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Show supplement to the National Enterprise U Banks Seek High Quality Loans With the availability of money easing, Utah bankers are actively seeking to expand their portfolios, but they are getting more selective in the loans they do make. Boyd Lindquist, a commercial loan officer of First Security Bank, said local banks are tied to the national trend. He said the going rate for commercial paper is 6.9 percent and the prime rate is 7 percent. (Since the interview with Lindquist, a number of for Utah Professionals Utahs unemployed prof- - engineers began last year and has been increasing steadily, He said demand for data processing professionals of all kinds has increased about 30 per cent within the last one and a half months. Where we placed maybe a dozen such the f,rSt Vhree PeP!e d" of this year, we placed another dozen just in the last month and a half, he said. He added his firm has placed more professionals this year than it has in the last couple of years. It looks like demand may double this year over last, he said. Lynn Stoker of Upgrade Associates agreed demand for essionals, technicians and managers are finding jobs. The number of Utah prof- essionals out of work declined by ten per cent between January and February, and by 15 percent between March nnh,fr!,'w0hfnfh0nSS ment of Employment Security, employment agenc- - ies specializing in placement of professionals report marked increase in demand for techni- cians and professionals in . and data pro- cessing fields since January, According to Dee Hall of STM Executive Recruiters, for natural resource enginee? and technicians in The unemployment rate in fields is ex- Utah has fallen to that of the energy-relate- d He added level. tremely strong. demand for territorial sales "Orders for durable for national representatives goods, such as metals, autocompanies has increased mobiles. trucks and machinabout 30 per cent this year ery, have been rising sharply over last year. and could stimulate local hiring in related industries, the IMPROVING PICTURE Department reported. Ken Jensen, Labor Spec-LocIt added manufacturers of ialist with the Department of durable goods have not yet bounced back from recessionEmployment Security, said Unemthe declining number of -related layoffs. jobless professionals is in ployment is still high in that line with our improving industry. But manufacturers of ployment picture. According to Department lighter durable goods have figures, the number of new been making very substan-tia- l jobs in Utah has been increas-dcman- d employment gains the Department reported. ing by about 20,000 a year. pre-recessi- on al Business Pays More Tax in Utah rose by $27 million, or 14.9 percent. All of this gain can be accounted for by new properties added to the tax rolls and by increased in exist- Slightly more than one half of all property taxes charged in Utah last year was paid by owners of business property according to the Utah Foundation, a private tax research organization. ing valuations under the state wide equalization program. In Total property taxes 1975, Cache, Weber, Davis, charged in Utah during 1975 and Grand Counties were amounted to $208,132-248- . revalued and increases in land The several classes of assessments were imposed in commercial and industrial Salt Lake County. Actually, property accounted for the overall average mill rate' in $104,231,646, or 50.1 percent the State declined for the of this total. Other major fourth consecutive year. included residential categories property - $77,344,613 (37.2 percent of the total), motor vehicles - five-yea- More than 60 percent of the property taxes collected in Utah is used for the support of local schools. Last year, school taxes levied in Utah totaled $126.5 million, or 60.8 In percent of the total. addition to the property tax, public schools receive all of the state individual and corporate income tax plus a substantial portion of the sales tax through transfers from the general fund. Continued on page 5b GengeCall Makes Predictions in Economic Base Study $12,893,653 percent), agricultural property $10,327,757 (5.0 percent), and miscellaneous Foundation analysts point out that the decline in the average mill rate does necessarily mean that there has been a reduction in the property taxes paid by many individuals and business concerns. In many instances, the reduction in the tax rate was more than offset by increases in property assessments. This is particularly true in the counties that were revalued r under the reappraisal program. (6.2 property-$3,334,67- 9 (1.6 percent). Part of the property taxes paid on motor vehicles and miscellaneous property represents-taxeon business and part represents taxes paid by individuals. The Foundation study notes that there is considerable variation among Utahs s 29 counties as to the source of property tax collections. Commercial property owners paid 88 percent oC all property taxes in San Juan County, 87 percent in Duchesne County, and 83 percent in Emery County. On the other hand, the proportion borne by commercial property amounted to only 22 percent in Wayne County and 25 percent in Rich County. Last year, property taxes demand, the report authors economic base study of the note. Salt Lake City market, Genge They also predicted beCall Engineering analyzed tween 1975 and 1985 Salt Lake potential for office space, City will need a total of 1850 hotel space and retail sales new hotel rooms. About retail sales the space. The report concluded of- report concluded The downfice space absorption in the town business district can It command a sufficient share of city has been excellent. sales activ-itit- y predicted that between 1975 population-base- d to absorb between and 1985, Salt Lake City will absorb 100,000 square feet of 239.000 and 907,000 square office space annually. feet of space used for departOver the past eight years, ment store sales. Eating and the report continued, the num- drinking space would call for ber of regularly occupied hotel an additional 48,000 and rooms has increased from 156.000 square feet respecA tively, the report continued. 2,886 to 4,045 annually. large share of this room-nigPOPULATION demand is attributable to the business person, who repreThe report predicted that sents between 40 and 50 percent of the average annual by 1980, 39 percent of the In the final report of an ht population will be less than 20 years old. 38.9 percent will be between 20 and 44 years old. By 1990, the report con- tinued, 36.5 percent of the countys population will be less than 20; 41.1 percent will be between 20 and 44. The report also studied Salt Lake as an employment site and travel site. Although Salt Lakes downtown area represents a small portion of the county (less than one percent of the countys surface area, it rep- resents the employment site for about 25 percent of the labor force, the report stated. commercial banks raised their prime rates by a major to 7 14 percent) This means, Lindquist said, larger accounts would go to commercial paper. However, Lindquist added, First Security would like to expand its commercial loan portfolio, but we are looking for quality credits. There have been losses with the REITS (real estate investment trusts) on long quarter-poin- term t credit, explained Lindquist, and now banks are more selective and seeking short term quality credits. Sherman G. Fuller, vice president and regional loan supervisor for Walker Bank & Trust, said his company is also looking for good quality loans to expand its portfolio. He said the trend nationally is for more term loans, because this reflects on the banks liquidity. QUALITY CONSCIOUS Commercial loan restrictions in Utah are not tighter, according to Fuller, but they may be with the larger eastern He explained the banks. REITS made many bankers more quality conscious. Fuller believes customers are fairly loyal. He added banks dont like split borrowing (when a borrower uses more than one bank for his major loans), They dont feel its a good practice. He said Walker Bank uses the guidelines of Robert Morris Associates to obtain the parameters of industry groups in making their commercial loans. For 1976 he said the high risk industries for credit are real estate subdividers and developers, REITS, single housing developers, and eating places. Gerald N. Randle, a loan specialist with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in Salt Lake, said 1976 will be the biggest year yet for loans made by the SBA in Utah. He said the SBAs share of loans granted to businesses in Utah will be over $40 million. One of the reasons for this, according to Randle, But, it continued, there has been a gradual erosion of the citys role as the center of could be that banks arc leary to make many long term loans. Banks are lending money for 60, 90, or 120 days, Randle administrativeheadquarters Continued on page 6b said; the SBA is lending for continued on page 5b |
