks as soon as possible," lawyer William Casey said. "We'll be glad to get rid of that escrow account. It was a pain. " The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a flat $2,600-a-year tax on businesses that grossed more than $1 million violated state law. A flat, or fixed, business tax is legal, but not a tax based on gross revenue.

Courage, character, and conviction Like most Penn State grads, I am ashamed of the actions of a few bureaucrats who didn't have the courage, character, and conviction to do the right thing in 2001 ("Band of brothers," Wednesday). As a result, the entire university has been judged by the actions of a few. The football program is under NCAA sanctions, which punish many who had nothing to do with the scandal. There was never a single Penn State football player involved in the scandal.

T HE DAILY NEWS People's Editorial Board is a group of nine citizens who meet every month to discuss and weigh in on the big issues facing the city. ( philly.com/philly/blogs/ peb ) This month, the board tackled business tax reform . We, the People's Editorial Board, were shocked to learn that if you are a local small business, you could be more heavily taxed by the city of Philadelphia than big out-of-state companies. We should amend that: Many of us were shocked, but some of us, who actually own and operate small businesses in the city, were not completely surprised, since we have been paying those taxes for a while.

Years of disappointing delays and controversies have kept Philadelphia from getting a fair property-tax system, but the Nutter administration is making assurances that a new assessment process will be in place in time for the next city budget. Now, City Council must pledge to enact the long overdue reform. Members cannot buckle to pressure from constituents who have benefited from an inequitable system that allowed owners of higher-priced properties to pay less than those with more modest properties.

MORE THAN 190,000 Philadelphians travel to the suburbs to work because the city's four major work hubs aren't big enough, according to a report released Thursday by the Center City District. The report found that the city's four major employment areas - Center City, University City, Temple University and the Navy Yard - aren't "large enough or expanding fast enough. " Philadelphia's "dependency on wage and business taxes disproportionately pushes mobile office tenants and entrepreneurs to lower-cost suburbs," the report states, adding that Philadelphia does not tax too much, but taxes the wrong things.