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Do You Own a Business? Own the
Property, Too
By
This article was published in the
May 22, 2008 edition of “Business Outlook”
(Albuquerque Journal).
As a second-generation entrepreneur, I believe that it is important to
own property.
I started learning these lessons watching my father, Harry Jew, who owned the
New Chinatown Restaurant - but not the land it occupied. My dad made hundreds of
thousands of dollars in payments on a loan he took out to tear down the old
restaurant and build a new one… on the property taxes… and all the upkeep on the
building. If he had owned the property, he would have built up hundreds of
thousands of dollars in equity over New Chinatown’s forty-plus years of
existence. Our family sold the business shortly after my father passed away.
My father’s life circumstances were very different from mine. He was an adopted
child who immigrated to America, by himself, from China, at the age 15, with
only $5 in his pocket. He felt very lucky to be here and to own a business.
Owning the land was not important to him; but I saw all that equity being thrown
away every month and decided that ownership was important to me.
Of course, ownership is not for everyone. But if you want to own property, here
are some helpful hints:
Historically, land has appreciated in Albuquerque at an annual rate of 6-7%.
While current economic conditions have flattened these figures, I have no doubt
that, over time, property (in the right area) will continue to appreciate. So if
you buy: remember that you can trade up if your business grows, and you will
have something tangible to pass on to your children.
We have received a firm purchase offer; the property is located in a stable
neighborhood and its value has increased considerably. Our biggest concern
now is the capital gains taxes (a good problem).
When I purchased property for our Eubank studio three years ago, the owner
helped finance the transaction by carrying the real estate contract. This
arrangement is advantageous to the seller, because by spreading out the
payments, he avoids high capital gains taxes.
These associations helped me obtain a second SBA-guaranteed loan to purchase
and renovate property in the heart of Corrales – which replaces the space I
was leasing on Coors for our West Side studio.
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No
Telephone Problem is Beyond Solution
By Clark Brooks
This article was published in the December 20, 2007 edition of “Business Outlook”
(Albuquerque Journal).
Your phone rings and you answer it. What could be easier? For decades, the basis
of telecommunication has been the same: effective, reliable communication
between businesses and their customers. Lately, though, the telecom industry has
been guilty of creating unnecessary issues by applying cutting-edge technology
to any problem, regardless of the fit. However with proper planning, these costs
and headaches can be avoided.
With the proliferation of high-speed data networks and their convergence with
telephone systems, many of the solutions that used to be “Oh-My-Gosh-expensive”
have become more cost effective. Many of these solutions can help your business
increase its efficiency AND bottom line. Here are a few scenarios that are
easily accomplished with today’s technology:
Designing a communication system should be a collaborative project involving you
(the user), your telecom vendor, and perhaps your IT manager. As details are
gathered, several options usually emerge and are presented for your approval.
Because widespread advances in modern technology have eliminated many of the
barriers to resolving communications problems, today we are primarily limited
only by our imagination and our ability to think outside the box while designing
your system.
Your communication system provider shouldn’t force a pre-determined solution on
you, but instead should ask you what problem you need solved and then offer
several suitable solutions. Now, wouldn’t that be a lot more fun?
Clark Brooks is President of Brooks Communication, Inc. He can be reached at
505 888-2929, or at
http://www.brookscommunication.com.
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Holistic Healing
Using goats in wild lands and urban areas will
add to the environment and reduce the risk of fire.
By Peter Holter, Executive Director, Holistic Management International
This guest column was published on the “Insight & Opinion” page of the
Albuquerque Tribune on November 29, 2007.
The millions of dollars in damages from the recent California wildfires -
including the Thanksgiving flare-up in Malibu - could have been reduced or even
eliminated if goats had been used to diminish the risks.
We have accumulated this evidence after 23 years of working on four continents
with stewards of large land holdings to heal damaged land, improve biodiversity
and food production and reverse desertification, which yields a “triple bottom
line” of sustainable environmental, economic, and social benefits. 30 million
acres worldwide are currently under Holistic Management.
Holistic Management® practitioners have used animals – especially
goats – to mitigate the risk of fire damage, especially in areas where urban
areas and wild lands meet. Goats reduce the natural “fuel ladder” – vegetation
less than eight feet in height that allow wildfires to rush up the trees and
into the canopies.”
Holistic Management® practitioner and rancher Bill Burrows, who
manages 40,000-acres in the western part of the Sacramento Valley near Red
Bluff, California, has learned from practical experience that these animals are
especially beneficial in California for three reasons: First: It’s very difficult to have prescribed burns because of strict air
pollution laws.
Animals, the only tool we have left, provide at least six benefits beyond
reducing unwanted biomass:
A 2004 Federal Emergency Management Administration report confirms that goats
effectively decrease hazardous ladder fuels and are an attractive alternative to
prescribed burns, because they do not produce slash piles that must be removed
or burned later.
Of course, we can’t just throw the goats on the land and hope for the best. A
grazing herd has to be managed so that the animals can systematically cover the
vulnerable area.
As it happens, federal and state grants are available for individuals and
municipalities to pay part of the expense of purchasing and using goats to clear
flammable vegetation. I myself once received a grant to obtain 500 goats to cut
a firebreak around a 239-home community in Northern California
While there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution to the increasing risk of wildfire
in the West, using animals to ameliorate the fire hazard costs significantly
less than the millions spent on fire suppression, and actually improves the land
so that it is less likely to suffer damage from future fires. Holistic Management International is an Albuquerque-based non-profit organization that works internationally with stewards of large land holdings to restore their lands to health and profitability.
Second: Mechanical methods are very expensive and cannot be used on steep
terrain.
Third: Chemicals are not acceptable to remove unwanted vegetation because we
have no idea of their long-range effect.
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Governor’s Recent News Release on Health Care Reform Recommendations: Inaccurate Statements and Proposing to Bind Us to a Failing Private Insurance System
By Max Bartlett
This op-ed piece was published in the Saturday, August 25, 2007 edition of the Albuquerque Journal.
The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign has strong concerns about statements in the Richardson Administration’s August 9th news release, “Governor and Legislative Leadership Receive Universal Health Coverage Policy Recommendations.”
The sub-headline in this news release, “Reform is Less Costly than the Status Quo,” would lead us to believe that any of the reform models that Mathematica Policy Research studied would be less costly than the current system. However, that is not what the study concluded.
The findings were that only one reform model currently costs less than the current system, and that model is the Health Security Act.
The press release also quoted Lt. Gov. Diane Denish as saying, “In the long run, making no change in the current health care system would be more costly than moving forward with some type of reform.”
We regret to note that the Lt. Gov.’s statement is also inaccurate.
Mathematica found that even after five years of operation, only the Health Security Act costs less than the current system, and the other reform models still cost more than the current system. In fact, by 2011, the Health Security Act has estimated savings of $698 to $887 million and every New Mexico resident has coverage.
Mathematica found that the Health Security Act costs the least and saves the most money because it covers most New Mexicans under one cooperative plan with comprehensive benefits. This model also shifts the role of the insurance companies to provide supplementary insurance, just as they did under the original Medicare.
We have to ask:
The Governor has stated that he wants the private insurance industry to maintain its dominant role in health insurance coverage.
The policy recommendations that the Governor sent to the Committee, and which the Committee’s proposals mirror to a great extent (including establishing a so-called health insurance authority), will not solve the problem of rising health care costs or simplify an extraordinarily complex health insurance system, and are meant to bind us to this failing system for years to come.
Continuing to invest public dollars in the broken private insurance system makes absolutely no sense. With the clear results of the Mathematica study now before us, we believe that New Mexico has an opportunity to choose one of two very different paths.
We can continue to try to fix the failed private insurance system with ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars, or we can go in a new direction. The Health Security Act, by establishing a cooperative health plan, enables New Mexicans – not the insurance companies - to develop a realistic, cost-effective and comprehensive solution to our health care crisis.
The path we take will have a serious impact on all New Mexicans. We are the ones who need to make that choice and communicate our views to the Governor and our legislators. Max Bartlett is Vice Chair of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign.
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Commentary: Grazing the grasslands could help the environment, economy
By Peter Holter, COO and CFO, Holistic Management International
This commentary was published
in the August 21, 2007 print and online editions of the
Albuquerque Tribune.
Recent news reports have told us that ethanol, now the “big player” in the
alternative fuels arena, is using up corn that would otherwise be fed to cattle,
dairy cows, swine, sheep and fowl. This means that the prices being paid for
corn are rising rapidly, and these increases in turn drive up the costs of foods
that we consume and of the livestock feeds that contain corn.
The news stories did not pose or answer questions about why livestock are
consuming corn-based feed in the first place. The answer would be that our
industrial livestock industry confines the animals to pens and barns; therefore,
they have to consume manufactured food.
It wasn’t always this way.
In the 19th century, animals grazed and were sustained on the Great Plains,
which were grasslands that covered almost 40% of North America. Only about 1% of
the original ecosystem exists today because it has been converted to agriculture
or is degraded and abandoned.
While the Great Plains did support millions of grazing animals and
pack-hunting predators that fed on the grazers, the grasslands remained healthy
because of the symbiotic and holistic relationship between the land and the
animals.
The presence of predators kept the grazing animals on the move; and their
hoof action worked the soil so that their manure was quickly absorbed. The
soil’s organic matter was increased, thereby fertilizing it and keeping it
healthy.
Would it be possible to return to a more “natural” way of raising livestock?
Our organization, Holistic Management International, has accumulated abundant
evidence - over 23 years of working internationally with farming and ranching
families - that this is actually possible. Today, 30 million acres around the
world (including the United States) are successfully cultivated using Holistic
Management.
To change the paradigm of how we raise livestock, we would have to be willing
to free up the acreage, grow the grass and restore the grasslands with the
animals present, and manage their grazing in such a way that replicates the
behavior of those wild grazers of yesteryear and permits enough time to elapse
for the roots of the plants to rest and recover.
If we could bring animals back to the land in a holistically managed way -
and restore the grasslands - then:
In the end, we would also improve our rural economies. Holistic Management International is an Albuquerque-based non-profit organization that works internationally with stewards of large land holdings to restore their lands to health and profitability.
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Letter
to the Editor
By Jane Blume
This letter was published in the August 2, 2007 edition of the Albuquerque Journal’s “Business Outlook” section.
Winthrop Quigley’s July 19th article, “Year’s work on a big problem not entirely wasted,” which referenced the Mathematica cost study of different universal health care models, omitted one important fact:
Mathematica, which conducted the study for Governor Richardson’s appointed task force, found that of all the models, the Health Security Act is the only one that saves money and everyone is covered.
The Health Security Act is the only model that costs less than the current system - both in the first year of operation and by 2011 - with $698 to $887 million in estimated savings. These findings are consistent with numerous other studies around the country and one in New Mexico in 1994.
After spending over $300,000 of taxpayers’ money on the Mathematica study, the Governor and his task force are ignoring the results and the strong public support for the Health Security Act – endorsed by 128 organizations and 25 New Mexico counties and municipalities.
The public has lost confidence in the private health insurance system; and the Health Security Act shifts the role of insurance companies to a secondary one, similar to their role under Medicare. However, the Governor continues to support a solution in which the insurance companies maintain their current status.
Intending to focus on covering the uninsured, he will introduce a bill in the 2008 30-day legislative session that creates an insurance “authority” to pool existing public plans, and require everyone to purchase insurance or sign up for Medicaid if they are eligible – with no cost controls.
With the clear and unambiguous results of the Mathematica study now before us, New Mexico has an opportunity to choose one of two very different paths:
We can continue to patch up the failed private insurance system with piecemeal efforts and taxpayer dollars.
Or, we can pass the Health Security Act, which enables us - not the insurance companies - to develop a realistic, cost-effective and comprehensive solution to our health care crisis.
Which path will we follow? The choice will have a serious impact on all New Mexicans; therefore, we should communicate our views to the Governor and our legislators.
Jane Blume, owner of Desert Sky Communications, is the media consultant to the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign.
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Health Security Act Proposes "Cooperative" Medical Plan
By Mary Feldblum, Executive Director, Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign
This article was published in the July 13-19, 2007 edition of New Mexico Business Weekly.
Would you continue investing in a product or service, year after year, that doesn’t deliver results? This is the situation we face with our health care system in New Mexico.
Premiums are rising… health insurance is increasingly unaffordable… employers, physicians, and the public are frustrated. 26% of New Mexico’s under-65 population is uninsured, despite years of trying to expand coverage.
We are at a crossroads: Do we continue investing public and private dollars in programs that subsidize a failed private insurance system? Or do we take a different path – one that shifts the role of private insurance, as Medicare did?
The New Mexico Health Security Act proposes a plan that changes the costly complex private insurance system, whose hundreds of policies negatively impact hospital and physician overhead. Instead, most New Mexicans would be in one simple, old-fashioned insurance pool – like a cooperative. This makes good economic sense because everyone who is covered shares the risk.
The plan guarantees freedom of choice of provider, even across state lines, and a comprehensive benefit package. As with Medicare, private insurers can offer supplemental insurance. Federal retirees and active-duty and retired military retain their health insurance. The tribes and entities that self-insure may choose to join once the plan becomes operational.
The Health Security Act is financed by combining existing taxpayer dollars already being spent on health care (e.g., Medicaid) with capped premiums from individuals and capped employer contributions. A three-year development period is required – with opportunities to call a halt if we find that the plan is unaffordable or unworkable before it is up and running.
Thousands of New Mexicans have had input into this homegrown plan. 128 organizations and 25 counties and cities have endorsed it.
The Health Security Act offers several advantages to businesses. Employers won’t spend time and money shopping around and evaluating different health plans. With guaranteed health coverage and a healthier work force, businesses will experience greater stability, lower employee absenteeism and higher productivity. Premiums will be reduced for workers compensation and auto insurance policies with large medical components.
Will placing most New Mexicans into one health risk pool stop the never-ending rise of health care costs? The answer, according to a recent study, is a definitive “yes.”
Last summer, Governor Richardson set up the Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee to select several models to achieve universal health coverage, hire a consultant to perform a cost analysis, and make recommendations.
The Health Security Act was one of three models selected. The other two, Health Choices (creating a voucher-based purchasing alliance) and Health Coverage (the current system with expanded Medicaid programs), mandate that all New Mexicans - including employers -purchase private insurance.
On June 21, Mathematica, the consultant, released the final results of its $350,000 study, confirming findings by other state and national studies, including one in New Mexico in 1994: a model like the Health Security Act is the most cost-effective approach and provides everyone with comprehensive coverage.
According to Mathematica, the Health Security Act is the only model that costs less than the current system in the first year of operation. By 2011, it is still the only model that costs less than the current system, with $700 to $900 million in estimated savings.
Prior to the study’s release, the Governor stated that he did not like any of the models. On June 21, his health policy adviser issued a statement saying that he doesn’t think the private health insurance system is broken. He wants to focus only on the uninsured, and plans to introduce an “omnibus bill” in the 2008, 30-day legislative session to create a health insurance “authority” to pool existing public plans along with Medicaid and to require the uninsured to purchase private health insurance or (if they are eligible) to sign up for Medicaid.
Continuing on the current path when the private insurance system is failing does not make sense. Moreover, the Governor is ignoring the results of the $350,000 taxpayer-funded study; disregarding the strong public support for the Health Security Act; and planning to use taxpayer dollars to help the uninsured pay for private insurance – with no cost control provisions. Offering additional policies creates more small insurance pools and even higher costs for hospitals and physicians – already overburdened with administering our complex system.
Isn’t it time to pay attention to the results of so many studies, which reveal that the private insurance system will not solve our health care crisis? Patching up this failed system with piecemeal efforts and taxpayer dollars simply has not worked.
The road we need to take is clearly marked.
The Health Security Act - designed by New Mexicans for New Mexicans - is the only approach that provides a realistic, cost-effective, comprehensive solution to our health care crisis. Now that’s a real solid investment!
The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign is a statewide coalition of 128 organizations and hundreds of individuals and businesses that support the Health Security Act. For more information, call the Campaign at 505-897-1803.
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