Main Street & The World...

It wasn't all that long ago that I wrote about the St. Francis Bank being acquired by a northern Illinois banking company called Mid-America followed by the take-over of Mid-America by Cleveland-based National City Bank.

National City Bank has had its problems, as have many banks, with poorly performing mortgage loan portfolios and its stock has been in the dumps for some time.  It received a $6 billion infusion of cash not long ago from a private equity group by the name of Corsair Capital.

We'll have a new bank, at least a new bank name, in our world.  National City Bank agreed yesterday to be purchased by the PNC Corporation which is based in Pittsburgh.  National City "agreed" under duress since the government had told it to either get itself acquired or fail.  The PNC purchase is expected to close by year-end, and is being financed by a government infusion of $7.7 billion, some $5.8 billion of which will go for this deal.  The Corsair Capital group squeaks through this deal whole since it had the sense to build some protective language into the deal it did earlier this year.  That begs the question of why you and me are always at risk when the big capital organizations can do 'sweetheart' deals.

I went through this 'dry' explanation of the change for the simple reason of reminding us of just how global is our economy and of just how much each of us has at stake in the world-wide financial problems now on the front pages.  The people whom I see when I bank are about to get their fourth set of bank 'logo' clothing before the first set ever showed signs of wearing out.  They are about to be "treated" to the need to learn another banking system and another banking language.  I hope they all remain in place because they do an excellent job at customer service!

Even though we live in Germantown, we can't hide from the world wide realities of economics.  We're subject to the ups and downs of the global stock exchange system as much as we are to the ups and downs of Wall Street because it is all inter-connected.  The 'futures' trading in Japan and China set the tone for the rest of the world as it awakens to another day.  OPEC makes our gasoline prices fluctuate when it decides to reduce production...except for yesterday when it dropped production 1.5 million barrels and saw the price go down by $4 per barrel instead of rising as it had expected.  Even the oil barons are flummoxed with the current 'goings-on'.  It isn't just hitting you and me, although admittedly we feel it more intensely since most of us don't have the luxury of big cash cushions.

Another thing this should remind us of is this:  our government makes decisions we don't know about until after the fact, and those decisions are often critical to our existence.  We are the ones who determine who leads that government as we will again in a week or so.  There are already discussions going on in Washington that would impact our individual 401Ks dramatically and that would see the money accumulated being used by our government as it sees fit with guarantees of interest made to those of us holding the account.

Those promises are only so good as our economy and are only so trustworthy as our government.  Let us not go down the pathway that Argentina is on where we permit nationalization of individual accounts.

Traffic Signals...

It looks as though the traffic signals in front of the new Sendik's Food Market should be in operation by the time of the store's Grand Opening on September 4th at 10:00AM.  The work seems to have been progressing very nicely.

That intersection appears to have become more dangerous even though the store is not yet open.  Likely the construction itself has caused much of that with restricted visibility once in awhile coupled with gawkers looking at the new lights, etc.

Having seen their advertisements for some of their other locations, I confess that I'm really excited to see our new shopping venue!  Of course, Pick 'n Save will get better, too, or it'll begin to slip in volume.

River Lane...

Similarly, it looks as though River Lane is about to be opened with the second layer of bituminous topping having gone down and the paint striping being completed.  If the traffic light work involved with that reconstruction is progressing at similar or faster rates, then opening day on Tuesday should be fine.

Hats off to the contractors and village officials for pushing both projects along so nicely.  Weather has certainly cooperated.

Waste Management...

I note that our garbage, normally picked up on Friday of each week has been picked up.  That would appear to indicate that the company has recovered, at least so far as Germantown is concerned, since it seemed to be at least a day or more behind as of yesterday afternoon.

On that same note, a special Village Board meeting has been called for Tuesday afternoon at 5:30PM with one of the latest agenda items to be added that of a discussion about the termination of the Waste Management contract which would permit retaining of Veolia as the replacement firm for Germantown.  I understand this was added at the direction of President Kempinski.

I detected no hint of this during my visit yesterday with President Kempinski who told me that he had talked with Veolia but mentioned nothing of any intent to pursue this action in that conversation.

I may have my facts incorrect, and trust that I'll be corrected if that is the case, but I believe the village's agreement with Waste Management requires a period of five days during which garbage hasn't been picked up before the village has the ability to terminate the agreement.

Harley Visitors...

Our guests from all over the globe seem to be having a great time, and have been very nice visitors.  Fortunately it seems that most drivers have adopted extra courtesies and vigilence...and maybe just a little more patience.

All in all, we seem to be headed for another tremendously successful Harley Davidson Anniversary celebration.  I've not seen any estimates of the economic impact for the area but it has to be in the multiple millions of dollars.

News reports indicate that Village President Tom Kempinski is considering asking the Board to approve a referendum that would appear on either the September ballot or the November ballot.  This referendum would deal with just how Germantown voters desire to fund some $2,000,000 per year in road repairs, if they desire to do so.  The choices apparently would be borrowing, increasing property taxes or a combination of both or none.

The referendum could be advisory or binding in nature.  Obviously, if advisory, the Board would then decide what, if any action it would take, but it would do so with some idea of the public's mood.  If binding, the results would stand as the electorate decided at least until the Board was reconstituted or until the Board found some other approach to achieve the end if that were possible.

If property taxes were increased by $2,000,000 annually, the increase in village taxes over 2008 would be some 20.5% without consideration for any other line item increases in the village budget. It is unrealistic to assume that all other expenses will remain constant.  If the amount were to be borrowed, the debt service would be part of the tax increase each year so that both the amount spent each year plus interest would be added to the tax bills over a number of years.

The village's portion of our total tax bill in 2008 was 24.52%; that share would climb to 30.67% if all other taxing units remained at 2008 levels which, unfortunately, is very unlikely.  The actual increase in total property taxes due to the village's portion of the total could be something in the range of 1% to 2% I would suspect.

Use of a referendum will please some people and anger others.  Some will say that this gives the voter the direct voice on specific items that they otherwise lack in representative government.  Others will say the referendum gives the Board a place to hide; still others will say that there should be no referendum.

There are several questions that come to mind about which you may wish to make your views known:

1.  Do we need $2 million worth of road repair every year?  For how many years?

2.  What portion of the village's road surfaces need to be repaired today? 

3.  Have past Boards avoided their responsibilities and not funded road repairs properly?

4.  Is a referendum a good idea or is it a convenient tool for a Board that doesn't wish to stake out a position that may be very unpopular?

5.  If this referendum appears on the ballot, what impact will that have on any issue the School Board may advance at the same time?

6.  If we are to see a referendum, should it be simply an advisory referendum or should it bind the Board to a specific direction?

What think you G'town?