Tax

The Chester Upland School District has released a preliminary 2013-14 budget with a $22.5 million shortfall that might require a 2.7 percent tax increase and layoffs. The $123.9 million spending plan approved Thursday night by state-appointed receiver Joseph Watkins represented a $22 million increase from this year's. School officials cautioned that the budget was in the early stages and that the district could get more state funding. Final adoption is scheduled for June 27. The deficit is due mainly to charter-school payments, according to George Crawford, the district's chief financial officer.

Rob Wonderling is president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Steven Bradley is chairman of the African American Chamber of Commerce Philadelphia has the second-highest poverty rate in the nation, next to Detroit. One of the key reasons: decades of jobs lost to our suburbs and other states. Today, 42 percent of city residents leave the city to go to their jobs - outside Philadelphia. We're moving in the wrong direction. Why have jobs been leaving the city?

Municipal bonds continue to provide a reliable refuge from stock-market volatility and a steady source of tax-free income. An index of muni bond mutual funds has recently been yielding about 2.18 percent. While that's nothing to brag about, it's a substantially higher yield than the roughly 2 percent that 10-year Treasury bonds offer, without factoring in the tax-exempt advantage that munis offer. But for all of munis' stability, investors have clearly been scared the last several weeks.

D EAR HARRY: For 10 years, I was an independent contractor. I got 1099s every year. Unfortunately, I got into some severe substance-abuse problems, and I got behind on my taxes. I did file the returns, but I failed to pay both the income tax and self-employment tax. I now owe the IRS about $30,000. I'm now clean, and I'm trying to get my life together and clear up the record from my past. I see ads on TV for these guys who say they can clean up my tax debts for pennies on the dollar. Are they really legit?

Pennsylvania will offer an amnesty program June 1 through Aug. 31 to collect $613 million the state's Department of Labor and Industry is owed in unemployment benefits or taxes. The program covers benefits paid or taxes owed before June 30, 2012. The amnesty covers 130,000 people, who were overpaid $356 million, either because of a mistake or because they submitted false information. Those who submitted false information will only have to pay half of interest and penalties if they pay before Aug. 31. Those who were overpaid through an error will only have to repay half the amount.

TRENTON - A proposal to let voters decide whether to direct a fraction of sales-tax revenues toward land preservation for the next 30 years cleared another hurdle Monday when a Senate committee signed off on legislation to put the question on the ballot this November. Land-use experts and preservationists were nearly unanimous in their support. Preservation proponents have long sought a stable, long-term funding source for open-space acquisitions, which include farmland, historic sites, and properties that repeatedly flood.

The destitute Philadelphia schools are counting on Kevin Sosinavage, and others like him, to come to the rescue by continuing to do what they're doing: smoking and drinking. Sosinavage, 45, sat at the bar at SugarHouse Casino on Friday, sucking on a Marlboro and sipping from a bottle of Heineken, both of which would be heavily taxed under Mayor Nutter's plan to avoid doomsday for the school system. "I wouldn't mind the tax increase if my salary increased as much, but that's not the case," said Sosinavage, a warehouse worker who lives in Northeast Philadelphia.

AS THOUSANDS of students, parents and teachers marched down North Broad Street to City Hall yesterday calling for more school funding, a City Council committee approved an alternative plan to raise money for the cash-strapped school district. Council's Committee on Finance approved a bill sponsored by Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez that would raise an extra $30 million for schools through the use-and-occupancy tax levied on businesses - two days after Mayor Nutter's proposed tax hikes on booze and cigarettes for the same reason.

With cries of protest coming from all directions - from dozens of business owners in Council chambers to thousands of public school students marching down Broad Street - a Philadelphia City Council committee advanced a bailout measure Friday for raising $30 million for the School District through a higher Use and Occupancy tax. The finance committee voted, 5-1, to move a bill to the full Council that would set the tax for businesses at 1.4 percent....

In West Chester and college towns across the state, there's never a short supply of alcohol - or patrons bellying up to the bar. But that's not the case when it comes to funds for local law enforcement and public works - and West Chester's borough council is hoping to persuade the state legislature to allow it to institute a drink tax of up to 10 percent to help cover those costs. The move comes as Mayor Nutter has proposed increasing the tax on alcoholic drinks in city bars from 10 percent to 15 percent to aid city schools.