Dear Dave,
What’s the difference between a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy?
Claudia

Dear Claudia,
Chapter 7 bankruptcy is what most people think about when they hear the word “bankruptcy.” It’s total bankruptcy, almost like dropping an atomic bomb on your entire financial picture.

Virtually all of your unsecured debt (except student loans, child support and money owed to the IRS) is wiped out. These things are not bankruptable. About 98 percent of the time, creditors of your other unsecured debt — things like credit cards and alike — get nothing. Items that are secured debt, such as your car or house, are treated a little bit differently. If you’re behind on payments, you may be allowed to get current. In most cases, banks will allow you to re-sign in a process called reaffirming the debt.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a payment plan structured over five years. In it, you have to pay all of your secured debt. If it has a lien on it, you pay 100 percent to keep the item. You also have to pay a portion of your unsecured debt. Again — like in Chapter 7 — debt to the IRS, child support and student loans don’t go away. For any other unsecured debt, you can pay a percentage of what’s owed. An overall payment plan is developed, and you make those payments for five years.
I’m not a big fan of either one.
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.

It is with much nostalgia I read of our Fort Hays dairy closing. I feel a bit of possession since I spent many hours of my adolescence working and milking there.

I began my career at 9 years and 10 months digging dandelions on the Fort Hays campus for 18 cents per hour. My first paycheck was $3.47. Although the money was good, I knew greater things lay ahead. Sure enough, by the middle of the summer, I got raised to 22 cents per hour.

Much of the time we were working in the vicinity with German prisoners of war. We never felt threatened in any way. These guys were “happy campers” and usually about 10 of them were guarded by one M.P. with an M1 carbine. I felt they could have passed it around and taken turns guarding themselves.

In the seventh grade, I was “promoted” to the dairy barn. The location being where Wiest Hall is today. Al Graf was the dairyman and the source of much of my early education. Al was originally from suburban Victoria and related all of the excitement (previous and present) from Victoria. I thought Victoria was surely having more fun than we were. I felt the dairy would close when Al
retired!

We generally milked about 42 to 44 cows. Most of the time, they would be in the pasture where the buffalo are now, and sometimes I would get on a horse to get them — if they didn’t come in by themselves — it depended how the lead cow felt about it. Other pastures extended to ground west of the present bypass.

We ran two shifts. Each cow knew which shift they were in and what stall was theirs. DeLaval milkers were used, and we weighed and recorded the production of each cow.

Cleanup of the barn floor was always a delightful experience. The story now goes from “we” to “I.” The state of Kansas furnished me with a scraper, a No. 12 scoop shovel and a wheelbarrow. But remember, at 45 cents an hour, the money was good!

The summer between my junior and senior year in college was my last tour of duty with Fort Hays. That was the summer of ’54, and our main projects were the fence around the bypass and building the current dairy barn we just retired. I hurt my back, got some time off and went to Kansas City to visit my future wife – so it wasn’t all bad!

Stan “Bud” Dalton, Hays

This spring, we received word from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Director that the lesser prairie chicken would be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This is not welcome news as the listing has real consequences for a number of Kansas industries.

Oil and gas development is one Kansas industry already being impacted by the new regulations. For example, The Wichita Eagle recently reported Vess Oil Corp. has ceased drilling in western Kansas.

For Kansas farmers and ranchers like Jarvis Garetson, who farms in Haskell, Gray and Finney Counties, the lesser prairie chicken listing will increase uncertainty.

“The lesser prairie chicken listing has the potential to cause great disruptions for Kansas farmers and ranchers. A better conservation approach must be found to protect the species, while providing producers with the certainty they need to maintain and grow their operations,” Garetson said.

For utility companies like the Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, the listing is yet another federal regulatory burden that will result in higher prices for consumers.

“Complying with this listing increases costs and limits our flexibility for routing and constructing electric lines,” Sunflower Electric President and CEO Stuart Lowry said. “Unfortunately, the costs are passed along to consumers through higher electric bills. While consumers are forced to pay higher rates, the underlying problem is the lesser prairie chicken listing.”

Scarcity of rainfall, especially in the western half of the state, has put the lesser prairie chicken population in flux. According to an August 2013 Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism survey, “…since 2004 there has been a significant declining trend in the LPCH index but the negative slope is mostly due to recent declines associated with severe drought conditions (not habitat loss).” This corroborates that the drought is contributing to the bird’s declining population.

To avoid the lesser prairie chicken’s threatened species designation, I have been working with colleagues across the aisle over the past two years. Last summer, along with nine Republican and Democratic Senators, I called on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services delay a listing decision by six months — the maximum amount of time allowed by federal law. This effort resulted in an extension and additional time for evaluation of the science behind the listing decision. It also gave Kansas and affected states an opportunity to demonstrate alternative plans for species conservation. That call was a follow-up to a February 2013 letter that brought about an extension to the comment period.

This month, Governor Sam Brownback urged U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewel to reconsider the existing conservation programs — Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) — instead of implementing new federal regulations. I’m supportive of that effort and am confident there are ways to address conserving the species without hampering economic growth, as well as farming and ranching activities. In fact, even conservation organizations like Audubon of Kansas support the governor’s approach to increase CRP land as a way to reverse a loss of habitat.

As conservation efforts are considered, producers deserve the flexibility to implement plans that fit their operations. Additionally, it will be imperative to account for ongoing species recovery developments. That’s why I introduced legislation last week to protect producers from the consequences of the listing. The legislation would prohibit the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of the Interior from altering any land management practices based on the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.

I am committed to working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism to make certain the measures implemented are based on sound science and common sense, as well as represent the best interest of producers. We will continue to do what we can to assist folks who are working to solve the problem and avoid thwarting industries vital to our state’s economy.

Well, except for some of you who early-voted, you have about a week to decide just what sort of campaign you have been treated to by the candidates out there at the parade or park or community dinner or maybe at the front door.

And, it’s going to be interesting because this election cycle is different than ones we’ve seen recently.

There are hot-button slogans that, with just a glance, appear to be virtually useless except to fill out speeches or brochures, and there are issues that probably are important, but which nobody is talking much about.

A campaign that is mostly about slogans? Check the GOP primary to replace retiring Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who served three terms.

Anyone talking about car insurance, life insurance or maybe whether you got a good estimate on the cost to replace that damaged roof? Nope, it’s the Affordable Care Act, and while most everyone either likes it or doesn’t like it, there is virtually nothing that the Kansas Insurance Commissioner can do about it. It’s almost like campaigning in opposition to hail.

What? Isn’t that most of what we’re hearing on the campaign trail, this Obamacare and how the Republicans in the race don’t like it? Yes, but there probably is more that a Kansas insurance commissioner can do about fire insurance and car insurance and such than Obamacare. You just aren’t hearing much of it. Biggest issue in the insurance race that few are hearing about is whether insurance companies ought to be subject to Kansas regulation, so Kansans get the insurance they are paying for, and not being tricked.

For most legislative races, while there is still the Obamacare issue that state lawmakers can’t do anything for or against—that’s Congress, not the Kansas Legislature—it’s still a hot topic.

The real question reflects on us voters. Why do we keep the screen door open for candidates who talk about something they can’t fix or kill, anyway?

Now, once the talk about Obamacare is over, we get to the stuff that ought to matter to us, but frankly, we’re not hearing much about.

There are always taxes, and so far, most candidates for the Kansas House where something can be done about the state income and sales taxes aren’t saying much. It’s either roughly “we’ll see how it works out” to “well, I’ll have to get into office to start wrangling with that.” It’d be nice if most candidates had some idea of what they’d like to see done…either raising some taxes or halting the income tax rate cuts, or maybe just deftly taking the other side of the issue: Spending.

And, that other side, it’s either we’re spending too much or we’re not spending enough on…fill in the blank…or it’s too early to tell.

Maybe that is the real answer. So far, state revenues have dropped while some 190,000 Kansans and their businesses aren’t paying state income taxes. Maybe they’ll spend that money they’re saving on taxes to hire new workers or buy machinery or maybe just vacation in the state and spend the money on their families.

It might just be too early to tell how that goes. Might happen, might not happen, and we’re finding out month to month how that lower taxes to free up spending is working.

But this is the last week to get at least an idea on what that candidate on the doorstep or at the coffee shop or neighborhood meeting is thinking about the issues, and how that lines up with your beliefs.

And, whether that candidate is still using the lines he/she used to try to get a date in high school…hoping you’ll settle for letting him/her leave a good impression, either with some real information, or by just being nice…

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 Ellis County Fair is an annual showcase of accomplishments by local youth and adults. The most delicious category includes exhibits by members of the 4-H foods project. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share prize-winning recipes from our 4-H members.

Today, I’d like to treat you to two very different recipes, one for award-winning yeast rolls and another for a decadent triple-layer cake. I know you will find occasions to try both.

In the “breadbasket of the nation” it is only fitting that Kansas 4-H cooks learn to make top-quality yeast breads. Katie Weisenborn, of the Gemini Juniors 4-H Club, exhibited these delicious Crescent Rolls which were named the Best 4-H Bread at the Ellis County Fair.

Crescent Rolls
2 1/4 ounce package dry active yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
½ cup sugar
1 cup milk, scalded (2 minutes in microwave)
3 eggs, beaten
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon salt
7 cups flour

Dissolve yeast with 1 Tablespoon sugar in warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Mix butter, salt, milk and one-half cup sugar in large mixing bowl. Add 2 cups flour, mix well. Add yeast mixture and beaten eggs. Beat well. Add remaining flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. Knead dough on lightly floured board and place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Punch down and divide dough into thirds. Roll one third into a 12-inch diameter circle. Cut circle into 16 pie-shaped wedges. Roll up into crescent shapes, starting with the wide ends. Place crescent rolls on greased cookie sheet and let rise 1 hour, covered loosely with plastic wrap or tea towel. (Note: Leave plenty of room on sheets, these rolls need plenty of room. Do not crowd.) Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown.

Kaleigh Weber, of the Ellis Sunflowers 4-H Club, was named the junior champion winner on her delicious layer cake. This would be a tasty way to use up bananas that are getting dark.

Banana Nut Cake
2 1/3 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 3 medium)
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour sheet cake pan or two 9-inch or three 8-inch round layer pans. Beat all ingredients in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly, for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Pour into pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting, below.

Cream Cheese Frosting
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all together. Add small amounts of milk if too thick.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

The debate is over

That’s what liberals say about man causing global warming. They say there is scientific consensus our climate is warming the earth due to man emitting carbon (CO2) into the atmosphere.

I have written in the past that liberals live in a fantasy world. They do not function in the world of reality and their insistence on manmade GW, in spite of a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, is proof positive to what I just said.

Yup, the debate is over and not that man causes global warming, but that liberals don’t care the least about facts. The global warming issue proves liberals live in a fantasy world. This writing is about GW, but there are a multitude of issues that causes one to question what planet these people live on. Obviously, not planet earth.

There is far more proof there is a God than the global warming claim of the religious fanatical environmental liberal alarmists. GW in America, unfortunately, is less about science then it is about politics.

If GW is such a big problem in today’s world how do you explain there was a period in the Middle Ages prior to the carbon emitting 18th and 19th century Industrial Revolution where the earth’s surface was warmer than it is now? How do you explain there has been no discernible warming for the past eighteen years?

There are no computer models that can be created to prove GW beyond any doubt. The earth, the atmosphere, the ocean, other planets, etc. are far too complicated for any scientist to create a computer model that takes in all aspects of our universe.

It has been 3,000 some days (over 8 years) since our last major hurricane. Hurricanes, according to liberals are caused by GW. Brisbane, Australia just experienced its coldest weather in 103 years. Polar ice caps are not melting, in fact just the opposite is taking place. There have been hundreds of record cold temps this past winter and to claim the cold temps are caused by GW proves my point about lack of reality. Meteorologists have difficulty predicting climate conditions two weeks out yet the alarmists think they can predict years into the future. Absurd.

If we are to believe liberals, why the lies, distortions, and corruption occurring in the scientific community regarding climate change? The hockey stick theory of Professor Mann turned out to be bogus as did far too many studies by other scientists.

Follow the money! Academics have sold out when it comes to ethics. Professors are paid to report man causes climate change. Any scientist in or out of the academic community that is a skeptic is ostracized by his colleagues and can forget about further grants from our liberal government. GW alarmist Barack Obama, the past five years, has wasted 120 billion on this agenda. That’s a huge story in itself inasmuch as it would get any white Republican president impeached.

GW is all about transforming America. It’s all about politics, not science. Worst of all, it’s all about big government taking away our freedoms as it controls more of our lives.

Whether there is GW or not, how does America, representing 5% of the world’s population, rein in China and India and many other countries when it comes to carbon emissions? The corrupt and liberal United Nations would love to have the U.S. bear 75% of the world’s cost to bring the “unproven GW theory” under control. And, our august pres would gladly pay for it even though we don’t have the money to do it. Obama would simply add it to our already unsustainable 17 trillion dollar debt.

Another myth is that Obama’s party is for the poor and the other political party is not. GW government mandates would hurt the poorest of the poor more than anybody else by escalating energy costs.

When are these liberals going to get real about anything? Probably never.

Some believe “big data” may be the next renaissance in agriculture. Others call it the greatest advance in agriculture since the Green Revolution during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s when one of the biggest waves of research and technology spurred the growth of agricultural production around the world. Some compare big data with the biotech revolution.

High praise, but still so many questions remain about big data. Pressing questions facing farmers now are who owns this big data? Who controls it and how will it be used?

And if you don’t know what big data is join the crowd, there are countless people who don’t know or have multiple and diverse answers.

Not to alarm anyone, but less than a year ago, few people had heard this buzz word that means gathering and analyzing the vast amount of digital information produced by farmers.

Drones flying above farm land recording high resolution images, and field sensors providing immediate information concerning crop conditions including moisture, nutrients, pests, etc., may become commonplace during the big ag-data era.

No matter what beatitudes are bestowed on big data, most believe and hope it will improve farmers’ yields and productivity. Some say it will help feed the growing population expected to hit 9 billion in 2050. Agri-business companies are banking on its future.

Successful farmers and ranchers have always kept data. While it may have begun when the first cave man dug a hole in the soil and planted the first seed and progressed to a pocket-sized notebook and pencil, keeping and gathering information has always been beneficial to profitable agriculture.

About the mid-1990s, gathering data rocketed forward as computer technology fueled the concept of precision agriculture. This only intensified with the application and interest driven by the ever-growing data infrastructure. Greater affordability of this technology coupled with more computer processing power has also fanned the usage flames.

Prescriptive planting or relating soil, climate and seed data with a farmer’s productions records seems to be some of the potential of big data in agriculture. The potential for an increase in grain yields is another potential.

During the last couple years the Guettermans in Johnson County and Miami counties have used big data equipment provided by John Deere on their family farm. Nick Guetterman believes the more information he has at his disposal, the more likely he is to figure a better way to do things.

What he’s most interested in during this initial phase of using these new data collecting tools is to become even more efficient, farm as productively as possible and increase the return on his investment.

“Farmers collect data on almost every pass over the field — planting data, tillage data, spraying records and machine performance,” Nick says. “We’re trying to help use this data in real time – right now to make decisions that potentially make us better, more profitable farmers. Before we always looked at this data and analyzed it after the fact.”

But who gets that information — the farmer or the provider? Will they be prescribing what best suits their interests or those of the farmer?

Guetterman believes because he’s paid for the equipment, the data should belong to him and not be shared with anyone without his knowledge and permission. He’d also like to know where and what companies collecting big ag data are doing with this information.

The Johnson/Miami County farmer says he’s been told the data is not being used individually but in an aggregate format. Guetterman also believes companies selling ag- data services acknowledge farmers’ concerns in their policy and marketing statements, but their contracts don’t make that explicit,

“A farmer makes decisions based on his own experience and expertise, supplemented with his own data,” Guetterman says “That’s how I produce value as a manager.”

Some producers also worry the proliferation of ag data will erode the advantages  producers have developed throughout several generations. Farmers like Guetterman also harbor real concerns about data privacy. That’s the world today’s farmers live in.

Stay tuned.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

Dear Dave,
My wife and I have $25,000 in credit card debt, $2,500 in medical bills and $89,000 each in student loan debt from when we each got our masters’ degrees. We make about $100,000 combined. Our son is 6 years old, and we have $18,000 in a 529 plan for him. Should we use that money to pay off debt instead?
Sean

Dear Sean,
I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’ll get destroyed with penalties, because if you take money out of a 529 for anything other than college, you’ll be taxed at your current tax rate and hit with a 20 percent penalty. The other thing is you’ll have this weird feeling that you took money away from your kid.

Technically, it’s your money. You put it there. But when you did, it was in your child’s name. Plus, that doesn’t really solve your problem. You’ve got a ridiculous amount of debt, and that little bit won’t move the needle very much. Having more money in your hands isn’t the big answer here. What you both need is a behavior change when it comes to money.

My advice is to leave the 529 alone. Stop adding to it for the time being. Put any retirement saving you’re currently doing on hold, too. You guys need to start living on a budget, working a debt snowball plan and looking for extra income. Even tutoring would bring in some additional cash. I’ve got a feeling, too, that those masters’ degrees can provide you with more money than you’re currently making.

It can be done, Sean, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and discipline. It may even take four or five years to get this mess cleaned up, but you can’t keep living without a plan!
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.

Don’t look for it on any of the palm cards that you find wedged into your screen door, but when all the campaigning and voting is over, whoever makes it to the Kansas House next session is going to be faced with ugly choices about cutting spending or raising taxes.

Yes, whoever winds up being governor, it still very seriously just comes down to balancing the state budget. That’s Job No. 1, and while there are still Renewable Power Standards and guns and abortion and education, it is still all about the budget.

Kansas had $434.6 million in the bank when last fiscal year ended, yet most of that balance is going to be eaten up this year. Whether that balance gets to zero next June or before is still a guessing game. But the state is going to need new tax revenues or it’s going to have to cut spending on virtually everything it spends money on ranging from education to social services to just keeping the agencies running.

So far, likely Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis is saying that the next couple years of scheduled state income tax reductions need to be halted. No, that’s not increasing taxes, it’s just not doing the cuts that are on schedule and which nobody has filled out their tax forms to claim yet.

Gov. Sam Brownback is quiet on what to do, if anything. Why talk about anything that is—what’s the word?—unpleasant?—until after the election. Until the budget busts, or he is officially notified of a projected ending balance of less than $100 million, nothing absolutely, positively needs to be done. He’s on board with that.

But, whoever gets to be governor, it’s going to take votes in the Senate and the House to cut spending or raise taxes or find some way for the state to hold its fiscal breath.

Oh, and the Kansas Supreme Court, which has a school finance lawsuit to deal with, has only dealt with the cheap ($130 million) part—equalizing state aid for schools—not the big issue of deciding whether the state is spending enough on schools to produce students who will be smart enough to spur the Kansas economy and support themselves.

That’s the mess that the new Legislature, and those brand new House members who make it to the Statehouse in January, are going to have to deal with.

Once they’re in Topeka, and their new business cards and stationery have been printed, it gets ugly. That talk on your doorstep about efficiency and small government gets put to the test.

It sorta makes that “I’ll represent your values” stuff a little shaky, unless you hand the candidate back a list of state taxes that could take a bit of an increase. Or maybe some state services that you think you can do without…and that means absolutely do without, not just delegate to local units of government to undertake at the cost of higher property taxes or fees.

Now, if your primary interest in state government is naming a piece of highway after a notable local official or fighting the federal government over anything ranging from gun laws to the fate of the Lesser Prairie Chicken, it shouldn’t be too tough to make a choice for your elected representative.

But if you intend to live in Kansas for the next couple years, it probably ought to be fiscal issues you want answers—probably detailed answers—to, and whether to provide the level of services that you want means taxes are in play. Are you one of those 190,000 Kansans who aren’t paying state income tax anymore? Feel comfortable with that? Then what can you or your neighbors do without?

Or, are you seeing the state do things that it just doesn’t need to do? Does that overpass or that bridge look good enough for now? Figure that kids made their way to school before there were those yellow buses?

There’s an easy way to vote, and one a little harder. This might be the year for that …

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.

Can you have your hypocrisy and eat it, too?

I don’t think so. But Cargill Inc. is doing its damndest to invalidate the old admonition that eating your cake today means not having it tomorrow.

As a leading producer and user of ingredients that contain genetically manipulated organisms, the food conglomerate with $136.7 billion in yearly sales faces a marketing problem: By huge margins, consumers here and around the world don’t want Frankenfoods on their families’ tables.

So Cargill, the largest privately held company in our country, ferociously opposes every state law and ballot initiative that would mandate the labeling of any product containing these genetically modified foods.

Better that families be kept in the dark about what they’re buying and eating, Cargill says. Better for its profits, that is.

Indeed, the chairman of Cargill’s board also belongs to the executive committee of the industry lobbying front that goes all out to kill every right-to-know provision for consumers. Any such label, he scolds, would be “misleading.”

But — whoa — what’s this?

Fortress Cargill issued a surprising press release earlier this summer. The company is proudly marketing a new soybean oil that — ready? — announces on its label that the product is free of genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Has the Big Ag behemoth had a change of heart?

Excuse me, but corporations don’t have hearts. They have bottom lines, period. And the bottom line is that Cargill’s terminally hypocritical honchos see dollars lying on the ground that they’re not getting.

“Despite the many merits of biotechnology, consumer interest in food and beverage products made from non-GM ingredients is growing,” explains Ethan Theis, a Cargill man with the cumbersome title of food ingredients commercial manager. These consumers are “creating opportunities and challenges for food manufacturers and food service operators,” he added.

That’s the clearest expression you’ll ever get of corporate integrity.

OtherWords.org columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker.