Tag Archives: Economy

NAU study: Post-wildfire flooding to cost hundreds of millions

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FLAGSTAFF — The Coconino County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation from the Northern Arizona University (NAU) Alliance Bank Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on the economic impact of post wildfire flooding to the City of Williams resulting from a wildfire on Bill Williams Mountain.

The EPI study, commissioned by the Coconino County Flood Control District, estimates that the economic impact from a catastrophic wildfire and the post-wildfire flooding in the Bill Williams Mountain watershed (City of Williams and downstream) is between $379 million and $694 million. The estimated cost of forest restoration on Bill Williams Mountain is approximately $8 million.

The response to a fire would incur immediate expenses, including suppression, post-fire rehabilitation, evacuation and repair costs. Long-term impacts of a catastrophic fire include the loss of sales tax revenue, tourist revenue, business revenue, and repair costs to railroads, highways and facilities.

Last year, a study conducted by J.E. Fuller Hydrology and Geomorphology, at the direction of the County’s Flood Control District, recommended the development of a pre-disaster plan to identify ways to reduce the impacts of flooding. The City of Williams is working with the County to develop the plan and secure funding.

The Bill Williams Mountain Watershed is located south and uphill from The City of Williams’ cultural, tourist, retail, residential and governmental core. The watershed is heavily used for outdoor recreation including a ski area, residential housing and summer camps. It is also unnaturally dense with ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests and characterized by steep slopes, making this area vulnerable to an intense catastrophic wildfire and post-wildfire flooding.

Due to increasing fire danger with warmer and dryer weather conditions in the immediate forecast, the Kaibab National Forest closed the Bill Williams Mountain watershed area last week until the area receives significant precipitation.

Study: Atlantic Coast Energy Development Will Create 280,000 Jobs

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Bloomberg_Offshore_CA_659px

CRS_oilgas_chart_659pxOffshore energy production has been declining for years. Bad policies have made 86% of the U.S. coast off-limits to safe development. That has inhibited job creation and economic growth, but better policies can reverse this.

A new study, produced by Quest Offshore for the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), finds that opening the Atlantic outer continental shelf (OCS) to oil and natural gas exploration will add $23.5 billion annually to the economy by 2035 and create 280,000 jobs.

Read more at Free Enterprise

Don’t Believe The Debt Ceiling Hype:

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The Federal Government Can Survive Without An Increase

Jeffrey Dorfman, Forbes

Ignore what you hear and read in the news. The federal government actually reached the legal debt ceiling about four months ago. Since then, the government has been financing its monthly budget deficit by stealing/borrowing money from other government funds, like the federal government employees’ pension fund. In about two weeks, the government will run out of tricks to keep operating as if nothing has happened. If the debt ceiling is not raised by then, the government has to balance its budget.

That’s right. As much as the politicians and news media have tried to convince you that the world will end without a debt ceiling increase, it is simply not true. The federal debt ceiling sets a legal limit for how much money the federal government can borrow. In other words, it places an upper limit on the national debt. It is like the credit limit on the government’s gold card.

Read more at Forbes

Furniture Maker Hailed As U.S. Job Creator Closes

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LINCOLNTON, N.C. (AP) — A start-up North Carolina furniture company once celebrated as a sign of America’s manufacturing rebound has closed, a year after its head was hosted by President Barack Obama.

Lincolnton Furniture Company was silent Friday, a day after shutting down. President Bruce Cochrane and other company officers did not return messages to The Associated Press.

Company financial officer Ben Causey said manufacturing operations were stopped indefinitely because orders were insufficient. He told The Charlotte Observer that only a few people would remain employed and the next steps were uncertain.

Source: Manufacturing.net

Despite Tax Increase, California State Revenues in Freefall

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California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.

Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.

Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: “California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”

State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state’s $6 billion annual tax increase, with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year. State Controller John Chiang reported:

November’s disappointing revenues stand in stark contrast to recent news that California is leading the nation in job growth, has significantly improved its cash liquidity to pay bills, and even long-distressed home values are starting to inch upward… This serves as a sobering reminder that, while the economy is expanding, it is doing so at a slow and uneven pace that will require the State to exercise care and discipline in how its fiscal affairs are managed in the coming year.

The improved “cash liquidity” Chiang referred to turns out to be $24.9 billion of debt.

Read more at BreitBart News