What did that highway sign say? States gets creative, but feds warn of confusion

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By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org

States have had their fun with highway safety messages, posting everything from Taylor Swift lyrics to discourage texting in Mississippi, to a “vibe check” — winking at Gen Z — to encourage seat belt use in Arizona.

Such messages are shown intermittently on thousands of highway signs, known as variable messaging signs, when the billboards aren’t lit up with alerts about accidents, construction or other real-time traffic issues.

As the summer vacation season gets going, millions of America’s interstate drivers can expect to find more puns, silly turns of phrase or cultural references on those massive missives.

But federal safety officials aren’t amused by states’ cheek. In recent years, they’ve begun to discourage what they view as overly creative messages, fearing that in trying to entertain drivers, highway officials are confusing rather than enlightening them. Some states, most recently Arizona and New Jersey, have pushed back. As a result, officials at the Federal Highway Administration clarified this year that they’re not banning road-sign humor outright.

Mississippi, the state with the highest motor vehicle fatality rate in the country last year, has been particularly creative. Recent messages have included “FOUR I’S IN MISSISSIPPI TWO EYES ON THE ROAD,” and a reference to the Taylor Swift song “Anti-Hero”: “TEXTING AND DRIVING? SAY IT: I’M THE PROBLEM IT’S ME.”

“It’s been an effective program for us. We haven’t been contacted by [the] federal highway department and told to cease and desist. We want to be in compliance, but we haven’t stopped our message program,” said Paul Katool, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

A new rulebook issued last year “does not prohibit messages from including humor or cultural references,” Federal Highway Administration chief Shailen Bhatt wrote in a recent letter to U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, and Thomas Kean Jr., a New Jersey Republican.

The representatives had complained earlier this year that the agency was stifling state creativity, calling the new rules “a blanket discouragement of humorous signs that leaves no room for state-by-state discretion.”

“Both of these states have signs that use slang or popular language, but the messages are clear,” the representatives wrote in their letter to Bhatt.

They cited messages such as two Arizona contest winners, “SEATBELTS ALWAYS PASS THE VIBE CHECK” and “I’M JUST A SIGN ASKING DRIVERS TO USE TURN SIGNALS,” as well as New Jersey’s recent holiday messages: “ DON’T BE A GRINCH, LET THEM MERGE” and “ SANTA’S WATCHING, PUT DOWN THE PHONE.”

Bhatt’s response is an apparent softening of the FHWA’s opposition to the signs, after the agency asked New Jersey to pull down some messages in 2022. Some became so popular on social media that the state Department of Transportation asked drivers not to take photos of the signs while driving, posting a cat meme on its own social media accounts: “IF YOU KEEP TAKING PHOTOS OF THE VMS BOARDS WHILE DRIVING WE WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND AND GO BACK TO THE OLD MESSAGES.”

Messages shown in 2022 included “GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR APPS” and “SLOW DOWN. THIS AIN’T THUNDER ROAD,” a reference to a song by favorite son Bruce Springsteen, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The Federal Highway Administration isn’t telling states what to do — states retain control of their message boards — but it doesn’t think humor and cultural references are helpful. Vehicles pass under the signs in the blink of an eye, and the missives could puzzle people who don’t “get it” right away.

“FHWA appreciates the States’ efforts to creatively convey important safety messaging to motorists. Those messages need to be balanced with maintaining driver attention,” Bhatt wrote in his letter to the lawmakers.

An agency spokesperson, Nancy Singer, said in a statement that “states may develop their own traffic safety campaign messages” but they should avoid “messages with obscure meaning, references to popular culture, that are intended to be humorous, or otherwise use non-standard syntax.”

There’s some serious research behind the new guidance: One of the studies cited in Bhatt’s letter shows that overly creative language can have the wrong effect when used on a highway message sign. Driving behavior can get more dangerous, not less so, if you’re trying to process a confusing message.

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“Messages involving humor, wit or pop culture references could have adverse consequences on driving behavior for motorists who are unable to correctly interpret those messages,” according to the 2022 study published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Lead author Gerald Ullman, who was senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute at the time the study was published, said it simulated highway-sign messages seen while driving.

Highway wit can work well but only “for drivers who get the humor used and the traffic safety point of the message,” Ullman said in an email exchange. “However, it does appear to have adverse effects on those drivers who don’t get it.

“Pop culture references that younger drivers get might very easily be confusing for older drivers,” he said. “Conversely, puns or references to older funny movies that older drivers find witty can fly completely over the heads of younger drivers.”

Still in states such as Mississippi, state officials have heard from residents who say creative messages changed their habits, which might not have happened with more direct language, Katool said.

“It’s all good fun, but the point is to save lives,” Katool said. “There’s really only so many times you can just tell somebody to stop texting and driving or tell them to slow down. Eventually they just kind of tune you out. So we feel this is a way to leverage holidays, popular culture, music, that kind of thing.”

New Jersey is still using humor in its messages: A batch that ran in May included “SLOW DOWN BAD DRIVERS AHEAD” AND “CAMP IN THE WOODS NOT THE LEFT LANE.”

But the state is “mindful of the kinds of messages we put up, keeping them safety oriented” and does follow federal guidance, said New Jersey Department of Transportation spokesperson Stephen Schapiro.

The latest messages in June include “THERE’S NO DEBATE DON’T TAILGATE” and “LET THE WAVES DO THE CRASHING STAY ALERT!”

New Jersey has one of the lowest rates of traffic fatalities as of 2023, about 0.78 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven. Minnesota is the only state lower, at 0.71, with the highest being Mississippi (1.76) and Arizona (1.69), according to preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics.

In Arizona, messages “sometimes include humor and cultural references, and we work hard to make sure key messages about safety will be easily understood by drivers,” said Doug Pacey, a transportation spokesperson. Over the Memorial Day weekend, the department used a relatively straightforward message: “COOKOUT ESSENTIALS BBQ, MUSIC, WATER, DESIGNATED DRIVERS.”

Like New Jersey and Mississippi, Arizona sometimes gets the public involved in picking safety messages with contests. A contest last fall led to two winning messages: “I’M JUST A SIGN ASKING DRIVERS TO USE TURN SIGNALS” — a reference to a line in the 1990 film “Notting Hill” with actor Julia Roberts, whose character in the film says, “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

Another contest winner, Elise Riker, won for “SEATBELTS ALWAYS PASS THE VIBE CHECK” which was also displayed last fall. A marketing professor at Arizona State University, Riker told Stateline she crafted it to appeal to Gen Z drivers.

“A vibe check is Gen Z slang for good vibrations, from the 70’s,” Riker said. “Levity definitely helps a safety message get through. ‘You can die in a car accident without your seatbelt’ is more likely to be ignored.

“Nobody likes to think about dying,” she said. “Friendly and funny safety messages are a reminder that there are humans at the heart of it.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The hidden cost of helping friends earn more credit card rewards

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By Sara Rathner | NerdWallet

Thanks to travel rewards credit cards, you summer like a celebrity for the cost of a staycation, and your friends are starting to notice. There’s no reason to gatekeep your travel secrets — the more friends know about how to earn valuable rewards, the more who will join you on epic and deeply discounted adventures.

Not only do you take the time to answer their credit card questions, but you also send referral links if you carry a card they’re interested in applying for. If they end up getting a card with your referral, they can earn a generous sign-up bonus by meeting the card’s spending requirement, and you get “paid” for your time and expertise by getting a referral bonus.

But there might be a catch. That referral bonus can come with a tax bill.

How the IRS looks at credit card rewards

You may owe taxes on some credit card rewards, depending on how you earn them and the dollar value of what you redeem.

“If you have to spend money for it — for example, you get a bonus after spending $3,000 within a certain time frame — then, it‘s not taxable,” Luis F. Rosa, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent in Las Vegas, said in an email. “However, if no money was spent and it was just an incentive, then, the income is taxable.”

According to the IRS, rewards earned through spending count as rebates, which aren’t taxable. But you don’t have to spend anything to earn a referral bonus, so it’s potentially taxable, especially if you earned at least $600 in value.

Credit card issuers’ fine print spells this out, though some issuers provide more information than others. Citibank’s terms and conditions are quite specific, stating that you may owe taxes on rewards in the year in which you redeemed them, and Citibank determines the value of those rewards. Chase and American Express also include language on taxes in their terms and conditions, but it’s more vague, basically stating that you may earn taxable income and, if so, you’re responsible for the tax liability.

If any of your credit card rewards earnings meet the qualifications to count as taxable, you’ll receive a 1099-MISC form from your card issuer, which will contain information to include on your tax return. Rosa says that even if your earnings from referral bonuses amount to less than $600 and you don’t receive a 1099-MISC, you should still report those earnings to the IRS.

When in doubt, consult a tax professional for guidance on your specific situation.

Should you refer friends for credit card offers?

Any taxes you may have to pay will, of course, be a percentage of the value of the bonus. So it may still be worth it to you to refer friends and deal with the sting of a slight increase to your taxable income later on.

There is another instance, however, where you might want to hold off for the sake of your friendship. Sometimes a card’s welcome offer is larger if you apply through the card’s website or at a bank branch location. In cases where your referral yields a smaller bonus for your friend, the decent thing to do would be to steer them toward the bigger bonus.

Sure, you won’t get that financial incentive, but you’ll win your friend’s respect and avoid potential taxation.

Sara Rathner writes for NerdWallet. Email: srathner@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @sarakrathner.

Millennials are hungry for homes, but high rates are keeping them from buying

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AUSTIN — U.S. existing home sales have reached their lowest levels in nearly 30 years, despite a surge of millennials entering their prime homebuying years, and activity likely won’t bounce back until interest rates start coming down.

“I thought by this time the housing market would be recovering. It has not yet recovered. Home sales are still down from last year,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economic with the National Association of Realtors, speaking Thursday at the annual conference of the National Association of Real Estate Editors in Austin.

The Federal Reserve gave guidance in December that it might cut rates three to four times in 2024. But inflation has remained more persistent than expected, and forecasts are now down to one or two cuts this year, Yun said.

Although the country has 70 million more people than in 1995, existing home sales nationally are now at levels seen in that year, he said.

Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic, called 2024 “the year of the head fake” when it comes to housing.

“We started the year expecting a recovery in the housing market. It turned out to be more of the same. Mortgage markets remain elevated,” she said at NAREE.

Rates matter because monthly payments are running about 80% higher for the exact same home than they were prior to the big jump in mortgage rates, Hepp said.

Hepp said even if sales aren’t picking up steam, home prices are. Her forecast calls for a 5.7% gain nationally, describing it as “another really robust year” for home prices.

The inventory of homes is growing, which should give buyers more options and could lift sales, especially if rates come down. Metro Denver, for example, has 3.4 times as many listings this year as it had in the first five months of 2021.

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Hepp said where the strongest home price gains are happening is shifting. Formerly hot southern markets like Texas and Florida have been replaced by markets in the Northeast, Midwest and California.

“Markets that are seeing a lot of job growth aren’t seeing high home price appreciation,” she said.

Through the first five months of the year, the median price of a home sold in metro Denver is 2.76% higher than in 2023, although prices remain 1.5% below the peak reached in 2022.

Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American Corp., said millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation. Although a smaller percentage own homes than comparable generations did at their age, most are still looking to buy — it’s just taking them longer to get there.

Affordability remains a challenge, but lower interest rates should help when they arrive. And the housing market will have a strong foundation of demand for the next several years.

Wallner homers again as Saints win 10th in a row

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Matt Wallner hit his International League-leading 18th home run, Randy Dobnak worked around trouble in five innings pitched and the St. Paul Saints won their 10th game in a row, beating Toledo 4-2 on Friday night.

Dobnak (6-5) allowed just one run, but gave up three hits and five walks in his outing. Dobnak had four strikeouts. Ronny Henriquez secured his third save of the season.

But St. Paul’s recent run has been buoyed by a deeper lineup and surging offense, thanks to some improved health and a couple of players demoted by the Twins making an impact.

Wallner has homered in back-to-back games, has seven in his past eight games and 11 in the month of June. His league-leading total has come in just 56 games after starting the season with Minnesota.

The Saints’ first run came on a bases-loaded walk by Anthony Prato, which Toledo challenged using the ball-strike challenge system. The call was upheld. Wallner’s two-run homer, with Brooks Lee on base, came in the fifth inning to put St. Paul ahead for good. The final run came in the eighth on a throwing error by Mud Hens catcher Dillon Dingler after Will Holland and Prato executed a double steal.

Lee, Diego Castillo and Will Holland each had two hits for the Saints.

According to the team, its 10-game winning streak is the longest by a Twins Triple-A affiliate since at least 2005. St. Paul became the eighth team in the International League, since the Saints became a Triple-A affiliate in 2021, to win at least 10 games in a row.

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