Dear Dave,
I’m trying to pay off my credit card and get out of debt. Do you think I should transfer the balance to one with a lower interest rate while I do this? Kelsey
Dave Ramsey
Dear Kelsey,
I’m not against this idea, as long as you understand that you’re not really accomplishing much. All you’re doing is moving money around, and maybe saving a tiny bit on interest. If you were planning on keeping the debt around for 30 years it would become a big deal. But if you’re talking about a few months, just until you get it paid off, it’s not that much money.
The problem with balance transfers is that you feel like you took a big step forward when you really didn’t. Lots of times this causes people to lose focus on other things they can do to get out of debt, like picking up an extra job or selling a bunch a crap they don’t want or need. That kind of stuff, along with living on rice and beans and a strict written budget, is 98 percent of the battle when it comes to getting out of debt! —Dave
Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
Phillipsburg resident Frederick Lagergren passed away at his home on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the age of 95.
He was born Sept. 28, 1918 in Randall, KS, the son of William & Mary (Wellman) Lagergren. He worked for the USDA Soil Conservation Service for 35 years.
His wives, Beulah and Josephine, and a granddaughter, Amanda Munoz, preceded him in death.
Survivors include his son, Ralph, of Wichita; daughters, Joan Bowman of Phillipsburg and Nancy Greuter of Wharton, NJ; six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a sister, Rosella Damon of Mankato.
Funeral services will be held Wed., Feb. 19, at 10:30 a.m. in the Presbyterian Church, Phillipsburg, with Pastor Chris Davis officiating. A graveside service will follow at 2:00 p.m. in the Mt. Hope Cemetery, Mankato, KS, with military honors by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Visitation will be today from 5 – 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. at the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with the family receiving friends Tues. evening from 7-8 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Westview Homes “bench fund,” the ALS Association, or Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of arrangements.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — At least 10 times since 2008, freight trains hauling oil across North America have derailed and spilled significant quantities of crude. Most of the accidents have touched off fires or catastrophic explosions.
The derailments released a total of almost 3 million gallons of oil, and the deadliest wreck killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
Those findings are from an Associated Press review of U.S. and Canadian accident records. They underscore a lesser-known danger of America’s oil boom, which is changing the global energy balance but raising urgent safety questions closer to home.
Adding to the danger is the unusually high volatility of the light, sweet crude from the fast-growing Bakken oil patch in Montana and North Dakota, where many of the oil-hauling trains originate.
There’s a new pastime among Kansas Statehouse insiders—we’re calling it “ReFresh Friday.”
Huh?
Yes, it’s the act of hitting the refresh button on your computer to see whether the Kansas Supreme Court has issued at about 9:30 a.m. on any Friday, along with its other decisions, the Gannon v. Kansas school finance case decision.
Because the 9:30 a.m. release time is not precise (that’s why you have to ReFresh the court website frequently, and we figured the odd capitalization might give someone an idea for a T-shirt plus ReFresh Friday makes a nice companion day to Throwback Thursday, the day you post old photos on social media), you hit the button over and over again to check.
Catching the first glimpse of the decision that might order the state to spend upwards of $440 million on school finance is something that will carry bragging rights…no matter which way the decision goes.
A decision that the state has under-funded its support for K-12 education sets off a battle between the Legislature, the governor and the courts over who is responsible for financing education and whether the court can order the state to actually pay a judgment handed down by the court. It gets into tricky constitutional law, whether the Supreme Court can order the Legislature to make an appropriation.
A “no-harm, no-foul” ruling? A possibility, too.
But the legislative anxiety over the decision—and being the first to know it—has apparently spurred a couple of bills that target the Kansas Supreme Court and specifically its Chief Justice Lawton Nuss for a trim of his authority.
One of those bills flatly orders that no court in Kansas can spend any money on hiring lobbyists. Not a lot of court-hired lobbyists around the Statehouse, lobbying, for, say, nicer robes, or maybe softer chairs, but it’s a little tug on the leash for the Kansas judiciary.
Another takes from the chief justice the authority to designate the chief judge of each of the state’s 31 judicial districts. That’s a little perk of being chief justice, designating the district court chiefs. The bill would have the judges in each district vote among themselves for the job of being in charge, and making an extra $1,000 a year.
The bill would also have the 14-member Court of Appeals elect its own chief judge—just another diminution of the chief justice’s authority that might lead to some interesting little campaigns that the general public will never hear about.
And, of course there are the resolutions that would let the governor choose his own Supreme Court justices without any nomination commission in the way…and another that would elect those justices.
Oh, and did we mention that the Supreme Court needs a little extra money in its budget to avoid furloughs for its non-judge staff?
Makes you wonder how hard some legislators are hitting that ReFresh button, doesn’t it?
Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.
The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of 12 head of black and black/white faced cows. The cows weigh between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds. They are bred and could calve any day.
They have a “WF” brand on the right hip, with a red ear tag in the right ear with the initials “DW” on the front of the tag and a phone number on the back. The theft occurred sometime during the night of Feb. 11 from a pasture in the northwest part of Pratt County.
Anyone with information on this theft is asked to call the Pratt County Sheriff’s Office at (620) 672-4133. Tips also can be made to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at (785) 296-8200 or by going to the KBI website.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas are competing for law school students.
Missouri-Kansas City’s law school has provided in-state undergraduate tuition for most Kansas residents for four years. Now, the KU School of Law is responding.
The Kansas school will use a new scholarship program to allow residents of 11 Missouri counties to pay the equivalent of in-state tuition — $19,623 a year instead of $33,067 for out-of-state students.
Missouri-Kansas City’s law school does not formally waive out-of-state tuition but nearly all of those students get in-state tuition rates.
The competition is partly because fewer students are enrolling in law schools. The Kansas City Star reported 68 percent of schools accredited by the American Bar Association reported lower first-year enrollment in 2013.
JUNCTION CITY — Jill Docking, candidate for lieutenant governor, candidate Democrat said her concern for Kansas is the “experiment” implemented by Gov. Sam Brownback that drastically changed the tax structure in Kansas.
Jill Docking
During a Junction City visit Saturday, she said Kansas had a three-legged stool form of balanced tax structure — property, income and sales taxes, but the governor has pushed the reduction of income taxes.
“We have a three-legged stool that has traditionally, over the last 80 years, been a very balanced tax structure that has allowed us to be fair to Kansas, in addition to fund things that we all think are so important like educating our children and roads and quality of life in the state of Kansas,” Docking said.
Docking added she fears the current experiment, which she said has essentially eliminated one source of funding, will be dangerous to the state over the next decade.
Docking is the running mate for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis.
The Hays USD 489 Board of Education will meet in regular session at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Rockwell Administration Center.
The agenda includes:
• Consideration of contract extensions for central office administrators through the 2014-15 school year.
• A presentation from teachers from the Hays High School science department on a December trip to the National Science Teachers Association meeting in Denver.
• Approval of the 2014-15 school calendar.
• Consideration of the negotiated agreement for 2013-16 between the district and local Service Employees International Union.
• Consideration of a board self-evaluation tool offered by the Kansas Association of School Boards.
A complete agenda, with supporting documents, can be viewed HERE.
PRATT – Kansas landowner/producers can receive sign-up incentives and payments for implementing grassland conservation practices that benefit lesser prairie-chickens.
The application deadline to enroll land in the Lesser-prairie Chicken Conservation Program is Feb. 28, according to the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Landowner/producers with land in the lesser prairie-chicken range are eligible to apply, and those who are accepted will receive payments for implementing conservation practices such as mechanical brush removal, prescribed grazing, and establishment and management of planted native grass stands. Only producers not currently enrolled in federal farm bill programs are eligible to apply for five- and 10-year contract options.
Applications will be ranked by the WAFWA based on their value to lesser prairie-chickens. Accepted landowner/producers located in the high-priority locations can receive payments of up to 125 percent of the estimated cost of implementing the conservation plan. If the species becomes federally listed, participating producers will be exempt from the take prohibition of the Endangered Species Act if the take occurs while implementing the practices prescribed in their conservation plan. Interested landowner/producers should contact the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism’s Region 1 office in Hays, (785) 628-8614 for more information and enrollment application forms.
The WAFWA consists of 23 state and provincial wildlife agencies that have primary responsibility and authority for protecting and managing fish and wildlife in the western United States and Canada. Member agencies in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado worked through the WAFWA over the last two years to produce the Lesser-prairie Chicken Range-wide Conservation Plan as a means to preclude a federal listing of the species under the ESA. On October 23, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endorsed the RWP as “a comprehensive conservation plan that reflects sound conservation design and strategy that, when implemented, will provide a net conservation benefit to the lesser prairie-chicken.” To date, the RWP is the only plan that has been endorsed by the USFWS and is the only pathway that has the potential to lead to a not warranted final decision. The amount of voluntary enrollment in the RWP will likely weigh heavily into the final listing decision that must be announced by the end of March.
In 2014, we will decide if America continues to march toward global energy leadership or remains content to play a supporting role in the global energy market. We can erase what for decades has been America’s greatest economic vulnerability – our dependence on energy sources from other continents, particularly from less stable and friendly nations – and fundamentally alter the geopolitical landscape for decades to come, all while providing a much needed boost to our economy. But only if we get our energy policy right.
Ed Cross, KIOGA
Today, thanks to the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of America’s independent oil and natural gas industry, our nation has the potential to free ourselves of foreign energy dependence. Implementing smart, pro-growth energy policies will help to ensure that future Americans only know their country as an energy leader.
Later this year, we will choose who will lead us in Washington, D.C. Those choices will have a lasting and profound impact on the direction of our nation’s energy policy. The collective decisions of the 2014 voters will shape whether and the extent to which our nation fulfills its potential as an energy superpower.
Energy is fundamental to our society, and thanks to American innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, our nation stands among the world’s leader in energy production and is poised to be THE leader if we get American energy policy right. The question we have before us now is whether we have the vision and wisdom to take full advantage of our vast energy resources.
The energy policy choices we make today are among the most important and far reaching policy decisions we will make in the 21st century. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape, realign, and reorder the world’s energy market and improve domestic prosperity to an unprecedented degree. But only if we get our nation’s energy policy right today.
If we are to continue our nation’s current positive energy trends, we must implement energy policies based on current reality and our potential as an energy leader, not political ideologies or the wishes of professional environmental groups.
American energy policy should reflect the reality that someone will benefit from helping meet the world’s ever-growing need for energy. Because energy, specifically oil and natural gas, will remain foundational to our way of life.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 25 years from now, oil and natural gas will still be responsible for providing nearly 60% of the country’s energy and more than 90% of our transportation fuels. And worldwide, EIA projects demand for liquid fuels will increase by 20% in the next 20 years, driven by the development of emerging markets and nations as many of them
lift themselves out of poverty, improve the standard of living, and increase the economic opportunity for their citizens.
It should be a simple choice. Do we as a nation decide to use our vast energy resources to help meet the world’s growing energy needs and in the process boost our global competitiveness, realign our foreign policy goals and national security priorities, encourage America’s 21st century manufacturing renaissance, provide millions-more Americans with good-paying jobs and provide billions of dollars in revenue to local, state, and federal governments in the coming decades, or not?
Today, thanks to the American entrepreneurial spirit of the independent oil and natural gas producer along with innovations in oil and natural gas development, the U.S. is the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world.
And here’s one more fact. The American people get it and stand with us on today’s most important energy policy questions. They understand that pro-growth energy policies will translate into millions of stable, good-paying jobs, which could go a long way to lowering unemployment.
It is little wonder that, according to recent polls, most Americans (77%) want to see this nation increase production of domestic oil and natural gas. Ninety two percent (92%) of American voters agree that increased production of domestic oil and natural gas resources could lead to more jobs in the U.S.
The public’s strong support and the oil and natural gas industry’s ability to cut through the partisan noise and stale ideology of our critics is due to the industry’s years-long effort to ensure that American energy policy is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It is an American prosperity and leadership issue.
As we look ahead to November’s elections and beyond, we need to continue forward-looking energy policy discussions to spur more pro-energy policies and to ensure that our nation’s discussion on energy policy is based on fact and reality, not political ideology and hyperbole.
We need to harness the collective will and wisdom of the American voters to generate discussion on our nation’s bright energy future and to better align our nation’s political science with our geologic science, because right now the former all too often drives energy policy. We need to ensure that as our elected representatives and appointed officials make energy policy, the will of the American people is uppermost in their minds and the dominant voice in the energy policy discussion.
What we want, and what the American people deserve, is energy policy that continues the trend of our nation becoming energy self-sufficient and a global energy leader. We need to send a message to lawmakers at all levels of government that the time to end the intrusion of extreme political ideology or personal agendas in the energy policy debate is now; and that the only limits on our nation’s energy potential will be self-imposed by short-sighted, politically motivated energy policy decisions. The American public and future generations deserve better.
Ed Cross is president of the Kansas Independent Gas & Oil Association.
