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To: Knighty Tin who wrote (18788)	12/16/2004 5:44:12 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Dauphin County Commissioners Approve 19% Tax Hike, Job Cuts Wed Dec 15, 4:47 PM ET Dauphin County commissioners voted Wednesday to raise property taxes 19 percent. The county expects to gain $3 million a year with the increase. Thirty positions have also been cut and the county is on a hiring freeze. ===================================================================== Not sure where Dauphin is but merry Christmas! Increase taxes 19% and start firing to boot. Mish

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (18788)	12/16/2004 5:47:13 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Mortgage call center to cut 200 jobs Jennifer Gordon Business First Staff Writer About 200 call-center workers in Louisville will be out of a job as of Jan. 19 because of rising interest rates and a sluggish mortgage market. Financial ServiceSolutions LLC is cutting the work force at its local call center to 125 employees from more than 300. "Really, with the consumer demand for mortgages across the industry dropping over 50 percent, we're making the appropriate adjustments for our staffing, as well," said Greg Sullins, president and CEO of the Charlotte, N.C.-based company. Financial ServiceSolutions provides mortgage loan-processing services for financial institutions. "As interest rates continued to increase during the second and third quarter of 2004 and as the volumes change, we're making those adjustments," Sullins said. "We regret that this situation occurred." The employees, who are loan processors, were given 60 days notice last month and will be given a severance package, Sullins said. The employees make between $25,000 and $30,000 a year. FSS was formed in April 2003 as a joint venture between Fidelity National Financial of Jacksonville, Fla., and Bank of America of Charlotte, N.C. It has since added Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd. as an equity partner. FSS picked Louisville as its base of processing operations in July 2003, taking space in the Waterside Building at 101 E. Main St. that had been occupied by a Bank of America mortgage-servicing operation. At the time, FSS said it would hire former employees of Bank of America, which moved its mortgage-servicing operations in Louisville to Buffalo, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C. FSS' Louisville employment reached its peak this summer at about 400 employees, Sullins said. But since then, the company has cut chunks of its work force. Of the 125 workers who will remain following next month's cuts, about 75 percent work in processing, and the remainder are administrative employees, Sullins said.