The Main Street Post

Gov. Tom Corbett

HARRISBURG PA — On the surface, Pennsylvania may look like the next front in an ongoing battle between Republicans and big labor which flared up in Michigan last week as lawmakers there approved so-called “right-to-work” legislation. Don’t expect it to happen here anytime soon, though, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported Friday (Dec. 14, 2012).

All is quiet on the labor front in Pennsylvania, at least for right now, The Independent reported, and Gov. Tom Corbett indicated he does not plan on changing that.

Like Michigan – and Indiana and Ohio, where similar battles have occurred — Pennsylvania has a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature.  Like those other states, it has a long history of powerful labor unions.

During an appearance last week on a Philadelphia talk radio show, however, Corbett said Pennsylvania lacks “the will” to pass right-to-work legislation. It was not a top priority for him as the Legislature gears up for a new session in January, he said.

• Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “Unions have broad appeal in PA, staunching right-to-work efforts” and published Friday by The Independent, here.

HARRISBURG PA — Pennsylvania businesses are optimistic about the state’s economy but cautious about the prospects of robust economic growth over the next year, according to a survey of CEOs and businesses leaders released Tuesday (Sept. 25, 2012) by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported that the chamber survey found 20 percent of business leaders were optimistic about the state of the economy – the highest level in five years – despite the fact that unemployment in Pennsylvania has climbed from 7.4 percent in May to 8.1 percent in August.

Gene Barr, chamber president and CEO, told The Independent uncertainty over the implementation of the federal health care law and potential changes to federal taxes at the end of the year were holding back growth. “The reality is that Pennsylvania has taken some of the right strides, but we don’t exist in a vacuum,” he said.

Those numbers might not change in the near future, because the survey also warns that businesses optimistic about what’s ahead are still likely to put off making new hires. Only 17 percent of respondents said they expect to do more hiring in the next 12 months.

• Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “Survey says businesses optimistic despite recent uptick in unemployment” and published Tuesday by The Independent, here.

Photo from Google Images

HARRISBURG PA – Only a day after a lawmaker proposed a sweet deal for out-of-state business thinking about locating in Pennsylvania, legislators say they may be ready to expand the program, according to The Pennsylvania Independent online news service.

The Promoting Employment Across Pennsylvania (PEP) proposal would let qualified companies that are moving into Pennsylvania keep 95 percent of personal income taxes their employees pay. The commonwealth would collect the remaining five percent.

Pennsylvania has a flat personal income tax rate of 3.07 percent of a person’s gross wages, so an employee earning $30,000 a year would pay $921 in state income tax. Of that, under the proposal, $874 would be kept by the employer as its incentive for bringing jobs here, and the state would keep the other $47.

The House Finance Committee moved the legislation, House Bill 2626, on Tuesday (Sept. 25, 2012), and it was introduced in the House, The Independent reported.

Bill sponsor and House Majority Committee Chairman state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, said PEP is a way to get new businesses into Pennsylvania, in the face of the high unemployment numbers and a desire to aggressively recruit business. “This is about whether or not Pennsylvania is on the short list” of employer relocation choices, he said.

But some representatives said they were uneasy about what the bill means for employees.

• Read a story by reporter Melissa Daniels, titled “Income tax jobs incentive could go to even more businesses” and published Tuesday by The Independent, here.

Related:

• Lawmaker Offers Unusual Strategy To Attract Business

Photo from Google Images

HARRISBURG PA — Pennsylvania could have a new pitch for companies looking to relocate. According to The Pennsylvania Independent online news service, it might go something like this: Settle in the Keystone State, and keep the heaping pile of money your employees pay as state income tax.

That’s the concept behind a new jobs-boosting proposal offered by Centre County Republican state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, chairman of the House Finance Committee.

The proposal, called the Promote Employment Across Pennsylvania Program, or PEP, would let qualifying businesses keep 95 percent of personal income tax that their employees would otherwise pay to the state. The remaining 5 percent would go to the state, The Independent reported Monday (Sept. 24, 2012).

Typically, those personal income tax dollars go right to the state’s general fund, with all wage-earners chipping in to fund state services. A portion of state income tax dollars already goes to private businesses through loans or grants offered through the Department of Community and Economic Development, but a program like PEP would cut out the incentive middle man, giving tax dollars directly to the company.

Benninghoff told The Independent that the current system of offering tax breaks keeps governments from collecting revenue at all. With PEP, new companies would still pay local property and state sales taxes, and in some cases, state corporate net income taxes.

And, there’s no direct cost to the state, he added.

To qualify, businesses must be existing, for-profit entities relocating in Pennsylvania that pay at least 50 percent of health insurance premiums for the employees. Excluded from the program are retail stores, utility companies, food service companies or public administration or education services. The state Department of Revenue would review the applications before approving participation.

• Read a story by reporter Melissa Daniels, titled “Jobs proposal funnels income tax straight to employer” and published Monday by The Independent, here.

Photo from Google Images

From an out-of-state vinter's bottles to your Pennsylvania table? Maybe in the future

HARRISBURG PA – A proposed bill that would allow Pennsylvania wine consumers to order directly from out-of-state wineries, and similarly would allow vinters to ship products directly to buyers, moved Wednesday (May 9, 2012) out of the House Liquor Control Committee, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported.

The proposal would cut out the middleman: the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). It owns and operates about 620 liquor stories in the state. “To those who enjoy wine and want to get it from California or Pennsylvania directly, it’s a major step,” committee chairman and state Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, said of the measure. “It’s just basic consumer, common-sense stuff.”

The state Senate approved similar legislation, Senate Bill 790, with a unanimous vote in March. A full vote in the House could be scheduled in coming months, or the bill could get tied up with a more controversial and high-profile bid to privatize PLCB and sell off the state-owned liquor stores to raise an estimated $1.6 billion for the budget, The Independent reported.

State law prohibits the direct shipment of wine and liquor to residences. However, PLCB has created a loophole; through its relatively new home delivery system, consumers can order and have delivered any product PLCB carries.

The process is complicated and cumbersome, however, if the variety sought isn’t offered by the board.

Consumers must contact PLCB and ask the agency to place a “special order” with the out-of-state winery. PLCB will contact the producer, purchase the wine and have it delivered to the PLCB store nearest to the consumer who made the request. For home delivery, PLCB will accept the shipment, repackage it and deliver it to the residence through its home-delivery program.

Consumers are charged for the special order, for the initial shipment and for PLCB to turn around and ship it again. So far the board has done $77 million worth of special order sales this year.

• Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “PA seeks to loosen shipping regs for out-of-state wineries” and published Thursday by The Independent, here.

The state capitol

HARRISBURG PA – A plan to lower Pennsylvania’s corporate net income taxes and close business tax loopholes that allow multi-state companies to avoid paying taxes in the state advanced Monday (April 2, 2012) out of the House Finance Committee, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported.

House Bill 2150 would lower the corporate net income tax from 9.99 percent to 6.99 percent by 2019, and close loopholes to remain revenue neutral, at least for the short term, the bill’s supporters said.

Pennsylvania’s corporate net income tax is the highest in the nation, and America has the highest national rate in the world after Japan’s tax dropped April 1. Business groups have seized on that fact to claim that the Keystone State is the least business-friendly location in the world.

• Read the story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “PA corporate tax cut advances to level playing field,” and published Monday by The Independent, here.

HARRISBURG PA – Corporate tax collections in Pennsylvania have lagged this fiscal year, causing some to question previous tax breaks provided to businesses by Gov. Tom Corbett, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported Friday (Jan. 6, 2012).

Corporate tax revenue collections for fiscal 2011 were $259.3 million, or 17.6 percent, less than the previous period, according to state Department of Revenue figures cited by The Independent.

Corporate taxes generally account for about 18 percent of the state’s total revenue. Corbett provided more than $200 million in tax breaks to corporations last year, the news service said, including allowing businesses to write off the entire cost of expenses in one year rather than spreading out the write-off over several years.

• Read a story by reporter Stacy Brown, titled “With corporate tax revenue lagging, some question previous breaks” and published Friday by The Independent, here.

The Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia

HARRISURG PA – Pennsylvania’s auditor general says he thinks money being collected in bridge and other tolls by the Delaware River Port Authority should be used to upgrade and improve regional high-speed rail service, rather than pour it into economic development projects, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported Friday (Dec. 23, 2011).

AG Jack Wagner said he wants Gov. Tom Corbett to use political clout to stop the authority, which serves southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, from carrying out plans to invest more than $20 million in projects to build a cancer center, a university dormitory, and a state prison, and to improve a rowing course. The money should instead be used to improve high-speed trains connecting Philadelphia and New Jersey.

The authority collects tolls for vehicles crossing the Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross bridges that connect Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

A Corbett spokesman, in reply, accused Wagner of “grandstanding.”

• Read a story by reporter Stacy Brown, titled “Auditor: Use toll money for rail, not economic development projects” and published Friday by The Independent, here.

HARRISBURG PA – Twenty-six economically distressed Pennsylvania cities, but none (so far) located in Montgomery County, have filed for assistance under the state’s Financial Distressed Municipalities Act program, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported last week (Nov. 30, 2011). Once a city is in, though, it’s proved tough to get out, because municipal governments seem unable to survive without the hand-to-mouth funding the act supplies for their operations.

The state capitol

Approved in 1987, the act aims to help municipalities that are teetering on bankruptcy to restructure debt and get government funding to help meet obligations and maintain their infrastructure. Problem is, according to The Independent, no city has emerged from the act’s protection because of harsh economic times. All need the benefits the program provides, it said.

Cities under the act’s protection now are Aliquippa, Ambridge, Braddock, Chester, Clairton, Duquesne, East Pittsburgh, Farrell, Franklin, Greenville, Harrisburg, Homestead, Johnstown, Millbourne, Nanticoke, New Castle, North Braddock, Pittsburgh, Plymouth, Rankin, Reading, Scranton, Shenandoah, West Hazleton, Westfall, and Wilkinsburg.

“We can’t operate without (state) money that comes from the nonresident wage tax,” Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty acknowledged. His city, like some others, have laid off workers by the score to pare expenses, but employee wages continue to represent the bulk of their costs.

• Read a story by reporter Stacy Brown, titled “Fewer employees doesn’t mean savings for distressed municipalities” and published Nov. 30 by The Independent, here.

Photo from Google Images

HARRISBURG — Businesses and organized labor in Pennsylvania are clashing over a proposal to eliminate the mandatory payment of union dues by non-union employees in some professions,” The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported Tuesday (Aug. 16, 2011).

A package of bills, introduced this session by state House Republicans, seeks to repeal state laws requiring all state workers, local government employees and public school teachers to pay dues, even if they choose not to join a union, it said.

Business groups claim the compulsory dues are an affront to freedom and the so-called “right-to-work” laws would increase personal income and job creation.  Right-to-work means that employees are not required to join labor unions or pay union dues, even if they choose to work in a union shop.

• Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “Right-to-work measures latest battleground between business, labor” and published Tuesday in The Independent.