Having Park National Bank Here is Reason for Envy

"The bank can only be as strong as the community" is a quote attributed to Dan DeLawder in a story today.  It's a statement of a philosphy about PNB that is found not just in words but in actions.  It can be said in reverse too.

The story about Park National Bank Chairman and CEO DeLawder is a story about a company that's at the heart and soul of Licking County.  So the reverse can be true too:  Newark can only be as strong as its leading companies.

Newark and Licking County are fortunate that Park National Bank says what it says and does what it does right here. Other places, be envious.

Inflation

Doing a NewspaperARCHIVE.com search the other day, I encountered a story from July 1965 where my Dad's first job out of college made the news.  His monthly gross salary was included in the article--$525. 

He was paid just $6,300 a year?  Yikes.

Today, that monthly amount wouldn't pay for any one of my mortgage, three kids' Catholic school tuition, or car monthly payments.

I guess that's what 45 years of inflation does.

Simple Transaction?

I've been working on two transactions lately.  One should be real simple.  One should be real complex.

The hard one is a $4.76 million bond issuance under a little-used federal program created under the 2009 stimulus package called Recovery Zone Facility Bonds.  Few of these have been done in Ohio and, according to our legal counsel, when we closed today we closed on the first one ever done in Central Ohio. 

The hard one is done.

The simple one is shipping a bike. It's the simple one that I can't get closed.

My wife can't find a bike that she likes as well as the one she already owns but which sat in her mother's garage 1,000 miles away in Northern Minnesota.  I found a bike shop that would disassemble and box the bike then hold it for shipment at my expense.  The shop, though, doesn't have e-mail nor a shipping account so they want me to arrange for shipment.

Sunday, UPS customer service, in advance of having my mother-in-law bring the bike to the cycle shop, said I could arrange for a return shipment with UPS bringing the pre-paid label to the shop, affixing it to the box, and shipping it to me.

Yesterday, UPS said yes to that twice and then "no."  The no has me scrambling to get the now-boxed bike shipped.

I'm having to call the cycle shop owner on his cell phone to see if he can get to e-mail and print out a shipping label from me or what.

The simple is being made complex.
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UPDATE:   Devin at UPS Customer Service got this solved for me this evening.  Devin is fantastic, and I let his manager know too.  I appreciate it.

A Heads Up on Major, Hidden Federal Change on 1099's

I attend a monthly CEO meeting with Vistage.  I am always enlightened with a few tidbits of information.  Let me share one of those from today.

Hidden in the health care bill that passed in March was a provision that 1099's be issued for every purchaser over $600.  Heard about this?  I hadn't.

For some time, every business has had to request independent contractors or other non-corporations to provide a W-9 and send 1099's at year end.  Business also take responsibility for proper-reporting and face nastygrams from the IRS and, even, fines for something like a wrong address or being unable to find a vendor who moved or went out of business.

However, now its grown from a handful, percentage-wise, of the businesses with which we transact business to all of them.

For even a small shop like the Port Authority, this means a ten-fold or greater increase in paperwork.

Though one doesn't issue 1099's under these new rules until January 2012, the need to start assembling paperwork to comply begins with the first payments you make in 2011.  If you make a payment to someone and fail to get a W-9 from them, you may have trouble getting it after the fact.

I don't hate paperwork because of all the trees that will gasp their last breath because of this new law. I hate it because it's one more burden, one more thing that makes us uncompetitive against foreign competition, and more thing that could criminalize or penalize us and make big issues out of otherwise simple issues.

I, for one, look for and hope for a change to this.  See CNN's coverage online.  Time to repeal this part of the health care bill NOW.

Schedule M - Almost Missed It!

I was about to file my income tax return.  Just out of the blue one of my staff members mentioned "Schedule M."

I've never paid someone to do my taxes for me.  My taxes are, apparently, too complicated for the software programs.  The two times I tried them I couldn't get them to work right.  I proudly remind my oldest daughter every year that I even did my McDonald's manager's taxes for him when I was 17.

All my skill at doing my own taxes almost cost me.  I'm humbled.

I missed Schedule M.

Or almost missed it.

Here's a great article about the up to $800 credit that it means.

In a nutshell, this is it: Schedule M is our way to claim the $800 per couple tax credit in the stimulus package. The withholding tables were adjusted to "give" the credit but the tax tables in our IRS tax form instructions were adjusted to take it away, unless you file Schedule M.

I have tonight to get my tax form fixed and get that credit.   I'll still owe the treasury, but not as much now. Thanks, Dave!

Did you remember your Schedule M?

Taxes and Dinosaurs

The dinosaur is missing? Is it somewhere in the house or just lost forever? Extinct.

I took a four-day weekend to be with my family only to lose most of Day One doing my taxes.

By the time I "I-filed" (Ohio's name for filing state and school tax returns online) my last return, the kids were in bed.

In addition to the loss of a lot more cash I owe Uncle Sam, I lost valuable prayer and reading time.

And it took all morning to find that lost dinosaur. Of course, I prefer hunting for dinosaurs to doing my taxes any day.

A Good Old-Fashioned Bond-Burning Ceremony

It looks like we were grilling out back at the Port Authority offices in Heath.

Actually, this was a 10-second photo op while Port Authority Finance Manager Erin Grigsby and I ceremoniously burned the bond for our 2002 land purchase.  The bonds were issued to purchase property in 2002 that we call the South Campus of the Central Ohio Aerospace & Technology Center.

During the time that passed, we not only retired the debt on the land purchase but were able to construct new roadways and prepare the site for development with no additional debt.  Today, we have 250+ acres of "shovel ready" industrial property.