Tax Incentives

Filmmakers who shoot in Pennsylvania could get an eight-fold increase in tax incentives in the state budget agreement reached Monday. But the $80 million package, one of the most generous in the country, wasn't what film boosters had sought. They wanted unlimited incentives. Sharon Pinkenson, head of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, was looking on the bright side. "I woke up saying to myself, 'Last year, we had $10 million. This year, we'll have $80 million to bring jobs, films and movie business to Pennsylvania,' " Pinkenson said.

WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT continues to hover at 9 percent throughout the nation, Philadelphia has an 11 percent rate, as more than 72,000 residents are jobless. In light of a recent report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors projecting "1 in 7 metropolitan areas are unlikely to see prerecession job levels until 2020," creating jobs must be a top priority for City Council and the mayor. Providing tax incentives that entice businesses to create new jobs is a key ingredient to turning our economy around, and it can't come soon enough for the 72,000 Philadelphia families struggling to make ends meet during one of the worse economic downturns since the Great Depression.

Merck & Co. collected more than $5 billion in profits last year. Nationwide Financial Services has posted five straight years of record earnings. The Vanguard Group manages more than $500 billion of other people's money. So why are Pennsylvania taxpayers subsidizing all three? That's what Gov. Ridge says he needs to do to persuade big employers to locate, expand, or remain in Philadelphia's busy western suburbs. If Pennsylvania doesn't pay, other states are eager to do so, Ridge said Thursday during a visit to the new headquarters of Nationwide's Villanova Capital Group affiliate in Miquon, Montgomery County.

A new report by the Pew Center on the States takes aim at how states use tax incentives to convince and cajole businesses to expand, relocate or just plain hire more people. It's like shooting marlin in a coffee can. The point Pew makes is a familiar one: Officials in all 50 states spend billions of dollars annually on tax incentives, but half cannot say with any precision whether it's money well-spent. Researchers identified 13 states, including New Jersey, as "leading the way" in assessing their economic-development programs and evaluating their impact.

WHILE THE mayor and the governor are behind closed doors trying to hammer out a reform plan for the schools - we hope that's where they are, anyway - a 93-page report released earlier this week has the potential to have an even more profound impact, not only on the state of the schools, but on the future of the city and region. This week, City Controller Jonathan Saidel called for dramatic tax reform that would reduce the wage tax, cut the business privilege tax and reconfigure the property tax. There hasn't been this much talk of tax cuts since George W. was campaigning.

Mayor Rendell, releasing a 13-point plan for rebuilding America's battered urban economies, said yesterday that creating 75,000 new jobs in Philadelphia would do more to fight crime, drugs and homelessness than 1,000 new police officers. Eschewing cities' tradition of asking Washington for massive infusions of aid, the plan Rendell presented at a news conference relies primarily on federal tax and regulatory incentives to help cities attract companies, create jobs for those with low skills, and begin rebuilding their devastated tax bases.

More than $50,000. That's what Lanxton Washington says the wage-tax credit offered in the city's empowerment zone will save his West Philadelphia security firm in labor costs over the next 10 years. "It's attractive," Washington says. "I think it's going to work. " He's also eyeing another empowerment zone perk - tax-exempt bond financing - for the possible expansion of his 7-year old business, L. Washington and Associates, located in the zone at the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center, 5070 Parkside Ave. More than $38,000.

President Bush's pledge to cure America's "addiction to oil" through alternative fuels and new battery technologies is winning praise from energy experts as a good but modest first step. Former CIA Director James Woolsey champions alternative fuels and fears that U.S. dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes national security. He said he thought the President's proposals were moderate and would be met easily. The bigger hurdle, he said, is weaning carmakers off gasoline. "The most important thing is tax credits.

Unisys Corp. is moving its headquarters and 225 management jobs to Two Liberty Place in Center City from Blue Bell. "We're welcoming them back to Philadelphia," said Stephanie Naidoff, the city's commerce director. Naidoff said the city would give Unisys up to $1 million in yearly job-creation tax incentives. "It's a wonderful stamp of approval, a major suburban company moving back to Philadelphia," she added. Naidoff noted that the computer-services company traces its roots to a firm founded in the 1940s by computer pioneers from the University of Pennsylvania.

Against a backdrop of surging gas prices, Vice President Gore this week will propose what aides call an unprecedented level of energy investment intended to reduce America's reliance on imported oil, decrease pollution, and fend off global warming. Gore will propose a multibillion-dollar package of tax incentives to encourage automakers, homeowners, cities, power plants and railroads to either create or use power-saving technology, according to aides in his presidential campaign.

A new report by the Pew Center on the States takes aim at how states use tax incentives to convince and cajole businesses to expand, relocate or just plain hire more people. It's like shooting marlin in a coffee can. The point Pew makes is a familiar one: Officials in all 50 states spend billions of dollars annually on tax incentives, but half cannot say with any precision whether it's money well-spent. Researchers identified 13 states, including New Jersey, as "leading the way" in assessing their economic-development programs and evaluating their impact.

WASHINGTON - President Obama is making a strong election-year push for an economic revival "built on American manufacturing. " But he faces an uphill slog, with little consensus even within his own party on how to do it. For decades, the United States has gradually shifted from creating goods to providing services. Fifty years ago, a third of U.S. jobs were in manufacturing. Now, they account for just 9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A manufacturing renaissance is being preached from the White House, on the GOP campaign trail, and in Super Bowl commercials.

WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT continues to hover at 9 percent throughout the nation, Philadelphia has an 11 percent rate, as more than 72,000 residents are jobless. In light of a recent report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors projecting "1 in 7 metropolitan areas are unlikely to see prerecession job levels until 2020," creating jobs must be a top priority for City Council and the mayor. Providing tax incentives that entice businesses to create new jobs is a key ingredient to turning our economy around, and it can't come soon enough for the 72,000 Philadelphia families struggling to make ends meet during one of the worse economic downturns since the Great Depression.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Standing in another half-built development that will get hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives, Gov. Christie ushered in the arrival of the "American Dream" in North Jersey on Tuesday. The much-maligned and long-delayed Xanadu development at the Meadowlands, which Christie called the "the ugliest damn building in New Jersey, and maybe America," will get a makeover by the Canadian developer who built Mall of America in Minnesota. Next to the Jets and Giants stadium, with a dead-on view of the Manhattan skyline, the newly minted complex, called American Dream at Meadowlands, will feature high-end shopping, a 26-screen movie theater, nightclubs, a performing arts theater, restaurants, an indoor ice-skating rink, and an indoor ski slope (with moguls and a snowboard half-pipe)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Standing in another half-built development that will get hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives, Gov. Christie today ushered in the "American Dream" to northern New Jersey. The much-maligned and long-delayed Xanadu development at the Meadowlands, which Christie himself has called the "the ugliest damn building in New Jersey, and maybe America," will get a makeover by the Canadian developer who built Mall of America in Minnesota. Next to the Jets' and Giants' stadium, with a dead-on view of the Manhattan skyline, the complex to be called American Dream at Meadowlands will feature high-end shopping, a 26-screen movie theater, nightclubs, a performing arts theater, world-class restaurants, an indoor ice skating rink, and an indoor ski slope (with moguls and a snowboard half-pipe)

For 127 years, the Bancroft School has stood in the center of what is now Haddonfield's historic district, its tree-filled grounds surrounded by Victorian homes. Officials at the private school, which serves children with neurological disabilities, have the Kings Highway campus up for sale and plan to relocate eventually. No timetable is set, but the prospect of 19 available acres in a borough where open land is now virtually nonexistent has already triggered a fight among developers, politicians, affordable-housing advocates, and residents who cherish the small-town feel for which they have paid top dollar.

In a race where both campaigns have wrangled with gusto over nearly everything, down to signatures on nominating petitions, the first debate between the major-party candidates in Pennsylvania's Seventh Congressional District was more mild than wild. Democrat Bryan Lentz and Republican Patrick Meehan, who are running to replace U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, agreed more than not at their first debate, which was hosted by Larry Kane and will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on the Comcast Network.

Absent the incentive of the federal tax credits, whose deadline for sales contracts was April 30, agreements for purchases of previously owned homes tumbled 30 percent nationally in May and 55 percent in the eight-county Philadelphia area. The effect of government inducements on more than a year of housing-market activity - the first home buyers' tax credit ran from Feb. 1 to Nov. 30, 2009, and the most recent one from Dec. 1 to April 30 - was further evident in the year-over-year numbers for pending sales: They were down 15.9 percent nationally from May 2009, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday, and down 36.1 percent in the Philadelphia region, according to data from Prudential Fox & Roach's HomExpert Market Report.

NEW YORK - Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. plans to lay off or relocate some of its New York City employees. Spokeswoman Joan Campion says she does not know the number of workers who will be affected. She says the company is moving "a number" of people to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company is putting an office tower, at 685 Third Ave., up for sale. Pfizer spokesman Chris Loder said employees who work there will be transferred to other buildings in New York as well as Madison and Peapack, N.J., and Collegeville, Montgomery County.