Archive

By: Fernando Capablanca In the last few years, most have shown slow but measured and steady growth.Many community banks have demonstrated great success in trending their local markets. Unlike their national counterparts, locally owned and managed banks are, by nature, more entrenched in their communities. An in-depth understanding of the changing factors that drive local economies has allowed these financial institutions to emerge as the brokers of the new New Deal.

By: Russell A. Glotfelty There are important reasons to implement an office art program in the face of adversity.It’s no secret that all non-necessity items such as that expensive company car, office expansions and employee bonuses are on the line in today’s trying financial times. So, naturally, the thought process would add office art on the not “to do” list.

By: Sheila M. Anderson If you are a taxpayer, do you know if your VAB is independent, objective and lawful?In 1990, the United States Supreme Court held in McKesson Corp. v. Florida Alcohol & Tobacco Div that: The due process clause is only satisfied where the states provide taxpayers with a fair opportunity to challenge the accuracy and legal validity of their tax assessments and where the system also provides a clear remedy for erroneous or unlawful assessments.

By: Mike Melhorn Regardless of your security approach, what steps have you taken to manage these programs for success?Let’s see if I can make this column positive and spare us all a rehash of the economic difficulties we face today and tomorrow. I do not have a crystal ball nor do you, but a very wise, experienced and successful business person told me last month that he feels our current economic situation is not based on what happened last year, five years ago or even 10. He feels we are now “paying for” for the last few decades. Gosh, I hope he is wrong! Enough about economics, as this column is focused on security. However, economics do play a major part in security.

By: Larry Thornberry Thanks to the condition of the national and local economies, no one has any idea what ’09 will bring.This is the edition, the first of the year, where it’s traditional to write a column based on asking people across the Florida development industry what they think the New Year will bring. But thanks to the condition of the national and local economies, no one has any idea what ’09 will bring. Not even the people who think they do (maybe especially the people who think they do). It would be cruel and unusual to ask that question.

By: Robert Pitts Debt is dumb, and cash is king!Well, I’m back in school again. Have been for the past eight weeks or so. But the class I’m taking has nothing to do with commercial real estate - at least directly. Instead, it has more to do with life - and money. I’m enrolled in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, a 13-week program designed to help people get control of their financial lives through time-tested principles of budgeting and self-discipline.