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The governing board of the Maricopa Community Colleges is considering raising primary property taxes, which support about 60 percent of the district's operational budget.

Board members will vote on the increase June 10 at a public hearing. If approved, the tax would become $77.09 a year on a $100,000 home, which would total about $6.8 million for the community college district. Without the increase, the tax will amount to $75.58 a year on a $100,000 home.

MCC officials say the additional revenue is needed to pay for increased expenses to support the 235,000 students at its 10 colleges and two skill centers. Needs include student scholarships, a public safety initiative, and a new student retention and persistence program.

Money also is needed for operating support for new buildings developed under the 2004 voter-approved capital program payday loan online payday loans. Last year, as construction costs skyrocketed, the district found itself running short on funding for the buildings approved by that initiative. It began looking for ways to be more cost-effective in building, including forging public/private partnerships.

In each of the past six years, the district's primary tax rate has declined. Any increase would become effective July 1.

The meeting is set for 6 p.m. June 10 at the district office, 2411 W. 14th St., Tempe.

For more: 480-731-8889.

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Argentina's farmers will stop selling crops and livestock until next week in the third protest in two months over export taxes, after the government canceled talks.

Farmers will start withholding newly harvested corn and soybeans today, and livestock producers will stop sending cattle to slaughterhouses tomorrow, Mario Llambias, president of the Argentine Rural Confederation, said yesterday at a press conference in Buenos Aires. The sales disruptions are slated to end June 2, he said.

Protesters will also prevent trucks carrying grain to export terminals and disrupt domestic livestock and meat shipments, Llambias said. Blockades in March led to food shortages and increased consumer prices. The government called off talks May 26, a day after farm leaders threatened new protests during a rally by more than 300,000 supporters in the port town of Rosario, 300 kilometers (188 miles) north of Buenos Aires.

“We wouldn't be restarting this new protest if the government was willing to solve the problem,'' Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, said yesterday.

Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez said he canceled the meeting May 26 because farmers were trying to “impose'' their agenda instead of negotiate.

Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter behind the U.S. and Brazil and is second only to the U.S. for corn.

Increased Taxes

The tax system announced March 11 levies soybeans and sunflower seeds at more than 40 percent, depending on market prices, compared with a previous fixed rate of 35 percent. The top tax rate is 95 percent.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, whose public support has plunged during the dispute, has defended the increased export tax. She says it will curtail inflation and allow the government to redistribute wealth to poorer regions and people.

The ruling Peronist party, headed by President Fernandez's husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, yesterday called the farm protest “anti-democratic.'' The party said in a statement that it supports the government's economic policies.

“We have had a lot of patience,'' Alfredo De Angeli, president of the Agrarian Federation in the province of Entre Rios, said in an interview with Todo Noticias television channel fastcash payday loan. “We thought that after the rally with 300,000 people the President would reconsider her decision and would be willing to dialogue, but it didn't happen.''

Failed Negotiations

Farmers began their protests after the new tax system was announced in March. They suspended their first protests on April 2 to clear the way for talks with the government. When that failed to produce an agreement, the demonstrations resumed May 8, with farmers blocking only shipments of grains and oilseeds headed for export markets.

The second protest ended on May 21, again to revive talks, which stalled the following day.

In March, the 21-day blockades led to food shortages and increases in consumer prices. The National Statistics Institute said that prices rose 1.1 percent in March from the previous month, compared with a 0.5 percent increase in February.

Doubts about the institute's consumer-price index arose in January 2007 when agency personnel were replaced to “improve operations,'' according to then President Kirchner. Economists including Claudio Mauro at M&S Consultores said prices rose 4 percent in March.

“They are proud of causing shortages and don't care if they make food prices more expensive,'' said Jorge Capitanich, governor of the northern province of Chaco, reading from a statement by the ruling Peronist party yesterday. “It's surprising that under these conditions they want to go to a negotiation table.''

Declining Popularity

There's no risk of food shortages because slaughterhouses are fully supplied to meet domestic demand until the end of the protests on June 2, Llambias said yesterday.

The dispute has eroded the president's popularity, according to a survey released by Poliarquia Consultores last week. Fernandez's positive standing dropped to 26 percent in May from 47 percent in March, while her negative rating rose to 34 percent from 19 percent in the same period, Poliarquia said.

Kirchner on May 23 called the polls that show a decline in her popularity “fake.''

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Consumers are too tapped out to lead the economy out of its troubles, according to a report on household credit released Wednesday.

And even after things turn around, consumers weighed down by debt won’t be able to spend as they did in the past.

Americans have little money on hand and banks aren’t eager to lend anymore, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody’s Economy.com, which compiled the quarterly outlook report with Equifax. Consumers had the lowest percentage of unspent cash in the first quarter of 2008 since fall 1991, the report found.

Sluggish consumer spending power means that the recovery may be a little slower and less vigorous, leaving it to corporations to spur the economy.

It will also take years for consumers to straighten out their household budgets since their debt burdens are near record highs. Americans put 14.3% of their disposable income toward debt in the first quarter, near the record 14.5% reached at the end of 2006. By comparison, the rate was 12.3% in 2000.

"Consumers just don’t have the cash right now that they had a few years ago," said Hoyt, who expects the recovery to begin in the second half of 2008 faxless payday loans quick payday loan. "This obviously impacts their ability to spend, their confidence, their ability to service their debt and it’s going to continue even as the economy recovers."

Before the 1980s, consumer spending made up about 63% of the nation’s gross domestic product, a key measure of the economy. Since then, it has grown to about 70% as Americans took on more debt to fuel their buying habits.

Going forward, consumer spending will likely drift back to about 67% of GDP, Hoyt said. Americans simply can’t sustain a near-zero savings rate and an ever-growing debt load.

"That’s over and done with," he said.

Are you buried under a pile of debt and need help getting out? Did you recently manage to pull yourself out of debt and want to share your story? Tell us about your experience with debt and how the current credit crisis is affecting you. Send us your photos and videos, or email us to share your story. 

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South African economic growth probably eased to the slowest pace in more than four years last quarter after an electricity shortage forced mines and factories to shut and higher interest rates crimped spending.

Gross domestic product rose an annualized 2.5 percent in the three months through March, down from 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Statistics South Africa will publish the data at 11:30 a.m. in Pretoria tomorrow.

Eskom Holdings Ltd., the state-owned power utility, ran short of electricity supply in January, forcing Anglo Platinum Holdings Ltd., the world's largest producer of the metal, and other miners to close their South African mines for five days. That compounded a slowdown in economic growth already underway as four interest rate increases last year cut spending on cars and furniture.

“The electricity debacle had a big impact,'' said Elize Kruger, an economist at Thebe Financial Services Ltd. in Johannesburg. “The number is going to look very bad because for the past few years we've gotten used to growth rates of 4 percent or higher. Growth is going to trend lower, given that we are probably going to have more interest rate hikes.''

Africa's biggest economy has expanded by more than 4 percent every quarter in the past three years and will probably grow 3.3 percent this year, down from 5.1 percent in 2007, Kruger said.

Higher interest rates, the electricity shortage and a possible recession in the U.S. are undermining government goals to boost growth to 6 percent by 2010 and cut the unemployment rate to 14 percent by 2014, from 23 percent currently.

`Battered'

“Industries were left battered by the energy crisis,'' Danelee van Dyk, an economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa's biggest lender, said in a note to clients. “It will largely be up to the broader services industry to uplift what may potentially be the weakest quarterly growth rate since 2003.''

Mining probably fell an annualized 25 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, Kruger said, after dropping 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter. Manufacturing, the second-largest industry in the economy, shrank 1 percent, Kruger estimated, compared to an 8.2 percent expansion in the fourth quarter payday advance cheap payday loans.

Manufacturers, such as ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., Africa's largest steelmaker, were asked to reduce power consumption last quarter, crimping output, while Eskom's scheduled power outages to cities shut restaurants and shops.

Industry Breakdown

“It's a sudden, abrupt slowdown in the economy, and the electricity crisis was the shock,'' Kruger said. “The slowdown would've been less severe without the electricity impact.''

Eskom, which supplies 95 percent of the country's power, lacks generating capacity after the government delayed its plan to expand. The power shortage will probably last for seven years, according to the utility, while it spends 343 billion rand ($$44.8 billion) to build new power plants.

The Reserve Bank increased its benchmark interest rate by 2 percentage points to 11 percent in the second half of last year as inflation stayed above the 3 percent to 6 percent target range. The rate was raised by a half point in April, while central bank Governor Tito Mboweni has indicated that further rate increases are on the cards.

Retail sales fell an annual 1.7 percent in March, the first drop in three months, after expanding 2.9 percent in February, the statistics office said on May 14. Vehicle sales dropped 2.8 percent in April, an industry body said on May 6, while house- price inflation slowed to an annual 6.8 percent in April, the lowest in 8 1/2 years, according to Absa Group Ltd., the country's biggest mortgage lender.

“We are going to see more interest rate hikes this year,'' said Russell Lamberti, an economist at Econometrix Treasury Management in Johannesburg. “The outlook isn't good.''

Construction, which expanded an annualized 14 percent in the fourth quarter, probably helped to offset a drop in output in other industries in the fourth quarter, Lamberti said. Government spending of 568 billion rand over the next three years on power plants, railways and stadiums in preparation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, has benefited construction.

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A former executive with sports company Nike Inc. is opening a new front in the battle over the $545 million hockey equipment industry: the fight to corner the odour-free equipment market.

John Collins, a onetime senior executive with Nike’s hockey division, this fall will relaunch Winnwell Hockey, an idle equipment brand that was once endorsed by Hockey Night in Canada celebrity and former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry.

The Winnwell brand, which will be sold at Canadian Tire Corp. stores starting in late August, will feature an enzyme Collins says will kill the nasty odours that are the hallmark of any well-used bag of hockey equipment.

"The enzyme reacts to moisture so the wetter the equipment gets, the more the enzyme will kick in and kill the bacteria that causes the odour," Collins says. "It’s the best innovation in the hockey business since the one-piece graphite hockey stick. That was the last thing that really moved the needle."

During a recent presentation to Canadian Tire executives, Collins says he highlighted the enzyme’s effectiveness by using it to eliminate the potent smell of fox urine from a rag.

Winnwell will face competition from Fury Hockey, an equipment division of Crocs Inc., the company that makes a range of popular flexible and lightweight shoes cash advance loans us fast cash. Endorsed by former NHL player Keith Primeau, Fury Hockey last year launched a line of equipment it said contained antimicrobials to help battle odours.

Collins says the Winnwell products are different.

"The antimicrobials are basically masking agents; they don’t get rid of the smell."

A Crocs spokesperson declined to comment.

Collins says he commissioned research that shows female consumers are willing to pay as much as 20 per cent more for equipment that didn’t stink.

The Winnwell products will have various price points, Collins says, adding the company is considering hiring an NHL player to endorse the product.

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Correction at bottom of article

The National Credit Union Administration on Thursday selected Patelco Credit Union to absorb Cal State 9 Credit Union, which was taken into receivership by the credit union regulator at the end of last year.

Patelco was one of three large credit unions that had made takeover offers to regulators. The Golden 1 Credit Union, based in Sacramento, had also been in the running to take over the $339 million-asset Cal State 9 easy payday loan http://us-no-fax-payday-loans.com.

Cal State 9, which lost $46 million on adjustable-rate mortgages that went bad in the first nine months of 2007, was taken over by the California Department of Financial Institutions and the NCUA in November.

The regulators were seeking a merger partner for the nearly failed institution.

Patelco, based in San Francisco, will now get Cal State 9's 29,000 members, its branches in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Pleasant Hill and its headquarters is in Concord.

Patelco, with $4.1 billion in assets, has more than 242,000 members and 39 locations, including seven in the Sacramento area.

Correction:An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect number for the membership of Cal State 9 Credit Union.