Register for 2008 Chairman’s Cup golf tournament at The Harvester
Register now for the Iowa Bankers Association’s annual Chairman’s Cup Golf Tournament. The best shot tournament will take place Monday, July 28 at The Harvester Golf Club in Rhodes. The event is the largest golf outing of its kind in Iowa.
Click here to download the 2008 Chairman’s Cup registration form. Registration is open to IBA members and associate members only. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, with a deadline of May 16. The tournament is limited to 180 golfers and will fill up quickly, so be sure to submit your registration form as soon as possible.
The registration fee of $150 per person includes the green fee, cart, lunch, dinner, drinks, golf balls and flight and flag prizes. Each golfer will also receive a commemorative shirt courtesy of i_Tech Corporation.
Questions can be directed to the IBA’s Ben Hildebrandt at 800.532.1423, ext. 4212.
April 29 declared Teach Children to Save Day in Iowa
Gov. Chet Culver signed a proclamation officially declaring April 29 as Teach Children to Save Day. If your bank is participating in Teach Children to Save Day, be sure to sign up as a participating bank on the American Bankers Association’s Education Foundation Web site at www.aba.com/abaef. Participating banks will be recognized in an upcoming issue of Exchange.
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Ask Congress to oppose price fixing for interchange fees
Retailers and merchants are prompting members of Congress to cosponsor the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, H.R. 5546, which would set interchange rates for credit and debit cards. Under the bill, credit and debit card networks would enter voluntary negotiations with merchants to establish new rates and terms for access to the electronic payment system. If they could not reach an agreement, the federal government would appoint a panel of three judges through binding arbitration to make the final decision.
American Bankers Association President Ed Yingling said the bill “inappropriately puts the government in the role of setting prices in the private marketplace, undercutting a pricing system that currently benefits consumers, businesses and the broader economy.”
Banks of all sizes rely on debit and credit interchange revenue to offset the cost of issuing and processing card transactions and the growing cost of fraud losses associated with card issuance. Yingling said the proposed bill would ultimately result in higher prices for consumers.
IBA members are encouraged to visit the Legislative Action Center to contact their U.S. Representatives and ask them to oppose H.R. 5546.
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Money Smart Kid winners awarded savings accounts
Eighth-grader Andy Troxell, 13, of Des Moines was the winner of the 2008 Money Smart Kid contest. Troxell is an eighth-grader at Merritt Middle School/Central Campus in Des Moines. The award was presented at the Money Smart Week Kick-off Breakfast on April 8 at Drake University.
Money Smart Kid winners were also announced in the Quad Cities and Cedar Rapids. Chloe McGehee, 13, of Moline is an eighth-grader at Wilson Middle School in Moline and Kyler Schoner, 12, of Cedar Rapids is a seventh-grader at Roosevelt Middle School. Each will receive a $1,000 College Savings Iowa account funded jointly by the Iowa Bankers Association and the Iowa Credit Union League.
The awards were presented in conjunction with Money Smart Week, a program sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. During the week of April 5-12, more than 300 presentations were hosted by community groups, financial institutions, government agencies and other organizations to help consumers and children learn to better manage their personal finances.
Each Money Smart Kid contest winner will serve as a spokesperson promoting financial education among young people during Money Smart Week and beyond.
Above: Andy Troxell (left) was the Money Smart Kid contest winner in Greater Des Moines. He is pictured with IBA President and CEO John Sorensen. The IBA is jointly funding $1,000 College Savings Iowa accounts for the winners.
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Report shows Iowa’s business tax system ranks fifth worst
A report released by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranks Iowa’s business tax system fifth worst in the nation for small business start up and growth.
The “Business Tax Index 2008” combines 16 different tax measures into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared. Among the taxes included are income, property, death/inheritance, unemployment and various consumption-based taxes, including gas taxes.
“As it pertains to small businesses, our (state’s) climate has areas where we can show market improvement,” said Iowa Taxpayers Association (ITA) President Ed Wallace.
Wallace said small business owners are adversely affected by our current property tax system.
“A lot of small start-ups have difficulty generating a profit within the first two or three years of operating, and the increasing burden of high property taxes makes it even more difficult,” he said.
According to the report, the best tax systems for small businesses are located in South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, Washington and Florida. Click here to read the full report.
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Join the IBA for 2008 Capitol Hill Visit and post trip
Join the Iowa Bankers Association for the 41st annual Capitol Hill Visit June 10–13 followed by the post trip to The Greenbrier resort June 13–15. Participants will spend four exciting days in our nation’s capitol visiting with legislators, seeing the sights and gaining insight from speakers, which include Jim Nussle, Steve Livengood and Shawn Miles.
The Washington visit will be followed by a post trip to The Greenbrier, an award-winning resort located in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Throughout its 227-year history, The Greenbrier has received hundreds of awards for distinguished service and continues to win top ratings year after year, including the AAA Five Diamond award and the Mobil Four-Star Award. Guests enjoy over 50 recreational activities including three championship golf courses, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and a 40,000-square-foot spa.
Registration materials for the Capitol Hill Visit have been mailed to IBA member banks and are also available online at www.iowabankers.com. Click here for more information. The deadline to register is May 12. Contact the IBA’s Molly Lydon with any additional questions at 800.532.1423 or e-mail mlydon@iowabankers.com.
About the Speakers:
Jim Nussle
Director, Office of Management and Budget
Jim Nussle is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Nussle began his 25 years of public service after graduating from Luther College (BA ’83) in Decorah and Drake University Law School (JD ’85) in Des Moines. After law school, Nussle was elected Delaware County Attorney in 1986. Nussle became the youngest Member of Congress when he was elected in 1990 at the age of 30. During his 16 years in Congress, Nussle served on key committees, including the Agriculture, Banking and Ways and Means Committees. As Chair of the House Budget Committee, Nussle successfully developed and approved six budgets which helped reduce the deficit and restrain government spending while investing in our economic growth and national security.
Shawn A. Miles
Sr. Vice President, Group Head, Global Public Policy & Regulatory Strategy Counsel, Law Dept., MasterCard Worldwide
Miles has worked for MasterCard for the past 20 years and has a wide array of experiences from his work in the business and legal areas within the company. The combination of his legal and business experience makes him well suited to oversee the strategic direction of the Global Public Policy function, including the legislative and regulatory efforts in key markets around the world. He has served as lead counsel in the Law Department and worked on major litigations involving MasterCard. He is admitted to the bars of the State of New York and Connecticut and is a member of the American Bar Association and American Corporate Counsel Association.
Steve Livengood
Chief Guide & Public Programs Director, U.S. Capitol Historical Society
Steve Livengood was fascinated by the U.S. Capitol building even before he left his native Kansas and started volunteering in his Congressman’s office as a college freshman in 1965. He began to learn about the building in that year by giving tours to the visitors from his home district. After earning a B.A. in political science at the American University in Washington, D.C., and after experiencing the risks of good citizenship in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Livengood became a Ph.D. candidate in Recent U.S. History at Emory University in Atlanta. His subsequent career has been as an association executive and public affairs consultant. In early 1998, Livengood capped five years as an active volunteer tour guide in the U.S. Capitol by becoming coordinator of the volunteer programs of the United States Capitol Historical Society. He now trains the Society’s volunteer tour guides, and organizes volunteers and promotion for other Society programs, as well as leading specialized and VIP tours.
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