Austin Business Journal articles from May 1992

Austin Business Journal archives from May 1992

Auto dealers speed up pace for '92 sales. (Industry Overview)
May 25, 1992... Austin automobile dealers are rolling up their inventory levels in expectation of a boom in car sales beginning this summer. While one national business publication is predicting sales increases of 10 percent across the nation, optimistic...

Feds fiddle with 'Austin City Limits.' (federal funds for television show's home to be cut)
May 25, 1992... One of the highest-profile selling tools for the $500 million Austin tourist market may be threatened by politics. The music television show "Austin City Limits" and its home, KLRU-TV Public Telecommunications, are under fire from the U.S....

Workers comp war still rages. (workers' compensation)(includes related article)
May 25, 1992... Call it a game of cat and mouse. In one corner, business leaders are predicting trial lawyers will go to battle over workers' compensation in the next legislative session. And in the other corner, the lawyers' response is something like,...

Banks warned of money launderers.
May 25, 1992... The Internal Revenue Service is asking your bank teller to be its eyes and ears. This isn't an expansion of Big Brother's watching abilities, but an attempt to deprive drug trafficking of its lifeblood -- cash. IRS Special Agents Carol...

Local home sales to double in '92.... (Focus: Residential Real Estate) (Industry Overview)
May 25, 1992... Austin-area housing starts are expected to double during 1992 as the residential home market shows strong signs of recovering. Home builders and real estate analysts agree that the first quarter of 1992 was one of the best they've seen since...

... While inventory dwindles. (Austin's real estate industry) (Focus: Residential Real Estate) (Industry Overview)
May 25, 1992... Buying a house became a frustrating process for Greg and Marilyn Derkowski. The pair of 27-year-olds began searching for a home in January and planned to move by October. "It felt like buying a car -- you felt real pressure" from salesmen...

New homes in step with environment. (Austin's real estate industry) (Focus: Residential Real Estate)
May 25, 1992... Jane and Keith Sims have no well and no running water. What they do have is an elaborate guttering system that collects rainwater from the roof of their Dripping Springs home. Building rainwater collection systems into homes is one way...

Fund stabilizes workers comp. (Texas Workers' Compensation Insurance Fund)
May 18, 1992... By most accounts, the Texas Workers' Compensation Insurance Fund -- the Legislature's answer to deregulating the insurance industry -- is proving to be a stabilizing force in a market that recently teetered on the brink of financial ruin....

Is coverage a crime? (limits to media's responsibility to inform the public)
May 18, 1992... Austin's television and newspaper media, along with viewers and readers, have been forced by two recent high-profile criminal cases in the area to think about the fine line between necessary information and morbid curiosity. "A feeding...

A tourniquet for rising costs of health care. (technique on management of medical care costs for employers)
May 18, 1992... American business doesn't have to choke on health-care costs, according to cost-containment consultant Duane Sobecki. Instead, it has to treat health care like any other business cost and not like an employee endowment. Sobecki is president...

Entrepreneur of the Year regional finalists for 1992. (profiles of finalists from Austin, Texas)(includes related article)
May 18, 1992... Austin's finalists for Entrepreneur Of The Year awards prove that success can come from some unusual ventures. Those selected for the honor made their names by making products ranging from picante to video games. The Entrepreneur Of The...

Big emphasis on small-business loans. (trend for banks to grant small-business loans) (Focus: Banking) (Industry Overview)
May 18, 1992... The credit crunch for small business owners may not be over, but bankers are finally loosening their purse strings and making more loans. In Austin, for example, the Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed 251 loans for a total of...

Banks bouncing back from the bust. (includes ratings of banks in Austin, Texas) (Focus: Banking) (Industry Overview)
May 18, 1992... Austin's 17 banks continue to recover from the devastation of the late 1980s. For 1991, these banks posted the first profit since 1985, when 55 banks served the city, according to Sheshunoff Information Services Inc. of Austin. The profit was a...

Austin Trust tops $200 million mark. (Focus: Banking) (Company Profile)
May 18, 1992... In less than five years, Austin Trust Co. has grown from nothing to more than $210 million in assets and from four employees to 15. "Within our first year, our assets jumped to $40 million," said Shari Scholten, senior vice president and one...

Hospital heals itself. (Brackenridge Hospital of Austin, Texas registers $9 million profit for 1991)
May 11, 1992... By doing the little things, Brackenridge Hospital is making big bucks. By instituting a program that is on the cutting edge of health care and just plain selling itself better, Brackenridge is boasting a financial turnaround over the past...

Coker tops in Texas. (Liz Coker wins Small-Business Person of the Year Award)
May 11, 1992... Austinite Liz Coker is headed to the White House to accept a special award from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The agency named Coker Texas Small Business Person of the Year based on seven criteria: innovation, sales growth,...

Austin man buys cable tv empire. (J. Merritt Belisle; Ponca/Universal Holdings Inc.)
May 11, 1992... Television isn't the typical industry to get into if you want to keep a low profile. But that's exactly what J. Merritt Belisle of Austin is doing. Belisle once owned a small cable television company that served parts of Travis and...

Bankers, regulators fear new regulations. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991)
May 11, 1992... Uncommon alliances are being formed to fight a federal law. Bankers and government officials who oversee bank operations are joining forces to influence extensive regulations now being written that would greatly influence how those two groups...

Ore reserves excite Stinky Pinky sellers. (zeolites as shoe deodorizer)(Geo-Environment Services Inc.)
May 4, 1992... No doubt about it, the man knows how to use a soap box. Not only does Austin entrepreneur Terry Young know how to get on one -- as when he touts the need for environmental responsibility in business -- he knows what to put in one: Zeolite....

Guaranty tops all-Texas list. (Guaranty Federal Savings Bank; financial institutions list)
May 4, 1992... In the last three years, Guaranty Federal Savings Bank has become one of the big boys of Texas financial institutions by concentrating on the little possibilities. Through acquisitions and expansion, Guaranty now can claim to be the largest...

Creditors pick a bone with chicken chain. (Church's Fried Chicken Inc.)
May 4, 1992... When the fat fryers broke down, they used to call Earl Kanetzky. Church's Fried Chicken wasn't one of his biggest customers, but they proved one of his steadiest: He billed Church's $3,000 to $4,000 a year for more than 20 years. "It added...

Good news: bond refinancing freezes Austin, LCRA electric rates for years. (Lower Colorado River Authority)
May 4, 1992... The two largest local utility service providers have been playing the bond market. And winning for their customers, they say. The city of Austin and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) have joined a recent national trend and refinanced...

Destination, please? (services of travel agents) (Focus: Personal Travel & Tourism) (Industry Overview)
May 4, 1992... Travel agents If you haven't gotten the word about travel agents, it's time to get with the program. Agents can save you hundreds of dollars and steer you around travel nightmares that could wreck your dream vacation. Most travelers have...

Flagging down the tourist dollar. (Focus: Personal Travel & Tourism)
May 4, 1992... $134 million industry For years, Austin was content to be the seat of government and home to the University of Texas. That's changing now. The Capitol complex and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum are among the top 10 most...

Nearby attractions just below surface. (caves in Austin) (Focus: Personal Travel & Tourism)
May 4, 1992... Central Texas is just as scenic underground as it is on the surface. You can thank all our limestone for that. With limestone, relatively porous and easily dissolved, come caves. More than 3,000 mapped caves exist in Texas and eight of them...