Electronic payment software startup locating to Baton Rouge

Fairshare, a web-enabled electronic payment software solutions and services company, will base its startup location in the Louisiana Technology Park, according to an announcement this morning by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.

Founded and majority owned by LSU graduate Steve Zeringue, Fairshare will deliver payment products and related services using ACH Network, an automated clearinghouse. Initially, the company will have four employees and will steadily expand to approximately 25. As the company adds employees, it will market its products to software engineers, data analysts, web developers, and support personnel.

Fairshare’s initial capital investment is estimated to be between $200,000 and $500,000. The company decided to locate to Baton Rouge because of an abundant workforce, resources available through the LTP and incentives package offered through BRAC and Louisiana Economic Development. The company considered setting up operations in Dallas, where Zeringue currently lives.

“The story of Fairshare is quickly becoming the story of Baton Rouge's competitive edge in attracting high-tech companies," Mayor Kip Holden says. “Our great universities and community college are producing a workforce that is helping us land technology companies, which in turn bring the jobs that will keep our best and brightest at home.”—Emma James

Jindal puts 77 more laws on the books

Of the more than 1,200 actual bills filed during the recent regular session, Gov. Bobby Jindal has so far signed off on 433 and vetoed all or parts of eight. He released another heap Wednesday, including several tax-related bills authored by members of the Capital Region Legislative Delegation.

Delegation Chairman Rep. Steve Carter, a Republican, saw two of his measures pass the final hurdle. His House Bill 734 exempts "qualifying radiation therapy treatment centers" from the state sales-and-use tax for certain purchases. From a local perspective, the bill’s language is somewhat limited to the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center for PET/CT scanners and related equipment. The center already has locations in Baton Rouge, Covington and Hammond, and a fourth location is being developed in Gonzales. Expansion into Terrebonne Parish is expected as well. Overall, the center is planning on purchasing $3.9 million worth of qualified equipment over the next year and as much as $2.7 million annually in subsequent years, according to an analysis conducted by the Legislative Fiscal Office.

The break will cost the state $156,000 this year and $108,000 annually in future years. For the full article, which includes information on tax credits for home wind and solar energy systems, benefits on investing in Louisiana companies and a new constitutional amendment, click here.—Jeremy Alford

Louisiana only state to see credit risk drop

A new report says while Louisiana continues to rank high for average consumer credit risk, it was the only state to see a drop from the end of 2008 to the start of this year. The state was fifth highest in the TransUnion Credit Risk Index, which weighs the average probability of 90-day credit delinquencies or worse among consumers, relative to the nation as a whole. Anything over 100 on the index indicates a higher level of relative risk. Louisiana's index score was 153.84 in the first quarter, down 0.03% from the fourth quarter of 2008. Mississippi was the state with the highest consumer credit risk, with a score of 166.45, followed by Texas, Nevada and South Carolina. North Dakota had the lowest risk at 82.02.

Report: Cities losing out on stimulus money for roads

A New York Times analysis found that the largest U.S. metro areas aren't getting their share of federal stimulus money for transportation projects. The newspaper notes that the 100 largest U.S. cities are getting less than half the money from the biggest pool of stimulus money set aside for road projects. States ended up with the discretion to determine how to spend the transportation money, and there's a long history of highway spending being doled out in rural areas instead of cities. Economists say any effort to jumpstart the U.S. economy should be targeted in big cities. “If we’re trying to recover the nation’s economy, we should be focusing where the economy is, which is in these large areas,” says Robert Puentes, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. Read the story here.

New U.S. jobless claims fall; continuing claims set record

The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits last week fell to its lowest level since early January, largely because of changes in the timing of auto industry layoffs. Continuing claims, meanwhile, unexpectedly jumped to a record high. While layoffs are slowing, unemployed workers are having a difficult time finding new jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5% last month and is expected to top 10% by the end of the year. New claims for unemployment insurance plummeted by 52,000 to 565,000, the Labor Department said today. That was significantly below analysts’ expectations of 605,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The last time new claims were below 600,000 was week of Jan. 24. Still, continuing claims jumped 159,000 to 6.88 million, the highest on records dating from 1967. Analysts had expected 6.71 million continuing claims.

Poll: Most open to Spanish Town apartment complex

Forty-two percent of people who responded to a Daily Report poll say they may be in favor of a controversial Spanish Town apartment complex if the project is tailored to fit in with the neighborhood. Thirty-two percent of people who participated in the survey say they support the 67-unit Capitol Lofts complex because downtown needs more housing. Twenty-one percent say they oppose the development outright because it will destroy the character of Spanish Town, and 5% were undecided. Nearly 1,350 people participated in the survey. The project is set to go before the city-parish Historic Preservation Commission next month to get a certificate to build in the historic district.

Today's question: What do you think of the decision to put "LSU" on the front of the Tigers' football jerseys?

News roundup: Camera chain gives up reorganization effort ... May wholesale inventories fall

Takin' off the Ritz: Ritz Camera Centers, which has been struggling to reorganize and save roughly 400 of its more than 800 stores, says it no longer has enough money to purchase fall inventory and continue operations, the Washington Business Journal reports. Ritz recently closed its two Baton Rouge locations, in the Mall of Louisiana and Hammond Aire Plaza. The Maryland-based company says it now expects to auction off its remaining locations by the end of the month.

Ninth consecutive drop: Wholesale inventories fell for a ninth consecutive month in May as businesses struggle to trim stockpiles amid the longest recession since World War II. The Commerce Department says inventories dipped 0.8% in May, slightly smaller than the 1% decline economists had expected. Sales at the wholesale level posted a 0.2% rise in May, better than the expected flat reading. It was the best showing for sales since a similar rise in February.