|
Business at a Glance for Aug. 2, 2009
Staff Report
Published August 2, 2009
Waste Management
HOUSTON (AP) — Waste Management, the nation’s largest trash hauler, said Thursday its second-quarter profit fell sharply due largely to a continuing drop in recycling prices.
Net income was $247 million, or 50 cents per share, down 22 percent from $318 million, or 64 cents per share, last year.
Results included 2 cents per share for restructuring charges and the Houston-based company’s withdrawal from a pension. Earnings would otherwise have been 52 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn 54 cents per share on revenue of $3.02 billion.
Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 fell 15 percent, to $2.95 billion from $3.49 billion a year ago.
Waste Management said it expects to earn between $1.95 per share and $1.99 per share this year. That falls shy of the $2.02 per share analysts are expecting.
CEO David P. Steiner said the company expects the rate of volume declines in the second half of 2009 to be consistent with the second quarter.
Waste Management said it will resume share repurchases, saying markets have stabilized and its cash flow and balance sheet are strong. The company, which suspended buybacks in July 2008, said it has authority to spend up to $400 million during the remainder of the year.
The recession has taken a toll on Waste Management as businesses have cut back on garbage removal and less construction site debris is hauled away because building activity has fallen. The company also has been hurt by a deterioration in the market for recycled materials as some paper manufacturers use less of that product in their pulping process.
Steiner said conditions are improving, however, and the company expects to see “more modest” negative year-over-year impacts from recycling in the second half of the year.
Paris Golf & Country Club
The Paris Golf and Country Club Board of Directors announces the hiring of Rogelio Reyna as Executive Chef. Chef Rojo, as he prefers to be called, began his job at the Paris club in mid-July.
Chef Rojo has 28 years of experience working in country clubs in Texas and Florida. He served as Executive Chef at Eagles Bluff Country Club, Lake Jovita Country Club and Resort, Oak Cliff Country Club, and Bent Tree Country Club.
Chef Rojo offers evening specials on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in addition to the new omelet station during the Sunday buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A new lunch and dinner menu will be available soon. For more information about upcoming PG&CC events, call Jana Smallwood, club manager, at 903-785-1755.
Texas college tuition
fund going broke
AUSTIN(AP) — The program offered a deal to Texas parents with young children: prepay when Junior is small and you won’t have to worry about the cost of tuition at a Texas university, even as rates climb. But with the rapidly rising cost of college, the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan is going broke.
Comptroller Susan Combs, whose office administers the fund, said the plans are guaranteed by the state, so parents who enrolled in the program will get their children’s tuition bills paid. But the fund, covering tuition and fees for about 119,000 children, is going broke and will require as much as $2.1 billion in taxpayer money to stay solvent.
The tuition plan was offered between 1996 and 2003. In 1997, voters approved a plan to guarantee the fund with the state’s credit.
The fund was suspended when the state Legislature allowed universities to set their own tuition rates, making it hard to predict what it would cost to fund a future education. Since 2003, tuition costs have jumped dramatically and the fund will run out of money between 2015 and 2017.
A newer — much costlier — prepaid tuition plan created in 2007 is administered by an investment firm, not the state.
Combs said regardless of the costs, the state will have to cover the shortfall in the tuition fund, which was called the Texas Tomorrow Fund when it was created.
“The taxpayers of Texas voted this in, and the taxpayers of Texas have obligated themselves to pay this out over time,” Combs said. “You can’t pull a California and send (parents) an IOU. You have a hole, and you must get a shovel and start filling in.”
The state will have to completely pay tuition and fees of children who have contracts with the fund for the next 15 to 20 years, Combs said.
Mark Hurley, a Dallas accountant who advises Combs on the plan, said the fund could run out of money sooner than 2015 if inflation or another stock market plummet plunders the fund.
John Sharp, the comptroller in 1995 when the fund was created, said there was no problem with the plan at the time. Actuaries set the price based on costs and investment earnings. Sharp, now a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said the price could have been adjusted over time as tuition costs rose and the stock market fluctuated.
The cost of a four-year college plan for a newborn in 1996 was about $10,500. It rose to about $17,500 in 2003.
By comparison, the cost of the new program created in 2007 is much higher, about $39,400 for an infant, and the investments are not guaranteed by the state.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter
|
|
 |
|
|
