Tourists bring their money to the Ozarks to spend on fishing, canoeing, theme parks, and entertainment. While they’re here, they buy food and drinks and rent rooms and campsites. Retirees bring their money to the Ozarks and buy housing, medical services and the necessities of life with money they earned elsewhere.
In some ways, the Ozarks economy is like Read the rest of this entry
The disputes between growers (of cattle, hogs and poultry), the small number of purchasers (packers) and the USDA dwarfs the Shirley Sherrod affair in economic importance, especially in the Ozarks.
While the character assassination and redemption of Shirley Sherrod was essentially contrived by and blown up by the media, the real economic tensions between those who raise animals and those who buy them and convert the meat into consumer products has reached a point at which Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill asked the USDA to propose regulations to address several problems.
The problems arise out of the unequal Read the rest of this entry
Cliff Sain’s excellent report on Branson Landing in the July 18 Springfield News-Leader contains statements that illustrate some of the dilemmas faced by developers and local governments when planning a large project.
Branson’s aldermen (none of whom were in office when the Branson Landing project was approved for construction) have chosen to take $1.4 million from the city’s general fund and $1.2 million from the city’s transportation fund Read the rest of this entry
As Missouri’s public roads have been straightened, many odd kinks of roadway are left over, along with triangles of land between the old roads and the new roads. As we drive, we see these pieces of the old roads, sometimes serving as frontage roads along divided highways. In some cases, such as in McCullough v. Doss and Allen, the triangle on the west side of the new road was sold to McCullough, even though they might have been able to claim that at least the west half of the abandoned right-of-way of the old public road was theirs. Here’s an image from the Stone County Assessor’s maps:
The State of Missouri built Highway 39 in the mid-1950s, mainly along an old public road. At the point shown in the image, the severe dogleg Read the rest of this entry
On January 3, 2010, I posted a glum summary of published economic reports from Federal Reserve Banks in Kansas City and St. Louis and other sources from the metro areas that surround the Ozarks. My rough guess is that the economic activity in the Ozarks is primarily generated by the surrounding metro areas, which create demand for goods and services produced in the Ozarks, an idea that looks something like: Read the rest of this entry
Near the end of the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence, comes this bit:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In 1776, England did not control North America west of the Appalachians, and the western part of the Carolinas, northern Georgia, and Florida were still held by natives. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were complaining that British armies had enlisted the aid of Indians during the French and Indian War. These alliances would continue during the Revolutionary War.
Another sixty years would pass before the natives east of the Mississippi were vanquished, exterminated or moved west, as armies led by Mad Anthony Wayne and Andrew Jackson, among others, pitted tribe against tribe and engaged in undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
The sobering law of nationalism is that building nations involves the destruction of others.
Homeowner associations (HOAs) are given responsibility by recorded subdivision and condominium documents for maintaining, insuring and operating private communities’ common properties, such as streets, drinking water systems, sewer collection and treatment systems, and recreation facilities.
With many developers having abandoned projects before the HOA is operated by residents, the residents and other lot or unit owners (such as lenders that have foreclosed) are often faced with HOAs that cannot properly Read the rest of this entry
You can ignore an affidavit of lost mortgage in Arkansas. Is this news you can use?
Maybe not, but there’s still a lesson in Wetzel v. Mortgage Elec. Registration Sys., Inc., a May 20, 2010 decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The lesson is Read the rest of this entry
With its infrastructure complete, the streets, water and sewer systems of Branson Commerce Park were turned over to the City of Branson today. This 200-acre development on the north side of Branson is designed for commercial, light-industrial and residential development. In the photo, owner’s representative Phil Lopez and Branson mayor Raeanne Presley prepare to cut the ceremonial ribbon.
The original developer of Branson Commerce Park took advantage of Missouri’s Community Improvement District (CID) statutes to finance the installation of streets and water, sewer and underground telecommunication lines. Rather than install the infrastructure in phases, with years of construction traffic, the digging and disruption is over, except for what takes place on each lot. The CID program as used here does not involve the use of any taxpayer outlays or liability. However, a portion of the cost of installation of the infrastructure is allocated to each lot annually, collected with property taxes and remitted by Taney County to the trustee for the bondholders. The bondholders, through the purchase of the CID’s bonds, provided the construction money.
The Branson area is a popular destination for vacations and retirement, with not many private sector jobs outside these industries. Branson Commerce Park provides an ideal location for enterprises that support Branson’s extensive medical facilities and its many resorts, hotels and restaurants.
But there’s more. Because of its telecommunications infrastructure, Branson Commerce Park is a practical location for businesses that can be wherever there’s a good electronic link to the world. Entrepreneurs and employees who are attracted to the Ozarks may appreciate Branson Commerce Park’s proximity and easy access to residential neighborhoods, shopping, medical facilities, K-12 schools, and Branson’s RecPlex.
The Villa Dorado condominium has 45 buildings, only nine of which have elevators. When the condominium association’s board assessed every unit owner for repairs to elevators, Epstein and Root protested. Their units were in buildings with no elevators, Read the rest of this entry
Ozarks Law & Economy 