The company’s balance sheet reflects $41.7 million in cash and short-term investments as of September 30, 2023, and $41.9 million as of October 30, 2023. Pacing for the third quarter continues to be variable. For the quarter, we are currently pacing down mid-single digits overall, and are basically flat with fourth quarter last year when factoring in political. We booked $1.9 million in gross political revenue during the fourth quarter last year. It still continues to be an unsettled advertising market, given the uncertain economy, the Fed’s interest rate policy, the ongoing inflationary environment, in addition to other worldwide issues. We currently expect that our station operating expense will increase by approximately 3.5% to 4.5% for the year as compared to 2022.
In addition to the inflationary environment, this is significantly driven by our investments in our staff, sales training, and ongoing interactive developments. We anticipate the annual corporate general and administrative expense will be approximately $10.5 million to $11 million for 2023. Our tax rate is expected to be 27% to 30% with a deferred tax of 5% to 8% going forward. And with that, I will turn it back over to Chris.
Chris Forgy: Well, Sam, you were very active today. Thank you for that. And thank you, Sam. So, as you can see, Saga continues to be a well-run, successful company in spite of what some think about the sector being a melting iceberg. And today, we’re just going to give you just a little peek behind the curtain to show you a few of the things that make Saga different and special as we see it, their leadership, character, culture, and people. We teach and preach that leadership is an action, not a position. In leadership, you create a vision, you gain acceptance of that vision, and then it’s a matter of empowering and inspiring your people to lead, to be a champion for change, and to grow themselves and to grow the organization.
If character is what an individual does when no one is looking, then culture is what an organization does when no one is looking. Culture is the character of the organization. So, the different and special attributes of Saga I mentioned earlier are strong character, unwavering culture, innovative leadership, and great people. And by the way, as Sam shared, these elements translate into a strong balance sheet, $40-plus million in cash and no debt. The best-run companies are the most profitable companies. The day I was talking with one of our investors who said, and I quote, and he’s right. He said, “Saga is an undervalued company and is an undervalued stock.” These are the messages that you should be getting out to the investment community.
He said, “Saga is a well-run company and is financially solid, and the high consistent dividends Saga pays, are safe.” We, Saga, I believe, get punished for the sins of our radio brethren, who are getting delisted and are in perilous financial condition because of their high debt and revenue decline, which causes investors who may not be all that knowledgeable or informed on the sector, to make negative generalizations about the entire sector. Thus, there is an unfairly unfairly-casted cloud over the whole industry. And that’s just not Saga. We behave differently. Our balance sheet shows it. Okay. Back to looking behind the curtain, as I mentioned to you. I was in the hospital recently. And prior to that, I had planned, organized, and curated a Saga leadership conference, which would have been the first one that we had had in five years.
I was to lead our leaders through a day and a half of innovation and growth. We had all of our new people acquisitions lined up and ready to install the vision with the entire group. Well, unfortunately for me, the day before the conference, I became ill and wasn’t able to be there for this very important event. And by the way, this was without question my greatest disappointment in my career thus far. I was devastated. As I was lying in my hospital bed feeling sorry for myself, I began to receive emails and texts from those who were in attendance at the conference, and they read things like this, even though you’re not here physically, your presence is definitely felt everywhere. Your corporate leadership team is really stepping up in leading the conference.
You would be proud. Managers that have been with Saga for over 20, maybe 25 years, were saying things like, this is the best managers meeting we’ve ever had. I quickly realized, this isn’t about me. It was about the character and the culture of our people that we had built and the leaders we had developed, in order for them to step up and behave as they did when I wasn’t able to be there. The Saga corporate leadership team showed who they are and who we want them to be. And it manifested itself right there in front of the entire Saga group of GMs and sales managers. They practice what we preached, and I was proud. The Saga Leadership Conference was so successful because our Saga leadership decided it was going to be. I don’t believe this could have happened, or would have happened in many of the other companies in the broadcast sector.
And about, I don’t know, a couple or three weeks later, I received a call from Phil Zachary, our GM in Portland, Maine. And he called me after the leadership conference. And by the way, he and I often talking sports analogies. And I think it’s timely because the World Series just happened. Congratulations to the Texas Rangers. And Phil said to me, you know, if I was in the World Series, and I was in the pitcher, and I was in Game 7, and I had to stand at the mound and look down the base path and see the Murderers’ Row of people that you all have established or we’ve established in the company, he said, I wouldn’t want to go to the mound and pitch, People like Sam Bush, Cathy Bobinski, Wayne Leland, Eric Christian, Angela Parks, Katie Gambill, Matt Burgoyne, Andrew Schulze, Mario Christino, and Pat Paxton, and of course, Tom Howe, and Bruce Werner, who head up our national sales.
