Springfield Sales Tax Up Slightly in February

From today's SBJ:

City sales tax revenues showed year-to-year improvement in February for the first time in six months, the city of Springfield said Monday.

The city's 1-cent general revenue sales tax brought in $2.48 million in February, up 1.4 percent from February 2009. The year-over-year increase is the first since August, when revenues increased 0.6 percent compared to the year before.

For fiscal year 2010, which began July 1, general sales tax revenue totals $23.3 million, down just less than $2 million - or 7.8 percent - from the first eight months of fiscal 2009.

The city is down roughly $90,000 since making additional cuts to the current budget in January. Those cuts, which included withholding funds from a variety of departments and the continuation of a year long hiring freeze, were made to cover a $1.27 million revenue shortfall in the fiscal year's second quarter. City officials review the yearly budget quarterly to determine if cuts are needed to keep up with declining revenues.
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Capt. Phil Dies from Stroke

As a follow up to a previous post, Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie and star of Discovery Channel’s ‘Deadliest Catch’ has died of complications from a stroke.  He was 53.

Capt. Harris gained national fame in the last few years thanks to the reality show.  Personally, I loved the show.  His departure will leave a void that will be hard to fill.

MSU Hopes to Have New President Soon

Missouri State is hoping to have its President position filled by next fall, that according to the MSU Board of Governors.  To fill the position, the university has hired a Dallas consultant to assist in the search. 

Their current president, Mike Nietzel, has announced his plan to resign once his successor is picked.

Current Cardinal Becomes Newest Cardinal

The Webb City school board has approved Dr. Anthony Rossetti as the new Supt of Schools.  Rossetti will be replacing current Supt. Ron Lankford.  Lankford announced his retirement late last year.

Rossetti is currently the superintendent of the Miller R-2 district.  Both Miller and Webb City have the same mascot – Cardinals – and both have very successful sports and academic programs.

What does that mean?

Being able to write an article and explain a complicated situation can be a challenge.  Unlike TV, readers only have what’s in black and white to create their visual image of the issue.  I sometimes chuckle when things don’t go quite as planned.  Take this quote from today’s Joplin Globe regarding a barn fire.

“Turner said no injuries were reported. Several bales of hay and a backhoe inside the barn burned in the blaze.

The owner of the barn was not fully identified.”

I found the last sentence funny because I started filling in my own reality:

Did he burn up too and they only find a shoe? (That was not the case.)

Did the police report say “barn reportedly owned by someone named ‘Joe’”?

Did a witness say “Well, Bobby had that until the divorce, but I think Doreen got the north half in the settlement.”

Maybe it wasn’t as funny as I thought, but it did make me chuckle.

Joplin Employees Will Likely See 3% Pay Increase

The Joplin city council last night informally blessed a 3% pay increase for employees during the next budget year.  That increase will cost the city approximately $800,000.

While concerned about increases in health care, the council was reminded that $20 million sits uncommitted in the city’s general fund.  The city’s budgeted general sales tax revenue for 2010 is $11.645 million.

The city of Joplin has their adopted budget online.  You can view it here.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

NPD Says Q4 Small Appliance Sales Show Promise

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.–The pickup in fourth-quarter 2009 sales of large and small appliances offer promise of further growth this year, according to The NPD Group.

The market-research firm’s consumer tracking service showed that sales of small appliances jumped 14 percent on a dollar basis over the fourth quarter of 2008, and unit sales were up 20 percent. The top categories were upright vacuums, drip coffeemakers and heaters, NPD said. The one negative that emerged from the company’s research was a 2 percent drop in average unit selling prices for all small appliances.

Meanwhile, major-appliance sales in the fourth quarter rose 5.5 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008, on both a dollar and unit basis. Microwaves, dishwashers and refrigerators all enjoyed double-digit growth in dollars, while unit sales of dishwashers, microwaves and washing machines had strong increases. Mark Delaney, director of NPD’s home division, said many retailers that featured major appliances in their Black Friday advertisements—some of which promoted “door-buster” specials—achieved positive results.

Peter Goldman, president of NPD’s home division, said these results indicate that the appliance industry is “moving back in a positive direction.” However, Goldman said consumers remain cautious in their spending, as evidenced by their purchases of lower-price products in these categories.

NPD is a leading global provider of of consumer and retail market research.  Their site is www.npd.com.

Jarden, who has a large distribution center in Neosho, is a large manufacturer of small appliances.

Retailer Volume of Imports Predicted to be Up 25% in First Half of 2010

From HFN:

WASHINGTON–Import volume at the nation’s major retailer container ports will jump 25 percent in the first half of this year versus 2009, according to an estimate from the National Retail Federation.

The monthly Global Tracker Report, provided by NRF and Hackett Associates, forecast first-half container volume at 7.4 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU; one TEU is a 20-foot cargo container or its equivalent), up from 5.9 million TEU in the first half of last year. The prediction said June volume will jump 36 percent higher than June 2009, February volume would rise 30 percent over February 2009, April volume will be 27 percent ahead of last year’s April and May’s volume will grow 26 percent over May 2009.

Springfield Schools Choose NEA over MSTA

From today’s SBJ:

Springfield teachers voted Thursday to have the National Education Association's Springfield chapter act as their representative in negotiations with the Board of Education.

Springfield NEA received 56.9 percent of the vote, defeating the Missouri State Teachers Association. Both groups have Springfield teachers as members.

"SNEA has the experience, expertise and commitment to represent more than 1,700 Springfield teachers in reaching a collective bargaining agreement with the district," Missouri NEA President Chris Guinther said in a news release. "They have proved they have the patience, skill, and desire to get the job done."

Thursday's election was the second part of a process to choose representation for district teachers that started more than a year ago, when NEA representatives collected more than 1,100 signatures to petition the school board for an exclusive representative election.
That petition was taken to Greene County Circuit Court, which ruled that teachers must first have an election to select either exclusive representation, multiple representatives or no representation. The exclusive option received 58 percent of the vote in that election, which took place in November.

MSTA has said previously that it supported Springfield's policy of allowing multiple representatives.

Stowaway Freezes to Death during Trans-Atlantic Flight

From the AP:

Japanese authorities said Monday they are trying to identify a body found inside one of the landing gear compartments on a Delta Airlines plane flight that arrived in Tokyo from New York.

The body of the apparent stowaway, identified only as that of a male with dark skin, was clad only in a long-sleeved, plaid shirt and jeans, police at the Narita International Airport said Monday.

A mechanic found the body lying inside the landing gear compartment of the Boeing 777-200 during maintenance after Delta Flight 59 from New York landed at Narita on Sunday night, police official Zenjiro Watanabe said.

"All we know is that he must have sneaked in just before departure, because it is impossible for him to enter the storage during flight," Watanabe said.

The body had no visible injuries except signs of frostbite, and the man might have died of hypothermia during the flight, Watanabe said.

The temperature in that part of the plane falls to about minus 58 degrees during flight.

Police are investigating the case both as an accident and a possible crime, Watanabe said.

"It's quite bizarre," he said. "I've never handled a case like this before."

Delta officials were not immediately available for comment.

There have been similar cases in the past.

In 2007, a man who appeared to be Asian and in his 50s, was found dead in the nose gear wheel well in an on a United Airlines Boeing 747 that arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Shanghai. He too was thought to be a stowaway.

Hartland Motors Moves Back to the Boulevard

Hartland motors, a used car dealership in Neosho owned by Steve Hart, recently relocated its operation.  Formerly housed in the old Hickory Chips building on Coler St, Hartland has now moved to the Neosho Blvd across from Price Cutter and south of Advantage Health Care.

BKD Services Were Needed by Neosho

On Friday, the Neosho City Council hired the accounting firm of BKD, LLP to help assist in reconciling the city’s cash accounts and to review some other financial information.  That reconciliation is the first step to getting a handle on where the city stands financially.

To put this in very simple terms: until the city knows how much cash it has in the bank, it can’t know with any level of confidence how much will need to be borrowed to meet its financial debt obligations.  BKD will help confirm to the city what those balances are.

This isn’t the sole fix for the city’s financial crisis, but rather the first step in getting the city’s financial position stabilized so it can start its recovery.

The full Globe article is here.

Global Warming Needed to Get Turbines Spinning

Apparently no one thought about the effects of cold temperatures when installing tax-payer funded wind turbines in Minnesota.  Oops.  Because of cold temperatures, fluids inside the turbines were too thick to allow the blades to spin.  The wind turbines were originally installed in California where temperatures were much warmer.  They were dismantled and refurbished before being shipped to Minnesota for their new installation.

Good news – local officials expect the $300,000 turbines to be spinning in a couple of months after an oil change and a few other modifications.

The turbines were purchased using federal renewable energy bonds.

Joplin Airport Included in Study

Passenger air service to five smaller Missouri airports will be the topic of discussion during a meeting tomorrow at the Joplin Regional Airport.  The 9am meeting will reveal the results of a study done to determine possible changes to Missouri’s airline passenger service.

Joplin is one of five Missouri cities who has a federally-subsidized air service.  The others are Kirksville, Waynesville, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. 

The globe article can be found here.

Ethics Poll Posted on my Website

I’ve posted a new poll related to ethics on my website.  Please take a moment and give your opinion.  Results will be posted next week. 

Click here to voice your opinion.

(This isn’t Chicago – vote once and not often.)

Jobless Claims Rise Last Month

The Labor Department says that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000.

The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the third straight week.  The number of people continuing to claim benefits was unchanged at 4.6 million.

December Orders for Durable Goods Up

New orders for manufacturing goods in December 2009 increased 1.0 percent to $370.4 billion. Shipments rose 1.9 percent, unfilled orders declined 1.0 percent and inventories declined by 0.1 percent from November 2009.

Save Money, Live Better. How? Cut More Jobs.

As part of continuing efforts to resize overhead, Wal-Mart yesterday announced another cut of 300 employees at their home offices in Bentonville, AR.  According to statements by Wal-Mart, these cuts are the final round of reductions ending a year-long series of changes to its corporate structure.

To save money, Wal-Mart, which has 2 million employees worldwide, has changed its global sourcing network.  Its Sam’s Club division cut 11,200 jobs last month when it turned announced it was outsourcing in-club demonstrations to an outside company. The cut amounted to 10% of Sam's Club's work force of 110,000. Sam's also closed 10 underperforming stores, which cost another 1,500 jobs.

A year ago, Wal-Mart cut 700 to 800 headquarters workers in its real estate, apparel and health and wellness departments. That layoff followed a reduction in the number and size of new stores Wal-Mart said it would build. The company also plans to renovate many existing stores.

Slowing Construction Impacts Local Architects

Two Springfield architecture firms have announced layoffs as construction projects continue to suffer amid a slowing economy and tighter lending by banking institutions.  Springfield’s largest firm, Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, Inc. cut nine jobs from their payroll last week.  GHN Architects and Engineers cut three jobs.  Both cuts equate to approximately 25% of their workforce.

The full article can be found here.

State Budget Office Pulls $74M in Spending

Continued revenue dips and lower collections are causing more cuts from Jefferson City.  Revenues thru the first 7 months are down 12.5%.  Collections in January are down 22.4% vs. 2009.  Those drops have resulted in $73.8 million worth of cuts to keep the state’s budget balanced.

Below is the full article from today’s Springfield Business Journal:

The continued drop-off in state general revenue collections has led to additional spending restrictions this year, the state budget office said Tuesday.

Through seven months of fiscal 2010, general revenue collections total $3.88 billion, down 12.5 percent compared to the same period in fiscal 2009.  Collections for January totaled $561.2 million, a 22.4 percent decrease from January 2009.

The revenue shortage is leading to additional spending cuts of $73.8 million, to ensure the budget stays balanced for the remainder of the fiscal year, according to a news release.
State salaries and operating expenses will be cut by $2.9 million. The cut should impact about 120 positions, some through attrition, according to the release. 

The biggest chunk of the cuts comes from the state Office of Homeland Security's communications interoperability efforts. The state is cutting $29.2 million from its general revenue funding for that project, which assists in agencies' ability to communicate with each other; other state and federal funding sources picking up the difference.

The state also is cutting $24.2 million from matching funds for its rural broadband initiative, leaving $5.8 million in place for that effort.

General revenue collections in January were down in individual income taxes, sales and use taxes, and corporate income taxes, with refunds up for the month.