The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 62

D-2 Town Talk, Alexandria-Pineville. April 8, 1984 State's Low Cost Loans Program For Agribusiness Gaining Acceptance 1 -vs Cattlemen's Special Producer Sale April 18 The Rapides Parish Cattlemen's Association's annual Special Producer Sale is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. April 18 at W.H. Hodges Inc. livestock sale barn.

All classes of cattle will be accepted. Recognition will be given the producer consigning the most cattle, best pen of steers and best pen of heifers. All area producers are invited to participate. The sale will be in conjunction with the regular weekly sale. Radio Station Changes Hands OAKDALE Radio station KREH and KGBM-FM has been purchased by Ron Strother of Hammond and the call letters have been changed to KICR AM and FM.

Strother, an Oakdale native, bought the stations from Dr. George B. Mow- 'ft 1 u- Briefs ad, Oakdale mayor, according to Roxanne Foret station manager. KICR broadcasts AM from sunrise to sundown and dont allow participation by Production Credit Associations. Bills now pending in Congress would eliminate some of those restrictions, Millican said.

The five-member Finance Authority will meet April 24 to consider more bond issues, he said. Deadline for applications is April 19. Federal restrictions and paperwork are keeping many bankers from participating, Millican admitted. But he said, his office will help bankers with the forms and has top-flight legal advice on call at all times to "thread us through" the regulations. In addition, Millican can help bankers, especially those in small towns, participate through correspondent banks.

Stuart L. Goudeau of Practical Leasing Unlimited Systems Inc. said his firm can help package the financing so that bankers will participate who might not otherwise. It is important for small-town banks to participate in the bonding program to keep local farm money in the community and to retain their farm customers, he said. Goudeau has been working with the Finance Authority and area banks.

He asked Millican to come to Alexandria. Members of the Finance Au- Rotary Club. He said the authority approved 21 bonds totaling $6.3 million on March 29. The average interest rate on those loans was 9.48 percent Bond applications stated that the borrowers would have had to pay interest ranging from 12.2 to 15.5 percent, Millican said. The average borrower under the authority's bonding program saved 4.86 percent.

"That's a sizable savings when a combine and tractor can cost 150,000 to $175,000 or on an Irrigation system that costs from $50,000 to $400,000, depending on the size," he said. Among projects financed with the bonds are cotton warehouses planned for Alexandria and Tallu-lah, a sugar cane mill, cotton presses, a seafood processing plant and hew equipment Millican said he is talking with a who wants to finance a sausage processing plant "In the Winnsboro area, one of the most depressed areas in the state, a civic group is trying to put in a vegetable processing plant," Millican said. Regulations do not allow the Finance Authority to issue bonds for the purchase of land, except for first-time purchasers, or for buying used equipment They also By Bob Hansen Town Talk Staff Writer A state program which enables agribusiness people to obtain low-cost loans is slowly gaining acceptance, according to its director, "Most bankers are giving our program a good reception," said Frank Millican of Zachary, director of Louisiana Agricultural Finance Authority. "It depends a lot on the bank and its tax situation." The agency, created last year by the Legislature, can authorize the issuance of up to $150 million in tax-free bonds to finance agricultural projects. In March, it approved nearly $10 million.

Under the program, participating banks make loans at no more than 85 percent of the prime rate, if the project is approved by the Finance Authority. Banks exchange those loans for state-issued tax-free bonds. Participating banks are responsible for collecting the loans and get tax-free interest income from the bonds. Millican, who has worked for Production Credit Association and as a dairy farmer, was in Alexandria Friday to make business contacts for the program. He spoke to bankers in area communities and found them giving the program a "generally good reception." He also spoke to the South Alexandria' Frank Millican: State's low interest bond loan program for agriculture is being accepted.

thority besides Millican include Dr. Ernest Girard of Kaplan, George Yarbrough of Sicily Island, Lanny Philley of Bastrop and Lane Parnell of Shreveport. People Seeking Investment Counseling Have 2 Concerns FM from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Ms. Foret said.

No immediate format changes are planned. Ms. Foret said she and Gary Bailey, operations manager and morning man, were both moved to the station by Strother. Three other full-time employees work there. Strother recently sold WTGI-FM, Hammond.

In addition to the Oakdale station, he owns a station in Roswell, N.M. Guaranty Commerce Reports Income Net first-quarter income for Guaranty Commerce Corp. was $1,058,000 or 80 cents per share, compared to $1,041,000 of 79 cents in 1983. Return on average assets was 1.25 percent, up from 1.23 percent a year earlier. Return on average shareholder equity was 15.66 percent, compared to 17.4 percent in 1983, because of additional retained earnings.

The company showed a 15.7 percent increase in average loans. Average deposits were down 2 percent or $16 million, with deposits totaling $296,458,000 This decrease was due to a $31 million reduction in public funds deposits. Guaranty Commerce previously announced a 50 percent stock dividend payable May 1 and its intention to raise the quarterly cash payout by 12.5 percent effecive July 1. The firm is a one-bank holding company and the parent company of Guaranty Bank Trust Co. Floodplain Management is Goal LAKE CHARLES The Louisiana Floodplain Association has been organized to address the state's widespread flooding problems.

More than 50 representatives of governmental agencies, engineers and planners formed the group. Over 54 percent of Louisiana is subject to periodic flooding and more than 25 percent of all U.S. flood claims are paid in the state. The association will exchange ideas on reducing damage and drainage coordination so that adjacent communities won't be adversely affected. Albert Loftin of the Kisatchie-Delta Regional Planning and Development District, Alexandria, is district representative.

Anyone interested in the association or joining it can contact him through the district office, P.O. Box 8076, Alexandria, La. 71306, or telephone 487-5454. ii They just reinvest. The income keeps compounding and compounding.

When you sell the shares, it's taxed at a favorable long-term capital gains rate. It's taking ordinary dividend income, converting it to long-term capital gain. To me that's the best tax shelter in the world. Richard Sapersteln (Editor's Note: In this article, a financial counselor discusses an actual case representative of the problems faced by many Americans today.) By Gail Collins UPI Business Writer NEW YORK (UPI) People seek investment counseling for any number of reasons, but two concerns seem fairly universal fear of taxes and fear of inflation. "I've got people in the 25 percent tax bracket who are in municipal bonds," one financial planner said.

"Nobody seems to want to pay taxes." Gordon and Barbara, two New Yorkers, were fairly typical examples. Gordon, 46, earned $44,000 a year as a college professor. Barbara, 40, made $22,000 managing a Grandpa Never Had It So Good LAKE CHARLES (AP) Since videotapes didn't exist when the basic provisions of Louisiana's blue laws were written in 1886, it's legal to sell them on Sunday, says Attorney General William Guste. However, merchants cannot sell video recorders on Sunday because of the law's prohibition against selling "any household, Office or business appliance," Guste said. The opinion was sought by Assistant District Attorney Terry Manuel.

Guste said it was analagous to 1916-18 attorneys general opinions and a 1976 court decision, all -of which agreed that "if automobiles had been used at the time the law was enacted, garages would, as were livery stables, have been exempted." Louisiana's endangered livery stables are exempt from the state's blue laws because Sunday horse travel was considered necessary in the late 19th Century. But although neither cars nor automotive garages existed before the turn of the century, neither auto dealerships nor garages may do business on Sunday in Louisiana. 70-Year-Old Tennessee Man Tells His Story on 'How It Used to Be' concentrate on investments that produced high, but taxable yield, to balance out the rest of the portfolio while taking advantage of the IRA's deferred-tax benefits. They put $6,000 in a zero-coupon treasury- bond maturing in 1989, and the other $6,000 in what Saperstein called "my direct inflation hedge" a mutual fund consisting of stocks in gold and silver mining companies. Gordon and Barbara put $5,000 in a tax-managed trust fund, one of Saperstein's favorite investment recommendations.

The trust is set up like a corporation, and takes advantage of a law permitting corporations to receive dividend income 85 percent tax free. "They just reinvest. The income keeps compounding and compounding. When you' sell the shares, it's taxed at a favorable long-term capital gains rate. It's taking ordinary dividend income, converting it to long-term capital gain.

To me that's the best tax shelter in the world," he said. Congress, however, is considering a tax change that would eliminate the fund's tax advantages. Last week, as an "extra-precautionary move," Saperstein stopped recommending that new clients Invest in the trust By John Cunniff AP Business Analyst NEW YORK (AP) Ray Roehrick of Hixson, read a story about the rise of household debt and the stress it puts on American families, and with mixed puzzlement and disapproval he wrote a letter. "I am 70 years old and I do not understand 'household he said. "I and my two children, ages 44 and 46 and married, have never borrowed money or paid a cent of interest to anyone so far in our lives." He then related a story of how it used to be of how Americans tried to handle their finances before credit became a way of life, of how they accepted from life much less than is expected by people today.

"I started working in 1932 at 25 cents an hour," he continued. "Married in 1937 at $35 a week and paying $15 a month rent for a back-alley flat. "Saved $5,000 in 15 years and paid cash for an old house. Sold the house in 1964 for $17,500 and was trans-. ferred to Chattanooga from Chicago.

Bought a new house for the $17,500. Now it's worth $65,000. "Saved $1,200 to $3,000 when I bought all cars for cash by earning interest on the money in advance and having no finance charges. "Retired by Combustion Engineering Inc. after 30 years.

Salary at retirement in 1978 was $21,000 a year as senior electric engineer and plant engineer of the Chattanooga division. "Retired with no bills and $18,000 in credit union and 500 shares Combustion Engineering stock. Now six years later have 1,000 shares stock (split). "If one has a job there is no need ever to have 'household Those who do all live beyond their means." He explained more in a telephone conversation. "A lot of people born in 1913 were brought up that way, to do things yourself.

I never had car repair bills or house repairs bills. I did it all myself and got a better job done too. "I'd sell the cars with 140,000 or 150,000 miles on them and had no trouble at all with them. And I had no trouble selling them. One time I asked a big transmission company to look at my car and they said the transmission was shot and I'd have to spend $400 on it.

I drove it six more years before selling it I always sold my old cars. I never Roehrick said he got his education in electrical engineering at nights in Chicago, but didn't try to restrict himself to just that line of work. The country was in a massive depression. People couldn't be choosey. "When 1 began work in an elec trical repair shop in Chicago we didn't always have something electrical to repair, so we repaired the factory roof," he said.

"You couldn't do that today." Never, he said, did he feel he was scrimping on life. He helped pay for the education of his children, and he and his wife "have been to Mexico and the Caribbean four or five times." He does, he said, have a MasterCard, "but I never pay any interest on it I use it for convenience. I run up $1,000 or $2,000 and pay it off within 30 days." That's the way it used to be, said Roehrick. It paid off, he said, and it still does. "High interest rates have always helped me, I collect not pay.

Ever!" Some of the people he worked with practiced the same sort of thrift, lie said, and now have six-figure savings in certificates of deposit. In telling his story Roehrick made the old-style life sound it is," he said. boutique, but expected a promotion that would greatly increase her salary. The couple was in the 30 percent tax bracket and wanted to avoid going higher when their income rose. They also worried about inflation, a concern shared by their investment planner, Richard Saperstein.

"I can't tell a client to purchase a long-term bond if I believe interest rates are going up," said Saperstein of Janney Montgomery Scott, a New York investment firm. Gordon and Barbara had an investment portfolio, however, that contained mainly debt-oriented assets: $25,000 in certificates of deposit, $12,000 in money market funds, a $5,000 short-term municipal bond and a $12,000 stock portfolio. Like most personal finance advisers, Saperstein recommends keeping 2 to 3 months' living expenses in a liquid "emergency fund." With that in mind, he sug gested Gordon and Barbara keep $6,000 in their money market fund. He advised cashing in the CDs and municipal bonds when they matured, and moving that money, along with the rest of the money market funds, into more tax-advantaged investments. The stock portfolio should be increased to $20,000 and reorganized, Saperstein said.

"They had a very neglected portfolio, spread out over many issues. That meant they were paying high commission costs on a percentage basis." Saperstein recommended they concentrate on utility stocks "non-nuclear, exclusively" and take advantage of the law permitting their dividends to be reinvested without tax consequences. For new investments, Saperstein suggested the couple put $10,000 in an oil and gas income fund, with election to reinvest all proceeds. Unlike exploratory drilling tax shelters, which generate tax writeoffs but have unimpressive success ratios when it comes to profits, the income fund involves "proven reserves in the ground," Saperstein said. "It's a good inflation hedge and the income that's generated is tax-advantaged.

In the first five years roughly 85 percent is tax free." Saperstein also regarded the fund as a hedge against future en-" ergy cost explosions. "If we have, problems in the Mideast I want this in the portfolio," he said. The couple had $12,000 in IRAs. Saperstein recommended they CERTIFICATE 14 I 10.75 11.34 RATE ANNUAL YIELD Effective Thru: 4984 Minimum $500 Certificate is automatically renewable and rates are subject to change upon maturity. 'The effective annual yield is based on principal and interest remaining on deposit for one year at the stated rate Penalty for early withdrawal Area Businesses File Documents With State LoM Houreffim Moftaw Friday 9 AM 4 PM BATON ROUGE Central Louisiana businesses filed the following documents with the Louisiana secretary of state from March 14-26.

Charters Northwest Investments Broadmoor Shopping Center, Natchitoches, 10,000 shares. Vijahn 376 Windermere Alexandria, 500,000 shares. Oberlin Investors Louisiana Highway 26 West, Oberlin, shares. Marcantel Scrap Salvage 805 Tate Cove Road, Ville Platte, 100 shares. Weil Enterprises 1115 Sixth P.O.

Box 1591, Alexandria, 1,000 shares. PAC Repair Service 6628 Springhill Road, Pineville, 100 shares. Evangeline Health Fitness Club Raintree subdivision, Ville Platte, 500,000 shares. Bayou State Builders US Highway 165 at Daniels Road, Ball, 100 shares. Tylers Trucking Route 1, Box 338, Oakdale, Belgad 1115 Sixth Alex andria, 1,000 shares.

Zell's Gen'l. Mercantile Inc U.S. Highway 165, P.O. Box" 560, Pollock. Southern Aggregate U.S.

Highway 84 West, Jena, 1,000 shares. Tri Community Nursing Center 211-B S. CorieL Ville Platte, 500,000 shares. Charter Amendments James D. Davis Ltd.

(A Professional Law Alexandria, changed from Davis Stone Ltd. A Professional Law Corp. Crime Stoppers of Cenla Alexandria, changed from Alexandria Crime Stoppers Inc. Normand Terry and Associates DeRidder, changed from Beauregard Insurance Agency Inc: The Word Church of Oakdale Oakdale, changed from Oakdale Victory Tabernacle Church of Oakdale Inc. Repair Pineville, changed from LABCO of Louisiana Inc.

Dissolutions Newcomb's Pizza Parlor Alexandria, effective Nov. 30, 1982. Louisiana Savings 448 3251 4456485 448 0895 462 0311 335 1948 Alexandria Downtown Office Jackson Wilshire Office Pineville Office DeRidder Office Alien ParishOakdale Office.