Manufacturers: Give your Input

Add comment September 19th, 2008

Manufacturers, take part in the process….

As you may be aware, the Board of Education has initiated its search for a superintendent of schools for the 2009/2010 school year.  To provide counsel to us in this important process, the board has retained the services of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, Ltd., a search firm that specializes in assisting boards with the identification and selection of superintendents.

 

A very important step in this process is the identification of the characteristics we will be seeking in a superintendent.  We invite you to participate in the identification of these characteristics by attending a Community Forum and/or completing the Leadership Profile Survey form on the www.rps205.com web site.

 

The seven Community Forums, which will be facilitated by a member of the consultant firm, will be held on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 8am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, and 7pm at the District Administration Building, 201 S. Madison,  rm #207,  Rockford, IL and also at 7pm Monday at Booker Washington Community Center (1005 S. Court)  and St. Elizabeth Community Center (1536 S. Main Street).

 

Please complete and bring the Leadership Profile Survey form to a Community Forum.  If you will be unable to attend a Forum, please see the Rockford Public Schools web site or mail/fax your completed form directly to the address/fax number indicated at the bottom of the form by October 1, 2008.

Manufacturing Outlook

Add comment September 19th, 2008

Here’s a link to the latest monthly report on manufacturing from the Federal Reserve of Chcago….
http://www.chicagofed.org/economic_research_and_data/files/cfmmi_july2008.pdf
I heard William Strauss from the Federal Reserve in Chicago give Boone County a review of the economy.  The meeting was open to the public and there must have been 50-60 people in attendance.  Although he covered various economic data and topics, he made a number of points about manufacturing:

1. Manufacturing output is slightly below similar period of 2007.

2. Manufacturing Output is at record levels.  Output may be down on those producers of consumer goods, but is up for those making equipment for industry.  Example cited was the large $10 million CAT truck.  CAT is also expanding their facilities for these vehicles and their backlog goes into year 2012!

3. Although Lite vehicle and lite truck sales are falling 11% and 19%, car sales are falling only 3%

4. Between Detroit Big 3 auto and the New Domestics (Honda, Toyota, etc) production in the U.S> from 1980 to now is about the same.

5. Buy America: Ford Mustang has a 70% U.S. content, Toyota Sienna has a 85% U.S. content.

6. While the Big 3 production and sales are declining over the past 28 years, U.S. made sales of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and the others is growing.

7. Productivity is key and recently it has been averaging twice the historical rate.

In all, what I heard didn’t make me want to jump out of the nearest high rise building.

Rockford Manufacturing in the Global Economy

Add comment September 19th, 2008

I attended today’s meeting sponsored by the Rockford Area Economic Development Corporation.  The speaker was Rebecca Steffenson from NIU and she reported on the Global Economy Survey that was conducted recently with a number of local manufacturing companies.  I completed the survey, so I wanted to know what the results were.  RAEDC will be posting the complete survey on their web site, but here are a few factoids:

1. The Rockford Metro area (Boone and Winnebago counties) exports $1.2 billion to international markets representing 2.3% of the state’s exports and ranks 106th in the U.S.

2. Size of the companies surveyed were 11.1% employed 10-20 workers; 35% employed 21-100  workers and 54% employed 100+ employees.

3. 77% of the companies surveyed export.

4. 42.1 of the companies had export sales of0-5% of their  sales; 31.6 of the companies had export sales of 6-15%of their total sales while 10.5% had exports   16-20% of their total sales.

There were many other charts and pieces of data explaining advantages and disadvantages to the Rockford location; how companies go about finding export business and other factors relating to this business.

An interesting survey with good information.  Check RAEDC’s web site to get the full story.

Corporate Taxes for Manufacturers

2 comments September 19th, 2008

So what’s the story about corporate taxes?  Are they too high or too low?  Compared to what?  How about compared to our our international competitors?  So I did a little investigation from internet sources and here’s what I found:

A corporation will pay anywhere from 25% to 39% income tax depending on their taxable income.  For example, if the income is $50-75,000 then the rate is 25%; if income is between $100-335,000, then the rate is 39% and drops to 35% if income is $18 million or more.

Then there is state taxes on corporations and in Illinois it’s a flat rate of 7.3%.

So for example, a small-medium manufacturer in the Rockford region making between $110-335,000 net income will pay 39% plus 7.3% or 46.3% of it’s income.

Don’t forget the Federal FICA rate on payrolls of 15.3% and State Unemployment Insurance of 3.4% of payroll.  This amounts to 18.7% taxes on your payroll in our region.

Of course, many corporations own their own buildings and property and guess what, they pay taxes on that as well, I won’t even hazard a guess on that one….

I won’t include sales taxes that individuals pay for goods they purchase; in Europe they call this VAT.

So for our example, the corporation pays 46.3% tax on its income and 18.7% tax on it’s payroll.

I looked at the data from Wikipedia and here are a few examples of countries that are competitors to us:

China: Corporate: 25%; Payroll: 0%

India: Corporate: 30-40%; Payroll: 0%

Germany: 29.8% (ave.); 0% Payroll

Mexico: Corporate: 29%: Payroll: 0%

Ireland: Corporate: 12.5%; Payroll: 16.75%

UK: Corporate: 21-28%; Payroll: 23.8% (National Insurance).

As Wikipedia advises, these are guidelines, but it does make you think:  should we raise taxes on corporations?

ACS High School Attendance Increases!

Add comment September 19th, 2008

I saw Superintendent Hernandez this morning and she said that the attendance has increased from the 46 when it was opened a few weeks ago to 52 students now.  She commented that students are already been energized by what they are learning.  So they are telling their friends and they are now signing up!

This is a great way for this school to increase in attendance.  When students get excited and spread the word, great things happen.

Principal Michael Cermak and the ACS/205 staff are doing a great job!  Keep it up!