Income

A Narberth man who owned and operated a company that processed dental claims for labor union health and welfare funds was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday of willfully filing false tax returns from 1999 through 2002. Jonathon Felix, 51, who owned and operated United Professional Plans, Inc., which received management fees on a per claim or per person basis to process claims and resolve disputes between labor union members and dental providers. Among the unions UPPI worked for was District Council 33 of AFSCME, which represents the city of Philadelphia's blue-collar workers.

Chester County's judges earned outside income last year from many sources, including a payout from a law firm, a teaching job, real estate and certificates of deposit, according to financial disclosure statements filed with the state Supreme Court. Under court rules, the 1988 statements of financial interest had to be filed by May 1. The filings by the judges are similar to disclosures that other state and local government officials make under the state Ethics Act. In a court case, the Supreme Court exempted the state's judiciary from the Ethics Act several years ago, but more recently it set rules requiring judges to disclose some outside interests.

Big gains in its property and casualty business produced a banner year for Cigna Corp., which yesterday reported a 24 percent increase in consolidated operating income for 1987 over 1986. But in announcing the results, chairman and chief executive officer Robert D. Kilpatrick cautioned that competition is heating up in the property and casualty business. That competition, together with continued losses in health- maintenance organizations and escalating health-care costs, will "constrain" 1988 earnings, Kilpatrick said.

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine leads the pack of New Jersey gubernatorial candidates in both parties when it comes to personal fortunes, but the public wouldn't know it by examining personal financial disclosure reports released yesterday. State candidate forms don't require candidates to report the amount of their incomes, just the sources. Democrat Corzine reported earning his U.S. Senate salary, along with income from a variety of vaguely described investments, some in Goldman Sachs & Co., the Wall Street firm where he was once chief executive.

Market economies are not fair. They might be dynamic, creative and efficient. But it's not their job to be fair. It's their job to foster innovation and create wealth. In America, it is the society's job to be fair - with government playing a vital role. Thanks to global trends that are not within any politician's power to control, the American economy is distributing its rewards less evenly than it used to. What is within politicians' control is whether and how government acts to repair the damage and the injustice caused by these growing income gaps.

Most people probably don't know how to define "oxymoron", but they sure know it when they see it. An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words. My favorite oxymoron used to be "fresh frozen orange juice". Was it supposed to tell me that the juice was fresh, or frozen, or both? Presumably, the orange juice kings wanted me to believe it was both, but that's impossible. Fresh just isn't frozen. Thanks to the folks in City Hall, I now have two new favorite oxymorons. One stems from the proposal by the Goode administration for a new 5 percent tax on what they describe as "unearned income".

A FEW WEEKS ago, I urged the city to pursue rich folks as a strategy for surviving the many challenges we face and promised some clever ideas of how to do it. Let's start with taxes. We know that rich folks follow tax laws the way some of us follow sports scores or movie buzz. But there's a reason that poor people should too, if we're ever going to turn things around. A local budget is like a set of scales. In the middle are a bunch of people for whom the books basically even out over time.

In the late 1970s, Tabernacle Township was 48 square miles of mostly farms and vacant land in central Burlington County. Widespread, concentrated development was limited by regulations governing the Pinelands in parts of the community. In the 1980s, though, large homes in the half-million-dollar range began rising on lots of more than three acres, said township administrator Lorraine Schmierer. As a result, Tabernacle Township is much wealthier than before, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Central Sprinkler Corp., a Lansdale designer, maker and seller of fire suppression systems that is rebounding from a massive product recall, yesterday reported higher second-quarter revenue and earnings. Income grew from $867,000 a year ago to $2.26 million. For the first half of the year, its earnings are up from $1.2 million a year ago to $3.1 million. Revenue for the first half of 1999 was $108.7 million, down slightly from $110.2 million for the same period of 1998. The second-quarter results included previously announced settlements with product-liability insurance carriers.

A member of the Atlantic Coast Shellfish Council, a state agency that protects and promotes New Jersey's shellfish industry, was indicted by a grand jury in Camden yesterday on charges of filing false federal income-tax returns. John E. Henderson, 60, of Brigantine, Atlantic County, was among four New Jersey fishermen indicted. Henderson's wife, Catherine, 57, also was indicted on charges of understating their income by a total of $54,000 on their 1979, 1980 and 1981 tax returns.

A Narberth man who owned and operated a company that processed dental claims for labor union health and welfare funds was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday of willfully filing false tax returns from 1999 through 2002. Jonathon Felix, 51, who owned and operated United Professional Plans, Inc., which received management fees on a per claim or per person basis to process claims and resolve disputes between labor union members and dental providers. Among the unions UPPI worked for was District Council 33 of AFSCME, which represents the city of Philadelphia's blue-collar workers.

For too long, big companies have benefited from Pennsylvania lawmakers' refusal to close tax loopholes. They have been free to use aggressive avoidance schemes to shield their income from state taxes and shift the cost of public services to families and other businesses. After close to a billion dollars in cuts to public schools and social services, state lawmakers from both parties are taking another look at this issue. This bipartisan recognition of the problem is welcome. Unfortunately, one proposed cure may be worse than the disease.

The one thing that seems to get otherwise rational New Jersey residents to foam at the mouth is the state's punishing property-tax system. Property owners spend an average of $7,759 a year to support schools and municipal services. Sometimes they get tax rebates to offset the pain. Sometimes they don't. Now there is a dispute between state Senate and Assembly leaders, who want to give residents a property-tax credit on their state income taxes, and Gov. Christie, who wants to cut the income tax by 10 percent.

In­de­pend­ence Blue Cross, the largest health in­sur­er in the Philadelphia re­gion, said Tues­day that its 2011 net in­come soared 49 percent, to $314.8 mil­lion. The com­pa­ny's prof­it mar­gin of 3.4 per­cent was its biggest in at least 10 years. "I'm proud of the pro­gress we've made," said IBC's president and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Dan­iel J. Hilferty. The in­sur­er has rebounded from two years of losses, in 2008 and 2009. Glen Philips, an IBC customer, said it bothered him to hear of IBC's strong profits, given the heavy cost of buying insurance for 40-plus employees at Philips Bros.

WASHINGTON - The White House and congressional Democrats think they have the ideal issue to use against Republicans all year - that the GOP is eager to give tax breaks to the rich. "It's an excellent strategy for Democrats," said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based political consultant, as the Senate plans a vote Monday on a Democratic-sponsored measure to impose higher taxes on millionaires. The Democratic strategy, though, might not be a winning one. While taxing the rich is popular, "it just isn't the first priority" of the swing voters who likely will decide the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, said Lanae Erickson, deputy director of social policy and politics at Third Way, a centrist Democratic group that recently studied independent voters.

For many of the last decade's early years, construction of rental units (also known as multifamily housing) played second fiddle - sometimes even third fiddle - to building for-sale homes. In Philadelphia and other major cities, conversion of rental apartments to condominiums was the rule. In the suburbs, apartment construction was blocked by the shortage and price of adequately sized land parcels, endless state and local permit processes, and not-in-my-backyard opposition. Back then, from the federal government on down, the emphasis was on making everyone a homeowner - whether they could afford it or not. As a result, when the bottom fell out of the for-sale market in 2006-07 and people began looking for rentals, the pickings were slim.

A 10 percent income-tax tax cut for every working New Jerseyan will help families keep more of what they earn. It will make us more competitive with other states to attract more new jobs to New Jersey. Lower tax rates will relieve overburdened middle class families. They'll keep job creators here. They'll begin to bring us into a more competitive situation with our neighbors in the region. Now personal income taxes, of course, are not the only excessive burden that has been foisted upon our citizens by government.

After the financial stress of the last few years, your tax return this year might offer some relief, but it also might deliver some disappointment. If you were out of a job for part of 2011, you may find yourself able to qualify for lucrative tax credits and deductions you can't normally get. At the same time, however, Uncle Sam will continue to make an unpleasant demand if you were one of the first-time home buyers who used a $7,500 tax credit in 2008 to buy a new home. People who took that credit in 2008 have to pay it back, said Robin Christian, senior tax analyst for Thomson Reuters.

The region's low- and moderate-income residents continued to lose financial ground during the fourth quarter of 2011, but the decline was slower than in previous periods, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported Friday. In addition, the survey of 70 area agencies that provide services to these residents found a more positive attitude toward job availability than previously, the Philadelphia Fed reported. The survey covered Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware.