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Show 0qG-ll- -5 VIU 313 151-- C serials order tm, OF LIBRARY salt lakt city. ut. U SPECIAL U smis COLLECTIONS. Pinch has come to squeeze in Utah money markets by James M. Schutz Enterprise Staff Writer Has your banker told you there are no funds for second mortgage loans? Or perhaps, you discovered collection of accounts receivable has slowed considerably. Or maybe you were planning to expand, and suddenly Architects at work on enormous complex HOMCO Investment is one of four firms actively seeking to purchase the block north of the Building for construction of a series of a high-ris- e offices, Chitwood Mike to according of the Redevelopment Agency. Majority property owner of the block is an Auerbach family corporation and Fred Auerbach, who also has private holdings on the block, said he has not been contacted City-Coun- tv about selling. "Giving it up would simply be a matter of price,' he said. The family property is managed by Tracy Real EstaYe. HOMCO has already contracted Holland and Pasker Architects to do working drawings of the complex. Art Pasker said he had possession of renderings for the projects but referred (See COMPLEX, page 10) five-buildi- ng found your friendly banker scrutinizing your books very thoroughly. If any of these sounds familiar, or if you're suddenly paying exorbitant interest rates, welcome to the squeeze." At a price At least thats what most financial officers and bankers are calling it. A Squeeze" is not quite a crunch and it means credit is tight and hard to come by, but no impossible to get. Jerry Christensen, president of First Federal Savings & Loan thinks squeeze" is the right description. In a crunch, money is simply unavailable. In a squeeze, its hard to get for most people, but the money is available at a price." Most agree with Christensens assessment. But to the investor planning on a speculative land buy, it could be a crunch. Michael Holt, senior vice president at Walker Bank, said, We are trying to cut the amount of speculative land loans we make. Our reasoning being to help cool down this real estate price boom." But theres more to it than that. Neil Burt, vice president at Western Savings & Loan says the money shortage is so severe that Western has blacklisted certain categories of loans altogether. According to Burt, What weve done, and what most lenders I know are doing, is not offering loans on non-ow- - ner occupied property. Furthermore, we wont lend on duplexes and fourplexes even if they are owner occupied." d The single family house is not affected, says Burt, because of possible discrimination charges. First Federal assumes the same posture. Christensen said, We are not making any owner-occupie- (See SQUEEZE, page 8) County bond rating endangered? by Sheri Poe Enterprise Staff Writer not even cover inflation and would not meet the legislative intent of reevaluation. Johnson said Salt Lake Countys prestigious and profitable AAA bond rating could be in big trouble if residents rebel against property taxes in the states reevaluation program. Citizens groups like the South Central Citizens Council are already considering filing a class action suit against the state unless they can resolve problems with tax assessment officials. Those officials dont seem to think compromise is likely. Its difficult to measure what reaction well get," state tax commission valuation director Arthur Partridge Jr. said. We can only hope the people and the media keep informed on what this reevaluation hopes to do in equalizing the tax burden. Albert Johnson of the Citizens Council said his group 13,000 strong and with more was among the first than 700 active members to receive reevaluations and is already rebeling against the rise in taxes. Some taxes have risen as much as 300 percent, and Johnson feels young families and the elderly should not be expected to pay. He advocates a five percent ceiling on the rise of any property tax. But Partridge claims five percent would by Colby Smith Enterprise Staff Writer KWMS Radio is hoping more than $100,000 in new equipment and talent will boost the stations lagging ratings. At least those are the most visible changes at Salt Lakes only all news radio station since new management" took the reins. out-of-sta- New news for all news prescription for lagging ratings McGuinness VOLUME 7 NUMBER 49 te President and general manager Tex Williams seems to think new electronic and transmitter equipment, coupled with a new news personality are just what KWMS needs to reverse the southward ratings trend. Williams, who has been part owner of the radio station since 1975, when his family bought pop music station MONDAY, JUNE 5, 1978 his group may consider suing the state. The possibility of everyone rebeling and its ultimate effect on the county bond rating is a real one," Partridge said. We feel the mill levy should go down in proportion with the property tax, but that is out of our jurisdiction. We only hope any legal problems would be resolved before December. December? Thats when Salt Lake County must pay debts accrued at the beginning of the year to finance county operations until all taxes are collected. The payments must be made by Dec. 31, and should a suit be filed precluding payment, the delay could cost the county its AAA rating. Art Monson, county treasurer, explained the AAA rating is generally a full point below an AA rating in interest rates, so interest on $23 million for a AAA county would be about $300,000 less than interest on $23 million for a county with a AA rating. And thats money which could easily be used elsewhere, he said. Partridge said the fate of the county bonding rating rests partly with the Salt Lake media few complaints were heard when other counties were reevaluated, he said, but none of the other areas have such strong media - KNAK,took control last January. Since then, says one employee, there has been nearly complete staff turnover. This became a new station as of January," she added. A.M. anchor Bringing a leading LA. radio news announcer on board was one of Williams first moves. Patrick McGui-ness-- a broadcaster with many years experience as a radio personality and drive time take the stanews anchor-w- ill tions a.m. drive time anchor. He has worked for CBS, ABC and California stations KBIG KNX and KNXT at various times in his career. With ties already established in Utah, persuading him to take the iob was not difficult, he said. McGuiness has high hopes for KWMS, saying by the end of one year, the station might be the number three station in the valley. He feels the new ratings, which are due to be released in about a month, will reflect an improvement for KWMS and adds everything should be smoothed out in terms of completing new equipment, by early June. Williams a novice The key to successful broadcasting, according to McGuiness, is determining what your goals are and how soon you want to reach them. (Sec KWMS, page 6) 50 CENTS |