Local car dealers excited by Federal bailout of GMAC

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 1/5/09 @ 8:26 pm

GMAC mostly handles car loans for GM. 

Due to the “credit crisis” GMAC tightened their lending standards over the last couple of months so that you could only finance a new car if your credit score was 700 or higher.  Note that 58% of Americans have a credit score of 700 or higher.

The Federal Government got involved and used six billion dollars from the TARP program to bailout GMAC.  GMAC is now extnding new car loans to Americans with credit scores of 621 or higher.  This expands the percentage of Americans who would qualify from 58% to 79%. 

Much of the downturn we have experienced is due to loosened lending standards.  In its infinite wisdom the Government is giving GMAC money so they will lower their lending standards.

Why are the inmates running the asylum in Washington DC?

Please speak up if you think the Government should have given GMAC money so they would lower their lending standards.

Mike Sylvester

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Minnesota Senate Seat

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 1/5/09 @ 8:01 pm

The race for the Senate in Minnesota in November of 2008 was extremely close.  Infact Coleman (The Republican) led by a couple of hundred votes immediately after the election.  A recount was performed and after that recount Franken (The Democrat) now leads by 225 votes.

I have followed this recount by reading Republican and Democratic news sources.

Both candidates and their campaigns have acted in an insulting fashion and have attempted to get certain votes counted they felt would favor them while at the same time trying to get votes they feel would help that other candidate eliminated. 

The Secretary of State has closed the recount and determined that Franken (The Democrat) won by 225 votes.  There were a couple of million votes cast in this contest.  It was an extremely close race.

I feel that Al Franken (The Democrat) should be seated and that the State of Minnesota should carefully analyze their election process and see what they can do to improve it.  They especially need to look at how their absentee ballots are handled.

I now hear that some of the Senate Republicans may filibuster the seating of Al Franken (Democrat) until Coleman’s legal challenges are resolved.

The Senate Republicans need to get a grip and move on.  Elections are handled by the States and the Secretary of State of Minnesota has certified Al Franken (D) as the winner. 

Al Franken should be seated and the Republicans should move on.

Mike Sylvester

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Hotel Harbinger From Austin

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 1/1/09 @ 11:18 am

White Lodging, the developer for the proposed Harrison Square hotel, is backing out of their committment in Austin, Texas. The Austin project sounds similar to our Harrison Square project albeit on a grander scale:

Read more…

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Allen County Council ignorance on display, again

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 1/1/09 @ 4:00 am

Back on December 18th, 2008 the Allen County Council voted (5 in favor, 0 against, 2 abstentions) to reduce the County Commissioners to part time and to reduce their pay as of July 1st, 2009.

In an “emergency meeting” today the Allen County Council back-tracked and voted (5 in favor, no abstentions or against, 2 not present) to reverse their decision of 12 days ago.

How on Earth can the County Council unanimously change their minds on an issue like this?

Jeff Pruitt has repeatedly pointed out how dysfunctional Allen County government is.  Jeff is right.

Mike Sylvester

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Top 5 City Council Stories From 2008

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 12/31/08 @ 3:39 pm

I wanted to do a quick review of what I thought were the top 5 stories involving city council in 2008. There were definitely a lot of fireworks this year so it was difficult to pare it down to 5. If you disagree with the order or think something else should’ve made the list then let us know in the comments. And before I forget, I want to say thank you to all the readers and Happy New Year…

  1. Harrison Square - or lack thereof.
    No supporter could’ve envisioned that the condo and hotel would not have broken ground by the end of 2008. The council has heard excuse piled on top of excuse from Barry Real Estate with the latest “drop dead date” being opening day for groundbreaking. Good luck with that. Of course we haven’t heard anything from the hotel developer since city council hasn’t bothered to bring them to the table despite the hotel being the linchpin for the entire project.
  2. High Performance Government Network.
    This unethical (and probably illegal) 11th hour contract signed in the waning days of the Richard administration has been a point of discussion at the council table on two separate ocassions. The State Board of Accounts got into the mix when they said it should’ve been approved by city council and violated the city’s own conflict of interest rules. And don’t forget that the city controller failed to mention she had executed a new contract last time she was brought before city council to discuss the topic.
  3. Councilman Hines hammers mayor Henry over lack of African-American department heads.
    You really should go back and watch the video to see how angry councilman Hines was. This all came to a head when the city’s Chief Technology Officer was fired shortly after going to council to present the controversial contract that outsourced the city’s IT department. Hines’ comments came during the vote to override the mayor’s veto on the fire merit ordinance. The mayor thought he had the vote in the bag after getting councilman Shoaff to change his vote but Hines threw him a curveball and the veto was overridden.
  4. Failed Retroactive Property Tax Increase.
    The new administration found themselves in quite a financial pickle after the state legislature capped property taxes as part of HB1001. The situation was made worse thanks to the previous council’s poor (unanimous) decision to cut the property tax levy without cutting spending. The new council attempted to remedy the situation by passing a retroactive property tax increase that was quickly shot down by the DLGF and called a “double cross” on taxpayers by the commissioner. What made the situation comical was that the city controller had told the council that in the city’s communications with the DLGF they felt like the DLGF would accept the retroactive increase - oops.
  5. $2.5 Million in 2009 Budget Cuts.
    Facing a massive shortfall over the next two years, mayor Henry proposed a flat budget but no cuts. In fact the mayor’s sole idea was to hope that the state legislature changed the law - something that is not going to happen. The mayor was also angling to increase the income tax but did not bother to suggest a single additional cut to his own flat budget. After weeks of discussion the city council was able cut $2.5 million from the city budget without cutting a single job. Getting any level of government to cut their expenditures is quite a chore. And changing the discussion from “what else can goverment do” to “what do citizens want” was quite a paradigm shift.
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We are not the only ones

Posted by John B. Kalb - 12/30/08 @ 7:46 pm

In investigating the funding sources for the last ten Class A new ballparks, it was found that the experience in Bowling Green, Ky. has been following ours in Fort Wayne:  go to www.bgdailynews.com, type in “baseball stadium”, click on “archives” and review what they have gone through since early 2008.  The “Hot Rods” were the Columbus, Georgia “Catfish” last year and were purchased and moved only after the city approved the $25 million bond issue to finance the ballpark in April, 2008.  Note that they also have begun ONLY the public-financed ballpark portion of their downtown redevelopment - the financing for their parking garage via another public bond issue fell through - the bonds didn’t sell.  Also, the private developers of a hotel, a retail center and housing,  have not been able to go forward on their plans due to lack of financing.   Sound familiar??  It looks like the only differences are they didn’t have an existing team or stadium and they were not able to sell bonds for the parking garage - probably because they didn’t have a Lincoln Life needing parking for their employees.

Will be looking at the other eight new ballparks as to how they were financed.

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County Council “Surprise”

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 12/30/08 @ 7:22 pm

I’m sure I’m not the only one bothered by this but since nobody else is willing to say it I suppose I will. I am sick and tired of seeing county council President Paul Moss talking about the reduction of the commissioners’ pay as some sort of surprise move that happened during the December 18 meeting. Here’s an example (but not the only case):

An accumulation of events over time sparked the idea, but the salary debate opened the door for discussion, said Moss, who was surprised how quickly the idea evolved at the council table.

Surprised? Really? The day before the meeting, word had already leaked out that “something big” was going to happen and the media had been alerted as well. So spare me the “surprise” - just be honest and admit that this was not some sort of organic snap decision made at the council table. The fix was already in before the meeting started.

And why the traditional media continues to let Moss’ “surprise” quotes go unchallenged is beyond me. They know damn well it wasn’t a surprise. I know this is sort of inside baseball but readers need to know when stories are being innaccurately portrayed.

And the idea that the commissioners’ salary was reduced on a whim and surprised council President Moss is a farce…

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Homeland Stupidity

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 12/29/08 @ 6:03 pm

I absolutely hate it when the government makes stupid rules.  They made another one a few months ago. 

Homeland Security has dictated to the post office that packages weighing more than 13 oz must be taken to the post office.  What a stupid rule…

Check out this post. 

You can get around this rule by going online and printing off a label.  This ends up costing you more in postage and you have to pay for it online and place a check mark next to an agreement stating that “I agree that I will present any items that are liquid, perishable, or potentially hazardous to a postal employee for acceptance and that all fragile items are properly pacakged.”

This was done in the last few months to protect us from terrorists.

Do you feel safer?

Give me a break.

Mike Sylvester

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Why the mortgage industry imploded

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 12/28/08 @ 12:42 pm

The mortgage industry is a complete mess because mortgage companies loaned money to people they should never have loaned money to.  I have posted about this many times over the last few months.  In my opinion there are three sets of people at fault for the mortgage meltdown:

  1. Politicians from BOTH major political parties have emphasized home ownership and have forced banks to make loans to people who they should have never loaned money to in the name of “fairness.”
  2. Mortgage companies and banks decided to make loans to people without verifying income, assets etc.
  3. Consumers borrowed more money they they could afford to borrow.  Sometimes these consumers lied in order to get loans they should never have been allowed to take out.

This article says it all.

Mike Sylvester

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Community Health Care Discussion Reminder

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 12/27/08 @ 8:00 am

From the press release:

HEALTH CARE COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
Monday, December 29, 2008 @ 7 PM at
the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse
5310 Old Mill Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46807

President-elect Barack Obama has asked all Americans to meet together to discuss the best ways to achieve quality, affordable health care for all.

The Northeast Indiana Chapter of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan will host the Health Care Community Discussion on Monday, December 29, 2008 @ 7 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse, 5310 Old Mill Road in Fort Wayne.

This is open to everyone in the community – please bring your ideas for change. Light refreshments will be served.

Also, if you feel drawn to do so, please bring a non-perishable item for a collection to be given to the Community Harvest Food Bank of Fort Wayne.

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