Accounting News and Notes

To find out what the SBA (Small Business Administration) is doing in your area of town, you can get a full listing of closed loans be month at http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/smallbusiness/index.html This list is sorted by county, loan date, amount, bank/lender, name of borrower, address, and its NAICS/tax code for easy reference. Here you will be able to get at a glance a complete listing of SBA loans and activity in your area and throughout the state.

For business’s who do not fit a traditional banking relationship or that of an SBA lender you can see a list of Atlanta Venture Capitalist (VC) . The listing can be viewed at http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/extra/vc.html and includes the name of each VC, the year their business was established, their address, lending focus, total capital, preferred lending range, and list of sample funds/incubated companies. Although a VC will typically request a large amount of equity ownership many business opportunities are well suited to this type of lending.

For business’s who are not yet quite ready to go to market there business Incubators who will work alongside and with business owners to help develop their ideas and to mature their business plan. For a listing of Atlanta Incubators please visit http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/extra/incubators.html Including in this listing you will find the Incubators full name, address, phone, officers/partners, their industry focus, samples of prior clients, their size in terms of square footage, and the average length of past incubations (i.e., the time a business is served by the Incubator).

As Atlanta’s Drought worsens with no apparent end in sight, a day of reckoning is upon us. The drought is one of unprecedented proportions and extends throughout much of the Southeastern United States. Rainfall levels are well below normal and now with levels at both Lake Lanier and Alltoona well below normal it is time for all good men to come to the aid of our country and to protect this critical resource. As water in these two river basins provide most of the water to the Atlanta region and beyond, a fresh look is needed by outsiders who have no vested interest, no ax to grind, and only a people to protect.

Marina’s are being forced to close, landscaping business’s are going out of business, restaurants are concerned about their future ability to obtain water, and throughout the business and residential community people are concerned about their drinking waters availability and their very livelihood. Though much has been written about what to do about the present crisis, little has been done to change the processes and procedures which contributed to the drought in the first-place. From the outside looking in there is much which can be done to alleviate future water shortfalls but it takes planning, investment, a strong will, and determination. The status quo is not working and we need to take a determined look to change past policies and to positively look to the future. Though many of these steps will be difficult to implement their successful integration into our water resource protection and planning are critical to the regions long term success.

Of primary importance is to first establish that people are more important than any special interest groups. Though I am an avid supporter of protecting the beauty and nature of this world we have been given I do not believe the needs of downstream mussels outweigh the needs of an entire region, its farmers, and its people. No, I am not suggesting that we ignore the fisherman or the mussels but when special interests outweigh the needs of all it is obvious that our priorities are out of balance and should be re-evaluated.

We need to immediately begin the process of acquiring additional land for reservoirs. Not only would this tend to beautify our land but it would provide additional pockets of water which could be utilized to stem any future water shortage. If it is safe to do so and would not harm the overall integrity of our dams, full water levels of both Lake Lanier and Lake Alltoona should be raised to as to raise the capacities of water which could be stored.

It’s time to stop talking and start walking towards investing in the infrastructure and capital expenditures to immediately begin working on alternative fuel sources. Though nuclear energy has long been a political “hot potato”, our nuclear energy program needs to be brought up to speed and revitalized.

No longer should we look to future rainfalls to fill our lakes but we should look to protect the water that we have. Water releases, water restrictions, and water use of any type either for navigation or for the environment should be first evaluated in terms of water levels. Critical water management issues should not start when there is a crisis but before one occurs to hopefully avoid and critical shortages.

Water treatment plants such as the F. Wayne Hill, Water Resources Center, in Gwinnett County need to be built throughout the region. This plant recycles the water at a state of the art facility and then replenishes/dispenses the water back into Lake Lanier. Previous limits as established by the Environmental Protection Division should be re-evaluated first and foremost to be sure that water emissions from the plant are clean and then secondarily the levels of releases should be raised and maximized.

Water planning and its preservation are not for the faint of heart or those who are willing to bend on the issues. Water protection and its safeguards will necessitate a multi-prong approach and will never cease to be a critical component as the Atlanta region continues to grow. Act today; the future of you and your children depend on it.

If you are looking to invest in Georgia, consider looking into the Top 100 Georgia-based companies (based upon annual revenue). This is recap listing of Georgia public companies and recaps by company name, their “Ticker ID”, their current price, current dollar and percent change, the year to date change in stock value in terms of percentage, both their 52 week high and low price, as well as their P/E Ratio (which is the ratio of price to earnings). To visit this detailed list of Georgia’s Top 100 visit  http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/extra/100stocks.html Here you will find the a recap of companies from which you might begin to explore what stocks you might want to consider investment. I suggest that before you consider any financial investment of any type that you review a detailed prospectus as well as to retain the service of a Certified Financial Adviser to help you carefully evaluate each new investment in light of your overall financial objectives, the business and economic climate, its industry. Before investment of any considerable amount of monies you would also want to read up on the company by evaluating current news about the business, its latest audited financial report, and its overall track record over the last ten years of profitability and payment of dividends. After you have done all of your homework and have made a prudent evaluation; Happy Investing.

The Consumer Price Index is updated monthly to reflect changes in prices paid by urban consumers for goods, which is also generally regarded as the rate of inflation which rose .3% in October, 2007. At the Consumer Price Index web site www.bls.gov you can get a host of information about changes in the economy both nationally, regionally, as well as major cities and states. For overviews of the United States economy at a glance visit http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm On the web site you can also gain accessibility to some of the most widely utilized statistics are employment, productivity, price indexes, and compensation http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls both nationally and by state.

This information can be used to help business’s in their business planning, location assistance as one would be able to discover the unemployment rate in an specific area or nationally which is at present 4.7%. Salaries and changes are available both by occupation and by region. There is also and Inflation Calculator where you can key what an item cost in 1980 and then to determine what you would need to have in 2007 dollars to have the same buying power. Price changes include breakouts between soft and durable goods and other segments as well.

This web site is one you will want to refer to often to get up to date information about the U.S. economy as well as specific indexes for the areas near you as you make decisions about where to live, work, play, and even locate your business.

The IRS just announced that it is looking for 115,478 of taxpayers who are owed tax refunds totaling $110 million. Due to the IRS not having the correct addresses of taxpayers who had potentially recently moved/changed addresses, the checks were returned marked by the Postal Service as being undeliverable. The average refund check is approximately $950 and are claimable ASAP by the recipients who are due them. In fact, the IRS also announced that several taxpayers had more than one check waiting.

The IRS wants to give the money back to the taxpayers ASAP and is doing what it might to contact all concerned. If you think you might be one of these who is still missing your refund or you know someone who is, go to the IRS’s web-site at www.IRS.gov and utilize the “Where’s My Refund?” tool to check on the status of your refund. Here you can resolve most of the problems you/the IRS might be having in speeding your refund to you. Taxpayers can also assess the IRS regarding their refund by calling 1-800-829-1954.

FYI, the number of undeliverable refunds are relatively insignificant to the total of all refunds as the IRS processes nearly 105 million refunds totaling about $240 billion either by mail or direct deposit.

With the recent political instability in Pakistan, we are reminded how fragile our pursuit of world peace truly is. The Associated Press just reported that Sharif who had been previously exiled, was banned from political consideration when his nomination papers were rejected. Ever since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule one month ago Pakistan has been in the news as he has tightened his rule over the country.

Pakistan, a low income country with a sizable population of approximately 132 million has struggled since its independence from Britain on August 14, 1947 to gain status as a moderate income country. Although it is the ninth largest country in terms of population it is thirty second in land size with its population being packed in to a relatively confined area. At present approximately 90% of its petroleum is imported leaving it even more vulnerable to changes in the world economy. This economic reality has left Pakistan’s government unstable and has resulted in the recent firing of Supreme Court judges, a crackdown on freedom of the press, and imprisonment of critics.

No, the sky is not falling nor is the world coming to an end. But we are constantly reminded of the need to plan. For whether we are making plans for our lives, our government, the military, or our business/family finances we constantly need to be building into them contingency scenarios for what might befall us. As life is what happens while we are making plans so it is as well with governments and our world alike. But unrest, although it also brings uncertainty, is an opportunity for us to learn anew from the lessons of the past resolving to work together to make our world a better place for us all.