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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1975)
Paqe 12 THE BATTALION ^ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1975 Election Take a few minutes to bring your bicycle in for service. WE SERVICE ALL MAKES OF BICYCLES Also Sales Center For: PEUGEOT • RALEIGH • BICYCLES Bicycle parts & accessories CENTRAL CYCLE & SUPPLY Sales • Service • Accessories 3505 E. 29th St. — 822-2228 — Closed Monday Take East University to 29th St. (Tarrow Street) Voters pass two amendments By The Associated Press Texas voters Tuesday night over whelmingly approved increased re tirement benefits for teachers and public employes and, by a smaller majority, approved a pay raise for their state legislators. In a light turnout preceded by very little organized campaigning about tep per cent of the registered voters went to the polls under clear to partly cloudy skies to register their support for the two proposed constitutional amendments. Amendment number one, calling for an increase in retirement be nefits for teachers and public emp loyes was approved by nearly 75 per cent of the voters, while the pay raise for state legislators was getting the approval of nearly 60 per cent of the voters. As expected, the pay raise found opposition mostly in rural counties with at least 64 rejecting it. But rural Texas was more sympathetic to the teachers and public employes voting in favor of their increase in benefits. Urban counties voted in favor of the increased benefits by a majority of 73.39 per cent and in favor of the pay raise by a majority of 59.36 per cent. In rural counties the vote on in creased benefits for teachers and public employes was 71.86 per cent in favor and on the pay raise was 56.96 in favor. There was little organized sup port for either constitution change before the election except by those directly involved — state legis lators, schoolteachers and state em ployes. One group ofTexas House mem bers urged a “low profile campaign” to get teachers, state employes and their friends to the polls but keep others away. A similar special election in 1973, another nonpresidential election year, attracted 605,000 voters to have their say on nine proposed constitution changes. The 1973 legislative pay raise proposal — to increase the annual pay from $4,800 to $15,000 — carried in only 12 of the 254 counties. The lonesome two issues on Tuesday’s ballot made up the shor- Growth may be bad if not fully justifiable Cafeteria J New and Better Than Ever. You Will Be Pleased With These Carefully Prepared and Taste Tempting Foods. 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Each evening from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. any person who purchases food totaling $5.00 or more will receive a free enlarged reproduction of a REPUBLIC OF TEXAS FIVE DOLLAR BILL FRIDAY EVENING SPECIAL Mexican Fiesta Dinner Two Cheese and Onion Enchiladas w/chili Mexican Rice Patio Style Pinto Beans Tostadas Coffee or Tea One Corn Bread and Butter SATURDAY NOON and EVENING SPECIAL “Yankee Pot Roast Texas Style” Tossed Salad Choice of one vegetable Roll or Corn Bread & Butter Tea or Coffee “Quality First” \\ SUNDAY SPECIAL NOON and EVENING ROAST TURKEY DINNER Served with Cranberry Sauce Cornbread Dressing Roll or Corn Bread - Butter - Coffee or Tea Giblet Gravy And your choice of any One vegetable WASHINGTON (AP) — Russell W. Peterson, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, said Tuesday that the nation could grow itself to death. In a speech to the National Con ference on Water, Peterson said there’s only one thing in nature “based on the principle of constant growth. We call it cancer.” The conference, he said, should balance industrial and economic needs for water against environ mental needs and quality. “We are at the point now where you must distinguish between re quirement and demand. In that myopic way that permits us to as sume that life will always go on, we are entirely capable of growing our selves to death,” Peterson told the delegates. The conference was called by a group of cabinet-level officials, composing the U.S. Water Re sources Council, to develop rec ommendations on national water policy. The nation is being guided by the position of former President Richard M. Nixon who said in 1973 the future of water projects should be justified on both environmental quality and their economic need. Both factors should have an equal weight in developing projects for navigation, irrigation and flood con trol, he said. However, in 1974 Congress di rected the council to reevaluate this position in light of the intense pres sure on the nation’s water supply expected for the rest of this century. test ballot on constitutional changes ever presented Texas voters since 1923. The Secretary of State estimated the election cost at $1.5 million, no matter how few or how many turned out. I Here briefly were the constitu tion changes approved earlier this year by the legislature and sent to voters as an emergency matter: Proposition No. 1 — Adds a new section to the present constitution and repeals six existing sections to continue in effect public retirement systems and benefit programs for teachers, state and local employes, leaving virtually all details of their administration to the legislature. On the state retirement systems, the change would wipe out the pre sent requirement that state and employe contributions to such funds be the same. The new lan guage says employe contributions would not be less than 6 per cent and the state contribution limit is raised from 6 to 10 per cent. On local retirement systems the legisla ture could establish programs for city and county employes but par ticipation by local government would be voluntary. Proposition No. 2 — Increase the pay of the 181 state senators and representatives from $4,800 to $7,200 a year; increase their per sonal living expense accounts dur ing legislative sessions from $12 to $30 a day, and give them travel pay of 16 cents a mile, instead of 10. The change would cost the state an addi tional $1.4 million the next two voters adopt a new state constiW tion in another special election Not, 4. The pay legislators are receivjl on Nov. 4 would continue untili salary commission, as createdintk new constitution, can act, probaUij some time in 1977. The current contribution ratesliI state retirement funds on Nov.ll would be phased into the new con stitution. The combined cost ofchangesii the retirement plans was estimated | at $124 million for the next hr years, all coming from general re j venue. The schedule calls for abonl 45,(XX) retired teachers to get 5toli I per cent boosts in retirement pay. and alxmt 9,6(X) retired state emp loyes, including 96 retired legis lators and statewide elected ol cials, to get 12 per cent increases Prior to the Tuesday voting Texas voters turned down legist five pay raises five times since ther first went on the annual salary basis in I960. The $4,800 salary, plus $12 a da) I for personal expenses during ses-1 sions, was approved in 1960andre-1 placed “part-time pay ” of $25 a day * when in session mid nothing for the interims. - Senators and representatives B have complained that the $4,80(11 salary was still just “part-time pay” * for a job that took full time. Thefea I news releases put out by legislaton ■ years. Neither issue would be affected if before the election referred to the | proposed pay change as an “adjust- I ment” because of inflation, notapay I increase. . J&r House passes voting rights bill Benefits Mexican-Americans AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) — The Texas House has passed a Senate- originated bill making it easier for many Mexican-American to vote. Tuesday’s 123-16 vote came on the same day as a U.S. Senate com mittee heard testimony on a bill by Texas Congress-woman Barbara Jordan to extend federal supervision to elections in her home state. House members also defeated, for the second time, a bill relieving county property taxpayers of the re quirement that they pay 50 percent of the cost of highway right-of-way. Rep. John Wilson, D-LaGrange, the sponsor, followed the 66-72 de feat of his bill by saying his next effort will be to add to the general appropriation bill a rider requiring the state to pay the full cost of right-of-way. This would add about $9 million to yearly highway costs, Wilson said. The voting bill would require all election materials, including voter registration forms and ballot in structions, to be in both English and Spanish in counties whose popula- Mexican- tions are 5 percent American or more. Critics said Monday that the bill was rushed through so that Secret ary of State Mark White could use it in his testimony in Washington Tuesday as ammunition to keep federal voting supervisors out of Texas. White cited the measure in his remarks. State senators must act on House amendments before the bill can be sent to the governor for signature into law. Wilson talked the House into a 71-65 vote to bring his highway right-of-way bill back to life but could not persuade the representa tives to pass it. The Texas Highway Department places an intolerable financial bur den for right-of-way on many coun ties when it decides to run new roads through them, Wilson said. “We have counties that cannot possibly afford the right of way — they don’t have the money . . . Today, highway right-of-way brings a price that is more costly than the Wil- fair market value of the land,’ son said. Opponents said the bill might impose such a large drain on the giant highway trust fond that either construction would have to stop or an increase in the gasoline tax would be required. An expected House vote on a con troversial bill appropriating $2.8 million from the State Textbook Fund to cover book contracts in ex cess of the amount appropriated did not materialize. Speaker Bill Clayton said spon sors wanted to await an attorney general’s opinion, requested Mon day by the House, on whether the bill would violate a constitutional mission to eliminate all represents I tion of the regulated juke box and I game machine industry. Most of the present commission’s duties were taken away by recent court decisions holding unconstitu tional the taxation and regulation system imposed by the law creating it. Also approved and sent to the House were measures that would: — Urge Congress to reject legis- I lation banning the manufacture of f handgun ammunition. — Establish a state policy of de- i veloping geothermal energy, under [ supervision of the Texas Railroad Commission. Te foi provision against grants to private interests. MEET COACH The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama’s Coach Bryant; BRYANT FRI. APRIL 25 AUTOGRAPH PARTY 1'45 - 2:45 PM TEXAS AGGIE by Paul W. Bryant and John Underwood BOOKSTORE northgate Senators approved and sent to the House, 27-3, a bill by Sen. Frank Lombardino, D-San Antonio, a former policeman, to let retired of ficers carry handguns for five more years. He explained that many such peace officers receive threats from persons they had arrested. They also sent the House a bill changing the composition of the Texas Amusement Machine Com- — Permit suspension of a drivers license if a justice of the peace or municipal judge found it waslikelya money judgment would he entered against him for not having auto lia bility insurance after having an ac cident. Under present law, an ac tual judgment must be entered be fore a license can be suspended. Senators tentatively approved, 22-8, a bill reejuiring all health in surance policies to cover treatment for alcoholism. i David 5 the Maro David Wa at the ou spring foe Saturday i The coi Admission for non-A if purchas be good fc doublehea Texas, sta Along v ing Maro backs But and fullba David W; man and and Buck- The sta will be C Richard C B u j n o c tackles, ] Glendenn Tracy at i line will end, Dav George B AAMCO' 10% AGGIE DISCOUNT on all Transmission Jobs with I. D. Card and this coupon. FREE Towing AAMCO TRANSMISSIONS 1215 Texas 822-0109 , : IU»J man is special. JERRY H. BIRDWELL, JR. 822-1559 Jerry Birdwell is a specialist in the Optional Retirement Program, HR-10, and other tax shelters to provide future financial security for faculty, staff and all professionals. He understands the problems and opportunities peculiar to your profession, and would like to be of service to you. 3200 So. College Ave. P. O. Box 3667 Bryan, Texas 77801 JcRenton sianuani C PIP]