Time To Buy
November 30, 2008
The time to buy a house if you are lucky enough to have available credit may be right now. I keep cringing when I see how steeply home prices are falling and even more so when I see foreclosures going for a pittance of their current value, much less what they will in a few years. If you have the means I would suggest you start looking at current mortgage rates and your local listings. Do you want to know how low some of these properties are going for? Let me give you a few examples I have seen recently. I looked at renting a house fourteen months ago and said forget it, because as nice as it was it was priced to cover their ballooning mortgage. They wanted $1100.00 a month and that got me a pool and hot tub which I had to cover an additional $100 monthly maintenance fee on. That wasn’t a huge deal, but the houses on either side which were just as big were renting for $800 and $900 a month. The house I would say valued at nearly $175k when I looked at it. It sold two weeks ago for $90k. I could have made the payment on a $90k home over thirty years even with a steep fixed interest rate. Another home I looked at buying nearly five years had five bedrooms, pool, hot tub, and two outbuildings with utilities sat on two acres in town and had a price tag of $300k. It was foreclosed on and sold at a sheriffs sale a month ago for just over $60k. The deals are out there and I wish I was in a better position, because even with higher interest rates the current homes on the market are way under valued. Be it for yourself or as an investment, now looks like a good time to buy if you can.
The Devil Is In The Fine Print Credit Card Statement Details
November 27, 2008
Getting credit cards is not going to be an easy thing to do for the foreseeable future unless you are one of those no credit history college students that seem to still being offered credit hand over fist. That simply isn’t a practice I can fathom or condone really. It would serve any of the companies pandering to the vanity and lack of experience college freshman often have to have the debts declared null and void. That however wouldn’t teach any better lesson to these irresponsible kids than bailing out Wall Street teaches irresponsible corporate executives.
That said credit is still available even if the market is shrinking. Even if you don’t have the best credit, you can still get a credit card, but you will likely pay through the nose for it and that may end up leaving you worse off than your were. Credit Cards however are a must for many things right now and even those with bad credit will need them if they want to get by. I am not talking about debit cards for your checking account or prepaid cards either. I tried to rent a car after I started having problem and found not only would they not take my debit card which was backed by five times what I was trying to spend I had a prepaid credit card with an equal amount of cash. There wasn’t a car rental company that would take either one. In fact they wanted nearly a thousand dollar down payment to rent me a $49.00 a day car on top of prepayment for the two days I needed the car and another twenty bucks to pay for their required insurance package. In the end I took the$1118.00 they want me to pony up for a two day car and bought a cheap car that lasted eight months. All of this could have been avoided by having a real credit card.
In the end I know who was responsible for my credit even if getting hurt at work wasn’t my fault. Bad things happen to good people all the time and they have no control over it, but they still have to hold themselves accountable for the choices that were theirs to make. Get yourself the credit you need but be very careful how you use it.
Bankruptcy or Bailout
November 27, 2008
For those considering bankruptcy you might want to take a moment and step back from the situation. If you are jobless, unemployed, downsized, outsourced or only have your crappy barely better than minimum wage job, you can probably go ahead with bankruptcy and be no worse off. However if you have managed to maintain your credit keep your job, and have no serious prospects of losing your job you might consider a Debt Consolidation Loan.
What a debt consolidation loan does is consolidate all or most of your credit bills into a single loan. This loan can come in many, many forms. The reasoning for making sure you will have a steady income to pay a debt consolidation loan off is you are often times putting up equity to secure the loan. That equity is often times your home. This isn’t something to undertake lightly. Lose your job with an equity loan against your house and you could find yourself not only jobless, but homeless as well.
As with any financial product you should seek the advice of a professional and ask them all the questions you might have after having done the preliminary research. My advice is is just that, advice and should be taken for what it is worth.
The Garden State
November 20, 2008
Much can be said for the state of New Jersey, and depending on who you ask it might be good or it might not be so good. Whenever I hear anyone say New Jersey is the greatest place in the world I immediately ask myself why does the Statue of Liberty face the other way ? All jokes aside I actually think of Bruce Springsteen when I hear New Jersey. My wife, Katy, on the other hand simply glared at me when she saw I put that down, so I must add when she hears New Jersey it is all about Bon Jovi.
Real Estate New Jersey is not something that usually comes to mind when you think about The Garden State, unless you are convince Jimmy Hoffa is buried on some piece of New Jersey real estate. However New Jersey Real Estate is still one of the hottest markets for real estate in the country, despite hard economic times. The last couple of years alone has seen a nearly four percent growth in its population.
That said New Jersey was already the most densely populated states in the country and the second most wealthy per capita. It owes both of those factors do to its proximity to New York City and Philadelphia. With both large cities of its own and commuter towns servicing even larger cities, there is going to remain a growing real estate market in the state for some time to come. If you are looking to move the Garden State you are most certainly going to need help from a good local realtor to get the best deal possible.
Credit Cards
November 20, 2008
In this time of uncertainty during the holidays getting another credit card might be the furthest thing from your mind. Then again you maybe looking at the job that is about to be no more and know when it does your credit score will be trashed regardless of what you do, so why not make Christmas as good as you can. I have been there.
If you decide to go forward with getting a credit card, you need to be smart about where you decide to apply for it. Credit Card Applications are easy to fill out online and even easier to do it en masse now, but if you aren’t careful about where or who you are filling them out with you could be in serious trouble that goes well beyond the damage done to defaulted credit cards.
I am talking about identity theft. As someone who has been through the wringer on this and had people commit crimes while using my identity I can tell you that this is no picnic. I am still trying to recover from it more than a dozen years after it happened and will probably be paying for it for the rest of my life. So research where you give your information out before you do it, or you could have more problems than bankruptcy on your hands.
Forex Trading
November 20, 2008
If you are looking for a fast paced exciting time in the world of investing Forex Currency Trading. Forex or Foreign Exchange Currency trading is where currency trading takes place. Forex transactions typically involve you buying a set quantity of one currency and then pay for it with another.
This is a pretty good opportunity when it works, but when things go wrong as they always do when you play the markets they can go seriously wrong. The way things work in the forex market is pretty simple to explain and it will look easy to make money. You start out with say ten thousand dollars US and buy another currency say and hope it moves higher against the dollar. The more you invest the less it has to move to make a profit.
The down side of that is the more you invest the more you stand to lose. You will have a hard time making anything on a hundred, thousand or even ten thousand dollars once you pay from trading commissions unless their is a major shift in the market. So you often look to your trading house to let you leverage against your investment. This isn’t so bad until you are down and they call you on it.
In the end when you win, you can certainly win big, but when you lose you can lose it all. Don’t go into forex currency trading or any other investments without making a serious study of programs available and be willing to risk losing everything.
Used Video Games - A New Economy E-Store Idea
November 20, 2008
As much as it is possible to create economic opportunities by playing video games and selling the characters, it is also possible and more inline with old economic models to sell actual physical game disks and cartridges for profit. Unlike selling used software, this appears to have none of the same copyright concerns for either the seller nor company. This is mostly because you can’t play the game without the disk or cartridge, unlike PC based games.
I know you are questioning whether or not this is profitable, so lets take a look at the methodology and what it would take to win with this model. First, you need to know something about the games and and gaming in general. This is easily acquired knowledge, but something you can’t skimp on our you could end up on the wrong side of your customers after getting scammed by your suppliers. Secondly, you need at least one retail outlet, like Amazon or eBay. You can sell directly from your own web site as well for great profits and control, but you will have less exposure and need to maintain the site. The last thing you need will be a supplier, which can be as simple as your own kids, or as complex as reselling from game lots purchased on eBay. The easiest and most secure I have found is simply running a newspaper ad and putting up fliers where kids congregate in your community.
If you are asking whether or not this is profitable then I can tell you from my own experience, yes it is. Take the Nintendo DS or the Nintendo Wii for example. The most popular new games can resell for as much as eighty percent of the original price, but after a few weeks of release finding a supplier at fifty to seventy percent won’t be hard. After a few months the resell value drops to sixty to seventy percent and the wholesale to fifty percent or less. After six months the resell price can go as low as forty percent the original retail price, but the wholesale value can drop to as little as twenty percent. You can keep tabs on popular games like Mario Kart DS on various online price comparison sites.
There are ups and downs in this business like any others, and like every other business it shouldn’t be entered into lightly. Do your research and prepare yourself to spend a lot of your time reading about and playing video games.
Insuring Economic Disaster
November 14, 2008
If you are facing hard times right now and might be out of your house or other property you need to make some serious choices about what you are going to do with it before it becomes somebody else’s problem. Even if the bank is taking your home or your second vacation property is up for sale you need to think about vacant property insurance. If something happens on your property before it is out of your hands you need to remember that there are things you might not be able to write off like a judgment against you.
It just isn’t safe to be without insurance on your vacant property. Not only is it not safe, it might be in further violation of your contracts with lenders. I am not really sure how it you might end up if your vacant home burns to the ground and you are trying to declare bankruptcy. What I do know is you might be in for big problems not only from your lender but from the bankruptcy court.
As always insurance or financial responsibility is required of us on just about anything we own be it a dog or a home. Furthermore it is our responsibility not only to make sure we are properly covered as per our lender agreements, but responsible to ourselves in these tight economic times we are not paying for more than we need or over paying for what we are getting.
Debt In Times of Uncertainty
November 5, 2008
In the ruin of our economy there are but few options left to most of us. As someone intimately familiar with bankruptcy I can tell you that it is no picnic. I wonder if it was the smartest move for us many a day. I wonder if maybe I should have thought more about debt consolidation with some sort of reasonable firm.
Regardless of what you choose it never feels right to those of us who are honest enough about our financial situation. We grew up believing that debts needed to be paid and when they weren’t well that was a sort of failure. Failure or not, we know bad things sometimes happen to good people and can accept it for others and ourselves even if it still doesn’t feel right to us on some level.
Debt consolidation, rather than bankruptcy or the dreaded credit counseling services which destroy your financial life just as bad as bankruptcy and still make you pay everything back, is certainly an option. If we had more equity in the house and Katy hadn’t gotten hurt I think this would most definitely been an option for us. Is it an option for you? You will never know until you look at all the facts.
New Economy Stores Part II
November 5, 2008
In part two of our New Economy Stores series I look want to take a look at one of the more inventive ways you can make money. If you have been online more than a year you have probably heard of games like World of Warcraft. These types of multi-player online games exist only in the virtual world but have real world economics attached to them. Just like our desire driven physical world where patience is rarely seen as much of a personal virtue many online gamers, want to start out with as much as they can. If you have the money you can buy world of warcraft account with characters already made awesome by someone else’s labors.
I know many of you who don’t play games will see this as sort of cheating, and to be honest it is. I much prefer to start from scratch and do it myself. On the other hand I have the time and the patience to learn a game system and the type of personality that wants to figure these things out. That said of me I am also the type who supplies these online retailers with new characters and virtual gear.
Is this going to be a money maker for your average joe? Probably not, but if you have the time and the patience to learn the rules of the game you can set yourself you can learn a game like World of Warcraft or a social environment like Second Life and begin to make money.
Well Duh
October 24, 2008
Well Duh! It doesn’t take a panel of economists and a government agency to figure out the people with the most to lose will lie as often as they think they can get away with it to keep as much of it as possible.
Rich Cheat Most on Taxes - Economics Blog - Zubin Jelveh - Odd Numbers - Portfolio.com
We’re learning more about what it’s like to be Joe the Plumber everyday: A new study by Joel Slemrod of the University of Michigan and Andrew Johns of the Internal Revenue Service finds that misreporting of income and tax liabilities is highest among the rich.
Ask any of us poor slobs who lies most about money and we will tell you it sure isn’t us. Why isn’t it the poor who lie, because we have nothing to gain by lying about our income. Saying we make more than we do gains us nothing and under reporting often times means we will get even less money back at tax time.
Car Shopping In This Economy
October 23, 2008
I really can’t believe I went car shopping today, not with everything else going on in my financial life. On the other hand it is sort of a must with the baby due in another seventeen days. I know what I want and what i can afford, which isn’t much, but that didn’t stop me from getting pushed into a new Honda Element. I know I can’t afford it, but I wonder if they would let me borrow one when it comes time to take the baby to the doctors and stuff. The truck with its next to nothing heat and room for three people maximum just won’t cut it for long this winter. I went looking for the ninety two Chevy Cavalier but couldn’t help getting in the Honda Element as they pushed and prodded.
I said no thank you before the drive, then again after the drive, and then again when they tried to get me to fill out a credit app. No! No! No! What I wanted to say though was Yes! Yes! Yes!. Not since I had my Aztek have I looked at a car that had styling personality. Too many models look the same and if it wasn’t for a name slapped on the back of them I wouldn’t be able to tell you who made what. That is not the case the Element ,that squared back end is unique. I came home and googled Honda Element reviews and fell more in love with it. I want one! I want one bad! Maybe not as bad as I want a new Porsche, but considering the bump at the end of my driveway and I will have to share it with my wife and take both the kids places, I am sure I will be a lot happier for the Element.
With the economy going south, are new car plans in your budget?
Where The Hell Have You Been
October 23, 2008
“Where the hell have you been and what took you so long?”
Anyone who has ever had a company car at their disposal and a pain in the ass boss has probably heard this. Having sat both sides of this situation I know as well as anyone else that employees tend to go extra places on the company dime. I also know that the pain in the ass boss who harasses them for such behavior is as likely to do it as the other employees are. Things are changing though.
With the demand for even tighter budget controls there are a lot of places that are turning to products like Fleet Tracking. I am more than a little disturbed by this in some respects. It is a sign that the company doesn’t trust you to keep your extra running around to even a bare minimum. From the employees point of view I know that having the company car and needing to pick up a few groceries makes me more productive. If I am already busting my balls by pulling ten hour days I want to know while I am out I can stop, grab my lunch, pick up a box of cereal for the kids, and a DVD I can watch with my wife after I go home and not have bust my chops for it much less get fired. A company that doesn’t trust me to be productive simply doesn’t deserve my loyalty.
Of course this brings up an even worse issue, employee employer trust. When I was a teenager I worked in fast food and the management didn’t trust any employee. They didn’t trust us and treated us like we were disposable, because in fact to them we were an easily used up commodity. This is why many of us who experienced this sort of treatment went into white collar work where we were supposed to be respected. The cycle however has begun anew with white collar workers being seen as just as disposable as a minimum wage high school kid working the fry station used to be. We didn’t go to college, and for most of us in large amounts of debt, to be told we are little more to our employer than an easily replaceable fry cook. Company car or not, if our employer can’t trust us to do what we need to do to be more productive, then what is the pointof ever striving to be more?
The Power To Sustain Ourselves Through Thick and Thin
October 23, 2008
When I read the CEO of Wal-Mart the greatestadvocate of low cost crap for nearly forty year said that he wanted people to start consuming less, I had to go check my vitamins to make sure they weren’t really fun drugs. Then I started thinking about it a little harder and had to ask the big why question and frankly my answer didn’t mesh with his.
Wal-Mart CEO Calls for Reduced Consumption? : TreeHugger
The Big Question
Near the end of Wal-Mart’s 2008 Sustainability Summit in Beijing, CEO Lee Scott addressed one of the greatest existential questions for the world’s biggest retailer as it pursues its sustainability goals: Can true sustainability be reached without lowering — lowering — consumption, especially with the increasing growth of China’s middle class?Scott paused for a moment, and then:
Do we change how we purchase, how we consume, how we live? The answer to that I think is that to get to true sustainability, that does occur.
Was the CEO of Wal-Mart suggesting that consumers alter their buying habits? Does he want people to come into Wal-Marts less frequently to pick up their sneakers and stereos and ice cream, their humidifiers? Just like, for instance, they’re doing right now in the US, to the company’s chagrin?
Basically, Wal-Mart wants to improve the quality of products so that people replace their old TV, for instance, every 10 years instead of every 5. By improving quality — and their sustainability cred — Wal-Mart figures, they’ll get more customers.
Here is the thing. I don’t believe Wal-Mart has any noble purposes what-so-ever. The way the company is run they have only been looking out for themselves for a good thirty years. So why in the midst of all of this would they be advocating people cut back? Could it be they want people to pay more for higher quality goods less often? That is not it at all. Wal-Mart is simply doing what it has always done and trying to get the last few people who haven’t been suckered by their slick marketing to believe in them and the Wal-Mart way. Using less sounds good and wonderful except if people did that not very many of Wally World’s competitors will survive. Guess who is pulling the same old stunt with a brand new slick ad campaign to sucker Wal-Mart’s biggest detractors?
Virginians Vehement About Day Labor
October 17, 2008
Post 65 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Herndon looks at anti-worker measures
By Gregg MacDonald
Source: Loudoun Times-Mirror
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15 2008The Town of Herndon is again considering measures to further hinder day-laborers from congregating in certain areas of the town.
Herndon already strictly enforces zoning regulations that prohibit worker assembly sites on land not zoned accordingly.
On Oct. 7, Town Attorney Richard Kaufman made four recommendations to the Herndon Town Council based upon a Sept. 9 memo that suggested, among other ideas, the hiring of security guards at the town’s expense.
Kaufman outlined that particular suggestion, saying the town would “pay for, control and operate the program.”
“This would provide order and definition,” he surmised.
The majority of the council vocally opposed the idea, which, according to the Sept. 9 memo, could cost up to $156,000 a year.
Councilman Dave Kirby remarked that he preferred measures that would cost taxpayers the least amount of money. “That’s my first objective,” he stated.
Kaufman also suggested that the town recognize an unofficial site along Alabama Drive Park, where laborers gather, as an official hiring site. This would allow the town to enforce its now-defunct anti-solicitation ordinance.
Kaufman said that by recognizing the site and putting up signs disallowing congregation in other venues, this measure could at least “control,” if not “solve” the day laborer issue.
Councilman Dennis Husch commented: “I won’t support any initiative that uses public funds to abet solicitation of illegal workers.”
Kirby added that a sanctioned site “would be a magnet for more day laborers,” and Vice Mayor Connie Hutchinson called the idea “a last resort.”
Kaufman’s suggestion of establishing an official hiring site, potentially outside of town limits, also was not well received.
The proposal that seemed to garner the most interest within the council is implementing educational objectives and requiring the use of federal I-9 forms, which employers use to verify employees’ identity and establish that workers are eligible to accept employment in the United States.
Employers are required to have their workers fill out the form upon being hired. Kaufman said implementing this program would “enable the town to ask the federal government to enforce federal law.”
Vermont Residents Victimized by Local Government
October 17, 2008
Post 64 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Homeowners protest recent reappraisals - Brattleboro Reformer
Homeowners protest recent reappraisals
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Article Launched: 10/17/2008 03:00:50 AM EDTFriday, October 17
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. — What you pay in taxes has more to do with town expenses and revenues than how much your property is worth, said Jon McKeon, chairman of the Chesterfield Selectboard.“The amount you’re going to pay is what you vote on in March,” he said.
About 75 people gathered in the gym of Chesterfield Central School to learn why the values of their houses went up 30, 40 and even 50 percent.
To explain the assessment process, the director of New Hampshire’s Property Appraisal Division and the district supervisor of the division’s western district were invited to the meeting.
The reason the values of so many houses went up during the recent assessment process, said Charles Reese, district supervisor, was because many of those properties were undervalued.
The new values are based on what homes were selling for six months before and after April 1, he said.
The assessor looked at the values assessed five years ago and compared it to actual sale prices over that time period, said Reese. In 2005, property values in Chesterfield were 30 percent below market value, he said, which the state compensates for through the equalization process.
Along the waterfront of Spofford Lake, he said, valuations were 57 percent of the true market value.
And though by 2007 those property assessments were up to 71 percent of market value, they still weren’t accurate, said Reese.
Those disparities
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were a direct result of the increase in sale prices in the past few years, he said.“We don’t establish your property value,” said Stephan Hamilton, the director of the Property Appraisal Division. “The market establishes the value. Buyers and sellers determine what that value is.”
Because of the reassessment, Chesterfield’s tax rate dropped to approximately $17.36 per $1,000 of value, down from $22.28.
In the village of Spofford, it went from $22.55 to $17.55.
How much people end up paying depends on town, county and school expenditures as well as what the state needs to keep operating.
The total value of properties in the town went from $387 million in 2007 to $553 million following the recent assessment.
Much of this was due to an increase in the sale price of waterfront properties and new construction, said Reese.
McKeon told the audience that 51 properties sold from January to September at a total value of $13.8 million. Under the new assessment, those properties were worth $13.3 million.
“In our opinion, the assessment that was done was done accurately and the sales reflect that,” he said.
The meeting became testy at times, with some in the audience contesting that the re-evaluation was performed inadequately.
Many roperty owners demanded that the Selectboard consider a more in-depth review of properties in town.
The firm hired to conduct the reassessment performed a statistical analysis and not an actual door-to-door review of each property, which would have cost the town at least $180,000 as opposed to the $60,000 statistical analysis.
“What if you’re wrong in this instance?” asked one town resident. “What if this is an invalid appraisal?”
“This is not a perfect system,” responded Hamilton, but people appeal their assessment “all the time.”
“If you feel you’ve been disadvantaged by this reappraisal, you have the right to ask the Selectboard for an abatement.” The proper way to contest your reassessment, said Reese, is to appeal to the Selectboard, which takes on the role of the board of abatement.
Town residents have until March 1, 2009, to file for reconsideration and the town has until July 1 to respond to those requests.
One resident accused the Selectboard of just throwing away abatement requests, which McKeon denied.
This was affirmed by John Hatfield, the man who oversaw the revaluations.
“I’m human,” he said. “And I make mistakes and I fix them. I look at every single abatement. I don’t throw them away and I make recommendations to the Selectboard.”
“These gentlemen we elected are our watchdogs,” said another resident.
If people were unhappy with their reassessments, he said, they could voice their disapproval at the ballot box by voting them out.
Others complained that their children and grandchildren could no longer afford to buy a property in town because of the increase in values.
“We don’t establish values,” repeated Hamilton.
Does that mean Chesterfield, because of its increased property values, would send more money to the state than other towns, asked several residents.
“That’s not a yes or no answer,” said Hamilton, adding “There are communities that collect more state taxes than they receive back from the state. I don’t know if that’s ture for Chesterfield.”
New York Library Victim
October 17, 2008
Post 50 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Southold Library expansion: a casualty of the times
Citing economy, Southold Library trustees put expansion on hold
By Erin Schultz
Memo to taxpayers: You can hang on to your money.
Memo to guest lecturers, artists looking for space to display work and stakeholders looking for a place to meet: You’re still relegated to the basement and/or any available corner of Southold Free Library.
After holding several public informational meetings over a period of years, the Southold library’s board of directors decided late last month to postpone a bond vote to expand the “maxed out” historic library. It would be the first expansion of the building since 1991.
Uncertainty about the future of the economy and concerns voiced by residents caused library trustees to put the brakes on the project, at least for now.
The three-tiered expansion plan, designed by architect Gary Jacquemin and Robert Stromski of Rocky Point-based Searles and Stromski Associates, features a centralized circulation desk, an energy-efficient glass atrium and a large meeting area that would be available even when the library is closed.
During a mid-August public meeting, library board director David Fujita revealed the cost of the project, based on a professional cost-estimate and not accounting for fundraising, to be somewhere between $6.5 million and $7.5 million, equaling out to about $115 to $135 per taxpayer per year over 20 years.
“We’re sensitive to the fact that people are hurting, that they think this is the wrong time to do something like this,” said Mr. Fujita. “But we feel very strongly that the needs [for expansion] are legitimate.”
Leslie Weisman agrees. The professor emerita and former associate dean of the School of Architecture at New Jersey Institute of Technology and chairperson of the Southold stakeholders said the library has always provided outstanding services to the community, especially in providing meeting space to groups like hers. She remembers the early meetings after the expansion first was proposed to be “well attended, with a great deal of support.”
She also believes the cost for the expansion would be minimal over time, but she does understand taxpayer hesitation during a “crisis facing our own local government and our country.”
“The trustees might feel that the timing is unfortunate,” she said.
Bad timing may be what led to the overwhelming defeat Saturday of a referendum for the expansion of the library on Shelter Island. A record number of voters turned out on the island to reject the library plan by a nearly four to one margin.
Mr. Fujita said that the board’s original goal was to have a bond vote on the expansion in March or April of next year, but it’s been postponed until the fall of next year so board members, architects and library staff can review all of the plan’s economic components.
Both Mr. Fujita and library board director Caroline MacArthur have been sifting through all forms of community feedback, like these anonymous entries in the library’s expansion comment book:
“This is one kind of more that’s better. Think about it. Please now.” Also: “Too late, bad economy rising … not now.” And: “This is exactly what we need — nationwide!”
Southold resident Doug Stares, webmaster of www.southoldvotes.com, also has been monitoring the expansion proposal from the get-go. Though he said the libraries are an important aspect of all communities, he said he’d like to find a way to keep the taxes as low as possible in a community with obligations to many tax districts.
He says that with the delay, the library board is being fiscally responsible — “one of the few tax districts that have taken a stand,” he said. “It’s quite courageous.”
Mr. Stares started his Web site about a year ago to educate voters in a region with several overlapping tax districts: libraries, towns, fire departments, parks and schools.
“The problem is,” he said, “you’ve got these fairly older folks confused as to why their taxes are going up.”
“The normal folks don’t get it,” he said.
As a Southold taxpayer, Mr. Fujita said he gets it. That’s why he and the rest of the library board decided to delay the vote — and make time to review the master plan, he said.
“We’re all members of the community,” he said. “We all live here and pay taxes here. Shop locally, you know. We do what we can to help each other out. There are other ways to keep taxes low by raising revenue [and] by supporting businesses that contribute to the tax system.”
He reiterated that the library is one of those businesses. For every dollar put into the library, he said, four dollars in services are returned. Those services include book and DVD checkouts, computer use and a multipurpose community room.
Mr. Fujita said even those who are not library patrons can use the meeting room for everything from gardening club meetings to defensive-driving courses.
But, he said, over the years the meeting room has become cramped, as has the rest of the library.
Before the board approved the current expansion plans a few years ago, Ms. MacArthur said she’d consulted with three different space-planning companies on what she could do to make the existing space work better.
She said all the reports came back with the same information — “You’re maxed out.”
To Ms. MacArthur, this means continuing to live with the break room, complete with coffee, water and small closet area, in the same room as the toilet.
For Mr. Jacquemin, the architect, the delay lends itself to putting the legal and technical aspects of the expansion into place, but he says the design itself will remain very similar to what it was when he presented it in August.
eschultz@timesreview.com
Nevada Gambles on Cuts
October 17, 2008
Post 45 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Cuts would hurt neediest most - Las Vegas Sun
Cuts would hurt neediest most
Elderly, disabled and kids would lose essential services; teacher bonuses would endBy David McGrath Schwartz, Cy Ryan
Fri, Oct 17, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Document* Recommendations to the governor for budget cuts to education
Sun Archives
* Business lobby digs in for budget battle (10-16-2008)
* Cuts seen as a ceiling (10-14-2008)
* Prison director may resign if cuts exceed 14 percent (10-14-2008)
* Gibbons: Special legislative session might be needed (10-10-2008)Carson City — Thousands of poor children cut off from health insurance. Bigger classes in elementary schools. Three hundred mentally disabled people losing housing assistance.
A grim picture emerges in budget documents detailing the future of state government under proposed budget cuts, the deepest since the Great Depression. Over the next two years, Nevada’s government, far from robust to begin with, will be able to provide fewer services at a time when the number of residents seeking welfare, unemployment benefits and health care aid is expected to rise.
“We’re doing harm,” said Mike Willden, director of Health and Human Services. “Absolutely, we’re doing harm.”
Documents showing agency recommendations for the upcoming state budget became public this week. It’s clear there are few painless decisions in the spending reductions brought on by a sharp decline in the state’s economy.
The Education Department, for example, is recommending money for new text books and instructional supplies be cut in half, saving $67 million.
The Corrections Department’s budget calls for closing the Nevada State Prison in Carson City and prison camps in Pioche and Tonopah at a savings of $25 million — moves that will likely result in prison staff being laid off.
At Health and Human Services, the agency recommends eliminating nonemergency vision care and orthodontia for uninsured children in low-income families.
Scaling back bathing, grooming and dressing services for an estimated 1,600 homebound elderly and disabled citizens will save another $12 million, and cutting housing support for 85 mentally ill Las Vegans will save $2.2 million.
“It’s ugly. We’ve been preparing for ugly,” said Ben Kieckhefer, the governor’s spokesman.
“We’re not going to help everyone who needs help,” he said. “People are struggling, and we’re putting people in a position to struggle more. It’s tough to stomach.”
The governor has not seen all the proposed cuts but will receive a “comprehensive briefing” next week, he said. But, Kieckhefer added, “the governor believes the state has to make do with the revenue it has.”
Gov. Jim Gibbons instructed the heads of state government departments this summer to prepare spending plans for the next two years that are 14.12 percent below funding levels approved by the Legislature in 2007.
Since then, the state’s economic outlook has grown grimmer, leading Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, to say cuts could grow to 18 to 20 percent. Gibbons last week did not dispute that assessment.
The proposed cuts released this week could be adjusted by the governor. The state’s spending plan also must be approved by the 2009 Legislature, which convenes in February.
The governor isn’t required to release his final proposed budget — which covers the two years from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011 — until January.
Kieckhefer acknowledged that there isn’t much room for adjustment.
Welfare
The proposed welfare budget calls for closing offices in Yerington, Winnemucca and Hawthorne and the Owens Avenue office in Las Vegas, and eliminating 116 frontline case workers. That means the department will be slower to process applications for welfare recipients, the aged and blind.
With the economic downturn, the welfare division estimates its cases in the temporary assistance to needy families program will rise 9.4 percent in 2010 and 10.4 percent in 2011. The division is recommending a reduction from $9 million to $6.5 million a year for child care discretionary grants to families. Welfare Administrator Nancy Ford said these are families whose income is too high to qualify for welfare or other programs, but that need help paying for child care while a family member is in training, in school or in a low-paying job.
Ford said she’s going to retire Oct. 30 after seven years in the job and 30 years in state government. The state’s budget problems helped her conclude that now is the right time.
“It’s pretty ugly out there,” she said.
Mental health
Harold Cook, administrator of the Mental Health and Developmental Services Division, said the proposed cuts will lead to “less access to services, reduced services to those receiving services and longer waits for those wanting services.”
Patients in rural Nevada seeking care for mental illness, substance abuse and developmental disabilities will have to travel longer distances because of the office closures, Cook said.
The division’s proposed budget would cut 96 workers at the Rawson-Neal mental health hospital in Las Vegas. But Cook said he thinks the state can provide the same level of care to patients while bringing staffing ratios more in line with national standards.
There will also be a cap on autism treatment programs throughout the state. In Clark County, the state will treat only 21 patients and waiting lists will grow.
“Studies indicate early intervention helps reduce the long-term effect of autism,” Cook said. “Waiting longer for service will hinder progress and increase the long-term care costs.”
Medicaid
The most significant effects on the state’s Medicaid program will come in hospital services and long-term care for the elderly and disabled, said Chuck Duarte, administrator of the Health Financing and Policy Division, which runs the program.
The state has imposed a 5 percent cut in payment rates to hospitals and the plan is for another 5 percent reduction. Willden said complaints are flowing in from hospitals and doctors, and many physicians say they will no longer take new Medicaid patients, or drop the ones they see.
“What it will cause is access problems,” Willden said. “Low-income families, seniors, the disabled will find it harder to find health care providers, because many won’t accept Medicaid.”
Nevada Check Up, which provides health insurance to low-income children, will cap enrollment at 25,000, Willden said. There are almost that many children in the program now, with another 4,000 on the waiting list. The savings will total $3 million.
Duarte said even with these and other reductions, the department’s budget will be higher because of more cases and inflation, which under federal law the state has to account for.
Applications for Medicaid rise with unemployment, which is predicted to climb from the current 7.1 percent to 8.5 percent next year.
Education
The amount per student the state sends to school districts would be reduced by as much as $120, from the current average of $5,213.
Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction, said the cuts, which would save $51 million, won’t allow for new programs or innovations in public schools.
“It doesn’t give one more dollar to the districts to do something better,” Rheault said.
Also lost will be the $2,000 bonuses used to recruit teachers to Nevada. Rheault said districts consider the money “critical” to luring teachers to the state.
The proposed budget would also eliminate extra retirement credits and bonuses for teachers working in at-risk schools or in hard-to-fill positions in areas such as mathematics, science, special education, English as a second language and school psychology.
Rheault said “thousands” would lose the extra benefit at a savings of $26.1 million.
The recommended cuts would also translate into larger classes in the primary grades. One student would be added to the 1-16 teacher-pupil ratio in first and second grade and to the 1-19 ratio in third grade.
“Everybody is going to share the pain,” Rheault said.
Montana Main Streets Staying Alive
October 17, 2008
Post 43 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Down on Main Street
By MARGA LINCOLN - Independent Record - 10/17/2008
IR photo by Marga Lincoln - Brian Obert holds one of the metal silhouettes by local artist Laura Lean that will be mounted on Townsend’s lamp posts. Future pieces will include other wildlife and possibly local activities, such as bronc riding and mountain biking.
TOWNSEND — Townsend took another step toward boosting its local economy, becoming an affiliate member of th