According to the Tax Foundation’s comparison of the nation’s 1,800 largest counties, in 2007 Sedgwick County ranked:
-707th in how much we paid in property taxes, a median of $1,349
-462rd on how much we paid as a percent of home value (the median was $109,500), 1.2 percent
-823rd in how much we paid as a percent of median family income (the median was $59,678), 2.2 percent
The lower the rank, the higher the tax burden. 19 of the 20 most expensive counties were in New York and the least expensive were all in Louisiana.
Here’s the latest take on oil, in the wake of last night’s 13-cent runup in unleaded prices in Wichita.
Interestingly wide diversity of opinion, from the bottom has been reached to $30 a barrel oil.
The biggest laughs my husband (and Eagle colleague) and I had over Thanksgiving were every time my father, who was a guest in our home, went off about “the media.”
We were like, “Ah, dad, you know you’re talking about us, right?”
Then, a friend who I consider to be very bright had me to dinner the other night and also blamed “the media” for making things seem worse than they are these days.
Seriously? It seems like there are new layoffs nationally and locally to report every day. Companies are either canceling plans or putting them on hold. Some are going bankrupt or are closing.
This is the media’s fault? I think that’s called blaming the messenger.
How bad things are is relative, of course. And there’s certainly a case to be made that bad news leads to more concern and cost-cutting and that, in turn, leads to more bad news.
But we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t report what’s happening. That’s called news.
Sorry, Dad.
There was some good news to come out this morning from the Federal Reserve.
Households are paying down their debt for the first time in 56 years.
I say it’s good because maybe the masses are beginning to realize that overextending themselves to keep up with the Joneses isn’t a good thing.
Of course the downside is that they aren’t out their spending as much on products and services, the fuel for our nation’s economy.
Maybe the economic downturn has created a much needed “correction” in society. Just like a correction in the stock market.
Today’s recap of the carnage Tuesday on Wichita streets is a little startling, isn’t it? As someone who spent two hours Tuesday trying to survive some of the dumbest winter driving I’ve ever seen, I can assure you that the quotes in the story aren’t hyperbole.
But there’s a silver lining for a business somewhere in every dark cloud, even if the cloud is man-made. Can’t you imagine the backlog today at the city’s major body shops?
Kansas’ Capitol Federal Savings was lauded this morning on NBC’s Today Show as “the little bank that could.”
The Topeka-based thrift was held up as an example of a financial institution that held true to its values and high standards “even when it seemed nothing could go wrong.”
The story shouldn’t come as a surprise to Eagle readers. In fact, Eagle banking reporter Jerry Siebenmark traveled to Topeka earlier this year and wrote about Cap Fed for a story that appeared in the Feb. 7 issue of Business Today.
It is nice, however, to see a local bank get some national recognition for doing things right. It’s also being recognized on Wall Street, where its stock (CFFN) is up about 35 percent in the past year. The S&P 500 is down about 40 percent in the same period.
My only criticism about the story: Why is it that national reporters always have to bring up Dorothy?
I doubt if too many people close to the Wild West World bankruptcy were surprised today when the parent of Bank of Blue Valley became the first Kansas lender to collect bailout cash.
The Overland Park-based bank was one of the first financial institutions to jump into the bankruptcy, as a lender for the failed theme park’s rides.
With a $21.75 million taxpayer transfusion, it would appear that the bank’s had issues beyond a theme park with no real business plan.
Here’s how the $4.6 trillion promised by the federal government – so far – stacks up against some of the biggest projects in American history, in today’s dollars:
Marshall Plan $115.3 billion
Louisiana Purchase $217 billion
Savings & Loan Crisis $256 billion
Korean War $454 billion
The New Deal $500 billion
Invasion of Iraq $597 billion
Vietnam War $698 billion
NASA $851 billion
This courtesy of Bill Greiner, chief investment officer at UMB, who cites Bianco Research. He cautions that some of the money spent may actually be investments with returns and that the amounts don’t reflect their size compared to the size of the government budget (U.S. GDP is about $14 trillion).
Still, he says, the bailout is massively enormous. Here’s one more Greiner stat: bailout is costing $15,330 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
If you’re a Cox Communications customer, you’ll be able to watch Fox Business Network on or after Dec. 30.
The station will be available to digital subscribers on Ch. 253, Cox’s Sarah Kauffman said.
FBN launched in October 2007 and is available in 45 million homes in major markets across the United States.
A vice president at Quintiles, the world’s largest clinical research organization, has a pretty positive view of Kansas’ spot in the world of economic development in a story in Site Selection magazine.
Quintiles, which employs 22,000 people in 50 countries, has about 900 people working at its 236,000-square-foot complex in Overland Park. It moved to OP from KCMO in 2006.
The article also talks about the Economic Revitalization and Reinvestment Act the governor signed this year to land Cessna’s new Columbus plant and mentions Kansas’ favorable position in several business climate rankings.
From the article:
“Kansas is a very progressive state. It works hard to put together an environment and financial incentives that make this a very good place to be –- a place where you can be prosperous and grow,” McDermott says.
Another interesting tidbit from the First American CoreLogic report for the fourth quarter: while home price continue to decline nationally (mostly on the coasts, Florida and Great Lakes), the declines are no longer accelerating. That probably indicates that, finally, we’re approaching bottom.
The bad news is that while the falling prices may become less of a factor in causing people to default on their mortgages, job losses and recession are just getting going.