IRS to explain employee tax credits to businesses
BROWNSVILLE – The Internal Revenue Service is being asked to speak to the Greater Brownsville Area Chamber of Commerce in January to explain how businesses can help their employees get the tax credits they deserve. Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan reported that the IRS will also be conducting a training seminar in Brownsville on Jan. 7 for volunteers interested in helping people fill out their tax returns to get the appropriate credits. Ryan said the IRS has estimated that as many as 195 people in Brownsville were eligible for tax credits last year, but didn’t seek them, losing out on refunds totaling nearly $300,000.
The Earned Income Tax Credit is available even to people whose income was too low for them to have to file a tax return, though the program is also open to individuals in middle income brackets. Some residents may also be eligible for a Child Tax Credit of up to $600 per eligible child.
Lou Orslene, the executive director of the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp., said the borough has been selected as the distressed community in Pennsylvania to receive technical assistance from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). Orslene said a panel of community leaders from various backgrounds will participate in a two-day training program in Athens, Ohio, before starting a two-year process to plan and implement a project in the community.
The ARC has also given the community a $7,000 grant for the South Side Renaissance project. The funding will be used to create a gateway, or area with visual appeal, to the South Side in the area around the Brownsville Wharf. Orslene said BARC is teaming up with the art department at California University of Pennsylvania to create a mural in the area of the Inter-County Bridge abutment. Additional beautification projects are planned for the area of Bank and Water streets, Orslene said.
More than 150 treats were handed out at the West Brownsville Volunteer Fire Hall on Light-Up Night according to the event coordinator Genevieve Capatosti. Capatosti complimented the residents of Blainesburg and Pearl Street for decorating for Light-Up Night. Capatosti said there were luminarias all along Pearl Street.
“It was absolutely fabulous. They had all the cars moved, candles all the way down the street and every house lit up,” Capatosti said.
The chamber set out more than 3,000 plastic jugs lit with candles. Capatosti said the event exhausted the supply of gallon jugs on hand and more jugs will be needed for the 2003 event. Area residents are encouraged to begin saving their clean, gallon plastic jugs now for use next year. The jugs can be dropped off at the Brownsville Bus Lines office on National Pike East throughout the year.