stony-coating.blogspot.com
Banks seem more receptive now to loan such as adjusting the amountr due on the loan toallow what’s knowhn as a short because they don’t want more foreclosedd properties on their books, said owner of Orlando-based . “We’re seeing a total changs in the commercial real estate market in In addition, Dan Colachicco, regional manager for , had a clienft whose lender extended a defaulted loan for five years, shiftede it from an amortizing loan to one that’s interest-only, allowecd six months of payment relief and paid overdue real estatee taxes. “Some banks are going to some lengths to avoid takinb backreal estate.
” That’s welcome news in a marketg that two months ago rankedr No. 10 among the most commercial loan defaults in the Nearly5 percent, or $340 milliojn worth, of Central Florida’s commercial mortgage-backedf security loans were in default in said Horsham, Pa.-based RealPointr LLC. That wave of defaults isn’t quite over yet, as mortgagexs on many more properties financedthrough short-terk loans in 2006-07 are updated this year, said Jeff Sweeney, presiden t and managing principal of in As a result, many banksz are more willing to rework some of those he said. That, in turn, has helped generate property salez — so long as they’re at discounted rates.
“Everything we’ve sold in 2009 has been by more than20 percent, Sweeney said. “That’se what’s selling right now — the distressed, discounted properties. It’s the Memorial Day sale of real ButBishop — whose brokerage business has grow n 30 percent in the past two months said banks are not approving all short-sale prices. Typically, brokers must work harder to get a solid offer in hand beforr the bank will see it as an option besides foreclosure. Many times, lenders look at the real estater involved and determinewhether it’s well-positioned to perforj in the long term, added “Every lender has a different philosophy.
” That philosophgy may be based on whetherf or not the bank is overwhelmed with bad said Van Bogan, chairman and CEO of Orlando-based Florida Bank ofc Commerce. The lenders that alreadhy have a lot of distressed propertied on their books are eager to approve shory sales orother workouts, he said. But the markeyt is improving, so better-leveraged banks aren’ty in a rush. “A lot of banks are holdinb off,” Bogan said, “becaus they believe in a year or so, they’ll be able to get a bettere price.
”
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
LCRA water plan submitted to TCEQ, review begins - CBS News
ihituvofy.wordpress.com
LCRA water plan submitted to TCEQ, review begins CBS News The LCRA on Monday submitted the plan to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The proposal offers methods to manage water downstream from lakes Travis and Buchanan during dry conditions. The lakes provide water for more than a million people ... LCRA unveils new plan for two lakes |
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Business working behind scenes to shape health care reform - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:
nazariomuibepu1687.blogspot.com
President Obama has mobilized the grass-roots supporters that helpex elect him to lobb y for his vision of health care which includes offering Americansa government-ruj health plan as an alternatives to private insurance. A coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations plans tospend $82 milliohn on organizing efforts, advertising, research and lobbying to supporr the Obama plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostluy are working behind the scenes to shape the legislation.
Although they have seriouas concerns about some of the proposals — including the public plan option and a mandate for employerds to provide insurance — few are trying to block healtgh care reform at this point. The cost of health insurancde has become so burdensomr that something needs to be they agree. “Nobody supports the statuss quo,” said James the ’s senior manager of healtbh policy. “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most businesw groups, that means reininh in health care costs and reforming insurance marketas so that employers have more choices in the typex ofplans available.
To achieve thosd goals, however, businesses might have to swallow somebittet medicine. An employer mandate tops the list of concern for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintomn pushed his health care reformj plan in the 1990s. The Senate bill might includes a provision that would require employers to either providd health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to thefederall government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, includingb members of the Main Street which is part of the coalition lobbying for theObama plan.
“The way our systemk works now, where responsible employers offerf coverage andothers don’t, leaves us in a situationh with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliances members said in a statement submitted to the Senate Financwe Committee. “If we’re contributing but other employers aren’t, that gives them a financial advantageover us,” the statement “We need to level the playing field through a systemn where everyone pitches in a reasonable But most business lobbyists contend that employers who can affors to provide health insurance do so alreadty because it helps them attract and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurance tend to be “marginallyh profitable,” said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researchg Foundation.
Imposing a “play-or-pay” insurance requiremenf on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.6 milliob jobs, according to a study. Tax credits coulsd offset some of the costs for providinbgthis coverage, but Gelfand said the credits that are undeer discussion are “extremely limited.” Congress also could exempty some small businesses — such as firmsz with less than $500,000 in annua payroll — from the employer mandate. But many business groups see this proposapl as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningful relief.
“We oppose small-business carve-outs becausd they make it easier for Congress to apply mandates againstlarger employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice presidengt and employee benefits policy counsel of the National Retaikl Federation. “It’s also easy for Congress to come back and try to appl the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matter how good the surrounding healthcare reform, a bill containintg an employer mandate woulrd be too high a pricew to pay for reform,” Trautwein Public plan or market reforms?
President Obama has mobilized the grass-roots supporters that helpex elect him to lobb y for his vision of health care which includes offering Americansa government-ruj health plan as an alternatives to private insurance. A coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations plans tospend $82 milliohn on organizing efforts, advertising, research and lobbying to supporr the Obama plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostluy are working behind the scenes to shape the legislation.
Although they have seriouas concerns about some of the proposals — including the public plan option and a mandate for employerds to provide insurance — few are trying to block healtgh care reform at this point. The cost of health insurancde has become so burdensomr that something needs to be they agree. “Nobody supports the statuss quo,” said James the ’s senior manager of healtbh policy. “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most businesw groups, that means reininh in health care costs and reforming insurance marketas so that employers have more choices in the typex ofplans available.
To achieve thosd goals, however, businesses might have to swallow somebittet medicine. An employer mandate tops the list of concern for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintomn pushed his health care reformj plan in the 1990s. The Senate bill might includes a provision that would require employers to either providd health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to thefederall government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, includingb members of the Main Street which is part of the coalition lobbying for theObama plan.
“The way our systemk works now, where responsible employers offerf coverage andothers don’t, leaves us in a situationh with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliances members said in a statement submitted to the Senate Financwe Committee. “If we’re contributing but other employers aren’t, that gives them a financial advantageover us,” the statement “We need to level the playing field through a systemn where everyone pitches in a reasonable But most business lobbyists contend that employers who can affors to provide health insurance do so alreadty because it helps them attract and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurance tend to be “marginallyh profitable,” said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researchg Foundation.
Imposing a “play-or-pay” insurance requiremenf on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.6 milliob jobs, according to a study. Tax credits coulsd offset some of the costs for providinbgthis coverage, but Gelfand said the credits that are undeer discussion are “extremely limited.” Congress also could exempty some small businesses — such as firmsz with less than $500,000 in annua payroll — from the employer mandate. But many business groups see this proposapl as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningful relief.
“We oppose small-business carve-outs becausd they make it easier for Congress to apply mandates againstlarger employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice presidengt and employee benefits policy counsel of the National Retaikl Federation. “It’s also easy for Congress to come back and try to appl the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matter how good the surrounding healthcare reform, a bill containintg an employer mandate woulrd be too high a pricew to pay for reform,” Trautwein Public plan or market reforms?
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Idaho Power requests average $3.56 monthly hike - Sacramento Bee
yqyqynesara.blogspot.com
Idaho Power requests average $3.56 monthly hike Sacramento Bee Idaho's biggest utility filed the request with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission Tuesday. But the company has also filed additional regulatory paperwork for a revenue-sharing deal. That will help offset the rate increase from the $391 million ... |
Monday, March 5, 2012
Meet the hawks in the state Senate - St. Louis Business Journal:
a-aveywe.blogspot.com
Sen. Chuck Purgason (Howellk County) is a stereotypical rural He runs ahunting farm, didn’t go to collegs and is very conservative. During his firsty term, Purgason was pretty much a Although he was a consistentconservativde vote, he was relatively quiet. Votesx are the least powerful weapon ina senator’s and his influence was very But this session Purgason He was elevated to chair of the committees on Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversighrt (GAFO). Every piece of legislation that woulcd cost the government morethan $100,000 has to go througgh GAFO before it can pass.
With Purgaso n as chair, GAFO became a graveyard for big spending or government mandateshe didn’t like. Billws would go in and never come out. Purgason with another hawk, Sen. Matt Bartle (Jacksonb County), to kill a versiomn of the economic development bill thatwas “clean,” that is, it didn’f have any caps on various tax crediy programs. Bartle has been railing against the proliferation of tax creditf programs foryears now. On the second-to-last nighy of session, Bartle played a critica l role in killing the research and development taxcrediyt (which would have benefited the CORTEc facility in St. Louis).
When it was addeds to the economicdevelopment bill, he stood up and begam talking about the , which had nothing to do with the bill and was an indicationj that he was embarking on a filibuster. Seeing the underlying bill in the Senate reconsideredthe R&D tax credit and stripped it out. In additio to Purgason and Bartle, several other senators joinec the fiscal conservatives from time to timeincluding Sens. Jim Lembkr (St. Louis) and Luann Ridgeway (Clay County). Sen. Brad Lager was the leader of the hawks. And he playec “good cop” during much of the negotiationss around thetax credit/jobs bill.
The bad cops were Purgasohn and Bartle, neither of whom has statewide ambitions like who ran unsuccessfully for treasurerlast cycle. Stil l some business interests following the legislationclosely didn’t buy Lager’z attempt to cast himsel as the “reasonable” one, fingering him as the one that firs t declared that the EcoDevo bill shouldn’t pass without tax credit reform. Like any group or they looked more monolithic from the outsidwe than fromthe inside. They differedr by degrees on economic philosophy. For example, Bartles would eliminate all tax credits and cut taxesa across the board without discrimination tospecificc “favored” industries.
But Lager’s position isn’t agains tax credits completely but rather a desire to bring each progra m to come under periodic reviesw to justifyits existence. That may have contributede to their lack of cohesiohnthis year. They acted more like a dark cloud that came and went withoutf reason and less like the strategix rebel insurgency they couldhave been. They held the floor for hours, stalling one of the bills with federalstabilizationm funds. It was not a real more of a raging against the hugegovernment spending. But then they stepperd aside with barely a peep when billiond came through the next day in a bill containing federallstimulus money.
Later they killecd the research and developmenttax credit, whichb ended up amounting to a relativelyt puny $5 million. This was their comin g out year. The hawks will be back next year, bettetr organized and more strategic, and therefore more effective.
Sen. Chuck Purgason (Howellk County) is a stereotypical rural He runs ahunting farm, didn’t go to collegs and is very conservative. During his firsty term, Purgason was pretty much a Although he was a consistentconservativde vote, he was relatively quiet. Votesx are the least powerful weapon ina senator’s and his influence was very But this session Purgason He was elevated to chair of the committees on Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversighrt (GAFO). Every piece of legislation that woulcd cost the government morethan $100,000 has to go througgh GAFO before it can pass.
With Purgaso n as chair, GAFO became a graveyard for big spending or government mandateshe didn’t like. Billws would go in and never come out. Purgason with another hawk, Sen. Matt Bartle (Jacksonb County), to kill a versiomn of the economic development bill thatwas “clean,” that is, it didn’f have any caps on various tax crediy programs. Bartle has been railing against the proliferation of tax creditf programs foryears now. On the second-to-last nighy of session, Bartle played a critica l role in killing the research and development taxcrediyt (which would have benefited the CORTEc facility in St. Louis).
When it was addeds to the economicdevelopment bill, he stood up and begam talking about the , which had nothing to do with the bill and was an indicationj that he was embarking on a filibuster. Seeing the underlying bill in the Senate reconsideredthe R&D tax credit and stripped it out. In additio to Purgason and Bartle, several other senators joinec the fiscal conservatives from time to timeincluding Sens. Jim Lembkr (St. Louis) and Luann Ridgeway (Clay County). Sen. Brad Lager was the leader of the hawks. And he playec “good cop” during much of the negotiationss around thetax credit/jobs bill.
The bad cops were Purgasohn and Bartle, neither of whom has statewide ambitions like who ran unsuccessfully for treasurerlast cycle. Stil l some business interests following the legislationclosely didn’t buy Lager’z attempt to cast himsel as the “reasonable” one, fingering him as the one that firs t declared that the EcoDevo bill shouldn’t pass without tax credit reform. Like any group or they looked more monolithic from the outsidwe than fromthe inside. They differedr by degrees on economic philosophy. For example, Bartles would eliminate all tax credits and cut taxesa across the board without discrimination tospecificc “favored” industries.
But Lager’s position isn’t agains tax credits completely but rather a desire to bring each progra m to come under periodic reviesw to justifyits existence. That may have contributede to their lack of cohesiohnthis year. They acted more like a dark cloud that came and went withoutf reason and less like the strategix rebel insurgency they couldhave been. They held the floor for hours, stalling one of the bills with federalstabilizationm funds. It was not a real more of a raging against the hugegovernment spending. But then they stepperd aside with barely a peep when billiond came through the next day in a bill containing federallstimulus money.
Later they killecd the research and developmenttax credit, whichb ended up amounting to a relativelyt puny $5 million. This was their comin g out year. The hawks will be back next year, bettetr organized and more strategic, and therefore more effective.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Sierra Nevada joins the canned beer revolution next week at Fountainhead - Chicago Tribune
youngmanmeledero1636.blogspot.com
Sierra Nevada joins the canned beer revolution next week at Fountainhead Chicago Tribune Very Friendly Gentleman told me he had recently made a decision: He had allocated X-number of dollars for either a canning line or a bottling line and, after much deliberation, opted for the bottling line. "People aren't ready for canned beer," Very ... |
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