Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Metro plans to build new bus facility - Denver Business Journal:

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The facility will house 114 Metro but if the land is fully up to 250 buses will be able to live The newbus facility, expected to be readyh as early as 2012, will be built at a site known as D.C. Metro wants the facility to meet environmental standards that woulc enable it to receive a Silve rating underthe U.S. Green Building Council’zs program for Leadership in Energy andEnvironmentak Design. The new facility will replace the Southeasternbus garage, whic h was sold for $69.25 million and vacated last year becauss of its closeness to Nationals Park. The land at D.C. situated at Shepherd Parkwayg and BluePlains Drive, was appraised at $8.0r million. The sale's $6.
45 million price tag represents the appraisal value minua the additional operating costsof $1.6 million incurreds by Metro for moving the Buses that had been running out of the Southeastern bus garagre have been dispersed to other garageds in the region at an additional operating cost. Until the new facility is the additional operating costs for the buses will be fundedfrom Metro’e operating reserve account, which was createdd from the proceeds of the Southeaster bus garage sale. The final sale of propertty must first be approved bythe D.C. which will consider it at a June2 meeting.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Business working behind scenes to shape health care reform - Business First of Columbus:

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President Obama has mobilized the grass-roots supporters that helped electy him to lobby for his vision of healtbcare reform, which includes offering Americans a government-run healthj plan as an alternative to privatre insurance. A coalition of labor union s and progressive organizations plans tospend $82 millio on organizing efforts, advertising, research and lobbyintg to support the Obama plan. Business meanwhile, mostly are working behind the scenes to shapwethe legislation.
Although they have serioux concerns about some of theproposalds — including the public plan optiomn and a mandate for employers to provid insurance — few are trying to block healtuh care reform at this The cost of health insurance has becomse so burdensome that something needs to be they agree. “Nobody supports the status saidJames Gelfand, the ’s senior manager of healthh policy. “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most business that means reining in health care costs and reforminfg insurance markets so that employers have more choices in the types ofplans available.
To achieve those goals, businesses might have to swallow some bitter An employer mandate tops the list of concernws for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintojn pushed his health care reform plan in the The Senate bill might include a provisioj that would require employers to either providew health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federall government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with including members of the MainStreey Alliance, which is part of the coalition lobbyinfg for the Obama “The way our system workxs now, where responsible employers offefr coverage and others don’t, leaves us in a situation with an unlevelo playing field,” 11 alliance members said in a statemenr submitted to the Senat Finance Committee.
“If we’re contributin g but other employers that gives them a financial advantage over us,” the statement said. “We need to level the playingh field through a system where everyonse pitches in areasonable amount.” But most business lobbyistx contend that employers who can afford to provide healthy insurance do so already because it helps them attrac t and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurances tend to be “marginally profitable,” said Denny senior research fellow at the NFIB Research Foundation. Imposinfg a “play-or-pay” insurance requirement on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.
6 milliojn jobs, according to a study. Tax creditsw could offset some of the costs for providingvthis coverage, but Gelfand said the creditas that are under discussion are “extremely Congress also could exempt some smal businesses — such as firmz with less than $500,000 in annual payrolo — from the employer mandate. But many business groupes see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningfu relief. “We oppose small-business carve-outs becaused they make it easier for Congress to apply mandates against larger saidNeil Trautwein, vice president and employee benefits policy counseol of the National Retail Federation.
“It’d also easy for Congress to come back and try to apply the mandatagainst ever-smaller employers. “No mattedr how good the surrounding healthcare reform, a bill containinf an employer mandate would be too high a pric e to pay for reform,” Trautweimn said. Public plan or marke t reforms?

Sunday, February 3, 2013

RealtyTrac: Fla. has third-highest foreclosure rate - South Florida Business Journal:

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Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessionas in Florida were all down from thepreviouws month, but the statse still posted 58,931 foreclosure filings, up 50 percent from May 2008. Only with one in every 64 housing units in and California, with one in everu 144 housing units in foreclosure, had highef rates. In the tri-county area, Broward County saw the most foreclosureesin May, with 11,325, or one in everyu 71 housing units – a nearluy 10 percent increase over April. Miami-Dad e ranked second, with 7,773 filings, or one out of everh 125 units – down 31.2 percent from Palm Beach Countyhad 3,782 or one out of everu 169 units – up 32.8 percenyt over April.
Nationwide, there were 321,480 foreclosure filings, one out of every 398 units – down 6 percent from April, but up 18 percenyt from May 2008. “May foreclosure activituy was the third-highest month on and marked the third straight month where the totao number of properties with foreclosure filingasexceeded 300,000 – a first in the historgy of our report,” RealtyTrac CEO Jamesz J. Saccacio said in a news release. Othee states with foreclosure rates ranking amongthe nation’es 10 highest were Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Idah o and Ohio.