The Village of Salado saw an increase of 18 percent in its April sales tax allocation from the Comptroller.
[Read more…] about Sales tax rebates to Village increase by 18%
The Village of Salado saw an increase of 18 percent in its April sales tax allocation from the Comptroller.
[Read more…] about Sales tax rebates to Village increase by 18%
By Tim Fleischer Editor-in-Chief
The Village of Salado Wastewater Impact Fee Study Committee at their April 12 meeting adopted the final report prepared by HDR Engineering, Inc. and recommended an Impact Fee of $3,750 per Living Unit Equivalent (LUE).
[Read more…] about Sewer Impact Fee committee recommends $3,750
The Village of Salado Board of Aldermen will conduct the first of two public hearings to consider the land use assumptions and capital improvements plan under which impact fees may be imposed for new or expanded services in certain areas for service received from the Village’s wastewater utility.
The first public hearing will be 6 p.m. May 29 at the Village of Salado Municipal Building, 301 N Stagecoach Rd.
Salado Village Voice put the following questions to the Mayoral and Aldermen candidates. Early voting begins on April 23.
Question 1: There have been preliminary discussions of a landowner giving property to the village that would serve as a small day-time only airport (operated by the municipality). The developer would retain the surrounding property to sell hangars/apartments to owners of small airplanes. All of the property, to include the hangars/apartments, would be annexed into the Village. Is this good or bad for the Village? Why? (200 words)
Question 2: What is your opinion on the future of The Sanctuary development and its impact on the Village? (300 words)
Question 3: What is your opinion on the maintenance, operation and use of Pace Park property? (250 words)
[Read more…] about Mayoral candidates on airport, Sanctuary, Pace Park
Salado Village Voice put the following questions to the Mayoral and Aldermen candidates. Early voting begins on April 23.
Question 1: There have been preliminary discussions of a landowner giving property to the village that would serve as a small day-time only airport (operated by the municipality). The developer would retain the surrounding property to sell hangars/apartments to owners of small airplanes. All of the property, to include the hangars/apartments, would be annexed into the Village. Is this good or bad for the Village? Why? (200 words)
Question 2: What is your opinion on the future of The Sanctuary development and its impact on the Village? (300 words)
Question 3: What is your opinion on the maintenance, operation and use of Pace Park property? (250 words)
[Read more…] about Aldermen candidates on airport, Sanctuary, Pace Park
Salado Village Voice put the following questions to the Mayoral and Aldermen candidates. Early voting begins on April 23.
QUESTION 1: Do we have adequate police protection? If not, what can be done to improve police protection? 150 words
QUESTION 2: Does Village government help or hinder economic development? Explain how you will address this if elected. 200 words
QUESTION 3: Does the Village adequately address its road infrastructure? Can this be improved? If so, how? 200 words
QUESTION 1. Yes, at this time we do have adequate police protection with the emphasis on adequate. The revitalized COPS (Citizens On Patrol Salado) consisting of volunteers is a vital part of this protection in checking area businesses security after hours.
QUESTION 2: Presently, the current village government does not have a plan for an effective economic development. Such a committee was recommended several years ago by Alderman Hans Fields and approved members from the village were in place to begin such development. However, it still waits for this board to place the needed impetus to jump start this program and begin to successfully attract more businesses to our community. Working with the city manager and board of aldermen, I will pursue implementing this program immediately.
QUESTION 3: Salado’s sorry road infrastructure pretty much speaks for itself.
Salado Plaza continues to deteriorate due to inadequate and inferior reconstruction done two-three years ago. We have depended on Bell County to do what few quality repairs that have been done to maintain a few select roads. We need competent companies that will provide quality resurfacing that will not need constant care such as fixing potholes that continuously need repair. Again, working with the city manager is a must in order to avoid a councilman making “qualified” decisions on what company to use.
QUESTION 1: Our officers have a great reputation and provide recognized support for our village and other law enforcement agencies. As your alderman, I would support our police department to continue this excellent service. Our community is seeing a slight increase in incidents that could be a result of the recent growth in our area. If elected, I would be proactive to keep our low crime rate. I have worked closely with law enforcement at Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston and can bring that experience to our village. As our tax base funding increases we can add additional patrol hours, support our Citizens on Patrol (COPS) program and provide the necessary training and certifications to our officers. As your alderman, I would bring my experience with law enforcement to work with the police department to plan how to address growth and continue to keep our community safe and secure.
QUESTION 2: Our Village has a goal of “Ensure that economic development opportunities are pursued in order to provide the Village with a solid fiscal outlook as future growth and development occurs” as established in principle 8 of the Village of Salado Texas Comprehensive Plan dated 2004. Our Village plan correctly remarks that our economic development is inherently tied to tourism. I will work to update the comprehensive plan to re-energize our tourism. If elected your alderman, I will ensure our Village of Salado has a stronger economic development program. We are in a great position to bring in additional small businesses to fuel our tourism economy by having direct access from the interstate, great businesses and additional capacity on the sewage system. We can also work harder to better our strong partnership with the Salado Chamber of Commerce. The key to healthy economic development is a master plan that provides control in our growth and ensure our village maintains our Salado heritage. If elected, I will use my 30+ years of experience in community planning, engineering, design and construction management to update our Comprehensive Plan and enhance our economic development.
QUESTION 3: Our village has in the past few years completed road improvements such as the overlay on Salado Plaza Road (behind the Ace Hardware store). These improvements were definitely needed and more improvements will be required on our other roads. If elected, I will bring my 30+ years of engineering and construction experience to the Board of Aldermen. I managed the construction of several road projects at many locations in Texas. I designed and managed the Fort Hood Main Gate sign project seen on many news outlets (when you see this sign on the news, remember to vote for me!) I hope to use this experience to create an annual road work plan resulting in the best use of our tax dollars to improve our roads. I can use my engineering experience in road construction and cost estimating to ensure our village receives the best price and construction quality. If elected, I can also bring my traffic control experience to assist with any growth – we will need to plan traffic patterns, road widths, curbs and guttering, traffic control signage and vehicle weight control. If elected, I will prefer NOT to have traffic signal lights in the Salado city limits.
QUESTION 1: I believe, given the budget afforded to the Village, with we are providing the best possible police protection we can afford. The response times to critical calls averages less than 3 minutes and non-critical calls less than 6 minutes. I am confident in the abilities of our officers in providing better than adequate protection. As the Village budget funds increase with time, I am certain due diligence will be given to continue to provide quality police services.
QUESTION 2: I believe the Village has been giving due-diligence to assisting economic development and is poising to provide better services with by updating and improving the Village of Salado Comprehensive Plan and a better Overlay District for the development along I-35, future growth on Main Street, and the entire Historic District. The insight of the citizens and the Village government in providing the waste water system will enhance and expedite economic growth for existing and future businesses. The Village is supportive of the Salado Chamber of Commerce and operates the Salado Tourism Bureau. The Board of Alderman and the Village Administrator encourage the two agencies to interact in creating and promoting events which will bring overnight tourists to Salado. This activity will enhance commerce which will increase revenue streams in both sales tax and hotel occupancy tax.
QUESTION 3: Much like the police protection issue, the Village in constrained in the allocation of funds designated to road maintenance. Under the leadership of Alderman McDougal, the Transportation Committee has done an excellent job partnering with Bell County to leverage the maximum quantity of road surface and the quality of work the Village can provide each year. We are a little over halfway through a five-year plan that was developed by the Transportation Committee and the BOA to address the roads most in need of attention. The plan is reviewed each year and priorities are changed as needed. The relationship with Bell County in providing labor at no charge to Salado has allowed the Village to purchase more materials and address much more surface area. There are roads that need attention today, but I am sure the prioritization process will work in addressing the need.
QUESTION 1: I believe we have adequate protection, however I do not feel we have adequate and equal application of the numerous laws. I feel a number of the laws are out dated, or overreach the American protection of our right to pursue happiness. If police make a choice as to what laws they will or will not enforce at a given time, then what is the point of having the law on the books?
QUESTION 2: The Village government is currently hindering economic growth because it is unable to promote itself and promote the businesses it is supposed to protect, nor does the Village have a current comprehensive business plan. The Village website also needs a massive overhaul. The government must over inform its population and over inform those whom we would like to attract to Salado. It is hard for the government to promote commerce if it cannot promote itself, nor have a current detailed plan to follow.
QUESTION 3: The government should have a detailed plan posted on its website showing the actual approved and signed contracts, which includes benchmarks for construction. Salado’s population deserves to have an easy to navigate website showing information such as road, benchmarks, and proposed completion dates. The population deserves to know if the benchmarks are not being met, and what is causing the delays.
QUESTION 1. I feel we have adequate and successful police protection, I feel our police department goes above and beyond to help in any way possible.
The best thing we can do is inspire these officers to stay here. In the near future we will loose good employees if they are not paid well for a job well done.
QUESTION 2: As mentioned in previous answers, I think that it is important to insure the right kind of growth for our Village. I am pro development and growth for the Village but I want to make sure that we enact and enforce restrictions to take our Village in the right direction. Remember we have a valuable historical district.
We need to be sure that we can make it easier for our small local businesses to survive.
QUESTION 3: I would like to see some additional road maintenance. I’m sure we have a long term plan in place for the Village and I think we need to put some attention to it.
Without a strong plan our Village might see things deteriorate. Our roads are one of our communities major assets and it might be a good idea to have a roadway professional assess the conditions in order to help us maintain this important asset.
Once again, Mark Zuckerberg is sorry.
The founder of Facebook, who has apologized for privacy breaches throughout much of his company’s existence, is back at it, on a much larger stage than ever before.
The Markets
The U.S. stock market, represented by the S&P 500 Stock Index (SPX), turned in a respectable 1.99 percent gain for the week, closing at 2656.30. That still leaves it down 0.65 percent year-to-date, but up an impressive 14.06 percent from this time last year. Early in the week and again on Friday the SPX dipped on trade-war tweets, but in the end, it was solid earnings reports from financial companies that saved the day (week). Another upbeat item was the rise in oil prices, which translates into higher expected earnings for energy companies.
U.S. Crude oil futures for May delivery hit $67.39, up 8.6 percent for the week as tensions escalated in the Middle East. Gold rose 0.84 percent for the week and is up 3 percent for one year at $1,348.60. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note resumed its slow rise to close at 2.825 percent in the mid-range of recent yields. As a side note, Bitcoin, the wunderkind of speculators at the end of last year as it rose to nearly $20,000 was down into the $6-7 thousand range for the week, having lost nearly 70 percent year to date.
The Economy
One of the indicators that an economy is rapidly growing and may be reaching its limits can be seen in the transportation industry. Currently, just about all the long-haul 18-wheelers that are available are filled and their drivers are pushing the legal limits of time behind the wheel. Trucking companies ordered 139,900 heavy-duty trucks in the first quarter, nearly double the number from last year according to analyst group FTR. The group also reported that trucking companies are seeing a substantial number of orders above that which they can carry and are starting to charge premium fees in some cases.
In the first quarter, the number of truckloads of freight ready to move rose 27 percent while the number of rigs available rose only 14 percent. The negative to this good news is that increased transportation costs tend to get passed along creating higher prices, which creates inflationary pressures. While the rigs are in short supply, the drivers are already at 100 percent utilization, up from 85 percent three months ago. To get more drivers, higher wages will be required. The economy has hit its first bottleneck. It is in the bottlenecks where inflationary forces are brewed.
That bottleneck contributed to a rise in core inflation to a 2.9 percent annualized rate in the first quarter as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Federal Reserve’s favorite measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE) is now running at an annual rate of about 2.5 percent. Since the Fed has a target inflation rate of 2 percent, interest rates are likely headed up to slow the economy. Meanwhile, producer prices rose at a 3.6 percent annualized rate in March after increasing 3 percent from this time last year; another indicator of building inflationary pressure.
In an odd twist of events, as we reported last week, the aluminum tariffs targeted at China actually reduced the price of aluminum, but aluminum prices then jumped about 25 percent and alumina, the raw material, rose 30 percent as the administration imposed trade sanctions on Rusal, the Russian company that supplies about 7 percent of the world’s aluminum and alumina.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced that the federal deficit will hit at least $1 trillion dollars starting in 2020. The forecast included a warning that the interest payments on that debt will exceed the Defense budget by 2023 and become larger than all federal discretionary spending by 2025. The CBO also predicted that the U.S. economy would likely grow 3.3 percent for 2018 but then decline to 2.4 percent in 2019 and average 1.7 percent in 2023 and later. It appears more and more that the 2017 tax cut bill will boost economic growth in 2018 while generating a rise in inflation, at the expense of higher debt and a slower economy in the follow-on years.
The bottom line continues to be that the economy is in excellent shape with corporate earnings on track to continued growth. In the short term, the wild card remains trade tariffs. If the President’s announced tariffs and China’s counter-tariffs go into effect, those earnings estimates will need to be recalculated and with them the potential market gains. Longer-term, the combination of increased federal spending and revenue reductions may take us into a slump in late 2019 and for 2020. Stay tuned.