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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1976)
Study shows middle-class tax loa Texas Democrats in the red . r i • j—_ i nartv s affirmative action rules. Th Associated Press AUSTIN — The Texas Demo cratic Party has reported that it spent $19,657 more than it took in during the first six months of this year, even though Chairman Calvin Guest says he is paring down the party deficit The party reported to Secretary of State Mark White in its required fi nancial statement that it had income of $136,728 and expenditures of $156,385. Fort Worth Star-Telegram corre spondent Bob Bain reported Thurs day that Guest, of Bryan, cancelled a news release on Wednesday that said the party had never strayed from the “black side” of the ledger during his administration. In the release that finally came out, Guest said he had whittled the party’s debt from the $150,000 he inherited in 1972 to $110,000. Guest said fund-raising efforts in the 1973-76 period had raised $433,331. “From these profits, we’ve been .able to conduct our ongoing party business and still make significant reductions regularly on our overall deficit. I feel a keen responsibility to keep financial affairs in order and operate on a sound fiscal basis,’ Guest said. John Henry Tatum of Lufkin has made party finances a key issue in his campaign against Guest for the chairmanship. Bain’s report said a member of the .state party staff told him the original release saying Guest had kept the party in the black was withdrawn after the Star-Telegram questioned that assertion. Joe Bishop, manager of Guest’s i^e-election campaign, said the initial statement had never been cleared for release. He said the apparent discrepancy between the unreleased statement Eind the financial report filled with the secretary of state was “a matter of semantics.” One reported expenditure was $10,000 to the Austin law firm of McGinnis, Lochridge and Kilgore “for professional services.” Party treasurer Harold Figg said the money was paid for the firm s work in 1974 on two cases. One was a challenge by National Commit- teewomen Billie Carr to the state party’s affirmative action rules. The other arose from opposition to the holding of the 1974 state convention on a Jewish holy day, Figg said. “They are our legal representa tives and they represented us on that,” Figg said. Twpmm- WASHINGTON — In the past two decades, the share of the aver age family’s income paid in direct taxes has almost doubled. Those families with twice or even times the income have experienced only half as big a relative increase in their tax load. That startling measure of the shitt ing burden and increasing inequity of taxes is but one of the many find ings buried in a booklet with the in timidating title of Significant Fea tures of Fiscal Federalism, 1976 Edi tion.” It was released at a press brief ing recently by the Adivsory Com mission on Intergovernmental Rela tions, a 17-year-old agency in which reprsentatives of national, state and local governments study the opera tions of the federal system in the United States. In the past, the ACIR s dry-as- dust statistical studies have fueled recommendations which led to such major changes as the general revenue-sharing program and the “circuit-breaker limit on local property taxes. New reports from the commis sion’s Washington staff illuminate some of the realities which will shape the policy choices all levels of gov ernment will be making in the next decade. One table, for example, shows the extraordinary shift from defense to domestic welfare spending in the past 22 years. In 1954, at the end of the Korean War, the federal defense budget was almost equal to the com bined domestic spending of federal, state and local governments — $47.1 billion for defense; $49.9 billion for all domestic programs. This year, the domestic expenditures have risen to 78 per cent of the govern ment pie, while defense has shrunk to 22 per cent. To put it another way, half of the past two decades’ rapid growth in domestic spending has been fi nanced by taxes and deficits, and half by a shift in spending from defense to civilian programs. The implication: Unless new international agreements are reached capping defense spending, domestic program growth will have Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the university administration or the Board of Regents. The Battal ion is a non-profit, self supporting enterprise operated by stu dents as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica tion. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Servic es, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year, $35.00 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tav A dve ^- ing rates furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Rights of reproduction of all matter herein are reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. ^ Editor • JfJr Needham Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain Campus Editor Lisa City Editor J am, e A* ken Sports Editor Paul Amett Photography Director Kevin Venner News Editor Lloyd Lietz Reporters . Paul McGrath, Lee Roy Leschper, LeAnn Roby Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob G. Rogers, Chairman, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr.JohnP. Hanna, Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Roger Miller, Tom Dawsey, Jerri Ward, Joe Arredondo. Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper Assistant to the Director: W. Scott Sherman EARN EXTRA CASH As A Blood Plasma Donor At Plasma Products Inc. 313-C College Main Relax or Study in our Comfortable Beds While You Donate — Great Atmosphere — Trained Professional Help on Hand at all Times. Hours 9:30 to 6:00 Bring this coupon and receive $2 Bonus on your first donation. Effective # til Sept. 17. Call For More Information 846-4611 David S. Broder to slow. The armed services cannot continue to subsidize half its expand ing cost. Here’s another example of the surprising insights the ACIR studies afford. Probably no two topics have generated more controversy about the proper role of government than education and health. From the way they’re discussed, one would think the records were comparable. Not so. In 1950, the federal government paid 27 per cent of the education bills in this country; state and local governments, 59 per cent; and the private sector, 14 per cent. In 1975, the private share was up 2 per cent, the state and local government up 11 per cent, and the federal share had been cut in half to 13 per cent. Reason: The main variable in fed eral education spending is the size of the veterans’ educational programs — high after World War II, much reduced now. The more controver sial federal aid to education pro grams are, relatively speaking, in significant. Now, contrast that with health spending. So far, most of the public debate suggests that the question of national health assistance is still to be settled. The trends say otherwise. In 1950, the federal government’s total expenditure on health and medical care was $1.4 billion. State and local expenditures were barely more, and the private sector paid for 74 per cent of the total health bill. As recently as 1965, the same ratio held — 75 per cent private dollars in the health field. But in the last decade, federal health spending has literally exploded - to eight times the dollar amount of 1965, and the private share of the health bill has dropped below 58 per cent. If the trend con tinues, government will soon be pay ing more than half of all medical bills — and we had better hope there is a national health plan by that time, if only for cost control. Let’s get back to that first matter of surprise — tax burdens — and com pare what’s happened to the average family, the well-off family, and the rich. In 1953, the average family had an income of $5,000. By 1975, it had risen to $14,000. The well-off family is defined as having twice that in come in each year, and the wealthy family 4 times that much. The direct taxes on the average family rose 92 per cent in those 22 years; the well-off family s taxes 49 per cent; and the wealthy family s 46 per cent. No wonder there is a tax revolt in this country. But what taxes are really tobl The ACIR study shows two r culprits, neither widely suspeti, by most taxpayers. The average!! ily had a 25 per cent increase i federal income tax burden in period. But far more important the 400 per cent increase in St Security taxes, which went from over 1 per cent of the family in to almost 6 per cent. The other big source of in was the state and local income system. The average familybada percent increase in those I more than twice as much as _ wealthier neighbors experienced Thus, the tax revolt should! aimed at the federal Social SecuiiJ taxes, and the state and localim taxes. That is another surprise this deceptively innocuous ad\ organization. (c) 1976, The Washington Post Slouch by Jim EariJ STUDY TomtiK.iz.O'bl “I’ve learned one thing in political science already c/ass participation wifi be risky this year! Ford to stay near home this mom Carter to begin campaign MondaJ By WALTER R. MEARS Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Ford plans to stay close to the White House during most of this month, limiting his campaign travel to a se ries of relatively brief trips, accord ing to his new campaign chairman. James A. Baker III said there are no plans for extensive travel or ex tended presidential vote-hunting trips during the first month of the campaign against Democrat Jimmy Carter. Carter is formally launching his presidential campaign road show on Monday with a speech at Warm Springs, Ga., and Labor Day ap pearances at Darlington, S.C., Nor folk, Va., and Newark, N.J. A White House spokesman said there would be no Ford campaign travel before Wednesday. Press Sec retary Ron Nessen was to announce the President’s campaign kickoff plans today. Baker said in an interview that Ford will be doing less on-the-road campaigning this month than during the presidential primary elections. He said the President’s travels will increase later in the campaign, but that even then, his managers will seek to avoid long, wearying, multiple-speech days. The Ford plan clearly is intended to emphasize his incumbency and use the presidential stage. Furthermore, Ford’s advisers be lieve he is at his best when his itiner ary is limited and his speeches don t come in bunches. They point to his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination as the kind of campaign performance he can give when he has time to prepare and polish an address. Carter has tentative plans to cover nearly 20 cities during his first five- day campaign week. It is to take him north to Connecticut, west to Chicago and south to Hollywood, Fla., with appearances in Pennsyl vania, Maryland and Ohio in be tween. Ford telephoned Ronald Reagan on Thursday to ask for campaign help from the man he defeated for the Republican presidential nomina tion. A spokesman said they talked for 10 to 15 minutes. “Gov. Reagan agreed to do what he could,” said Deputy White House Press Secretary John Carlson. He said Ford called Reagan in Santa Barbara, Calif., “to solicit his advice on the campaign and to ask his help.” There was no word of any Reagan plan to campaign actively for Ford. Carter spent Thursday at home in Plains, Ga., preparing for meetings today with his running mate, Sen. Walter Mondale. The two Demo cratic nominees were to discuss plans for their campaign, which for mally opens on Labor Day. Mondale was in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, winding up his first campaign foray, a nine-day journey from coast-to-coast. At a meeting of the National Con ference of State Legislatures, the Minnesota senator said federal bureaucrats often have been arrog ant and paternalistic and that a new, creative partnership between state and federal governments is needed. “The past record on federal-state relations is dismal, he said. People do not believe that government works. They have had enough of bloated, unresponsive govertl ment.” Meanwhile, Ford’s runningM Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, was i Spartanburg, S.C., where hi praised federal judge Clement fl Haynsworth, Jr., who lives ne: and said it was “one of the tragedies” that Haynsworth was# confirmed to the Supreme C Haynsworth was nominated fal the high court by resigned PresM Richard Nixon in 1969, butthe^| nate rejected the nomination, par because of his rulings on civil ri{l cases. In other political development!I • Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, i an interview that her three [, sons have told her they have tritl marijuana. But, she said, ‘TheoJlJ time I worry about my doing something like smotel marijuana is if I thought they "til slipping around and doing it and«l letting me know about it.” • The House Judiciary Conn#' tee gave approval to legislation tl# 1 would provide Secret Service ptf tection to the wives of major pari! presidential candidates. Tne* sure was sought by the Treasury^ part ment after Carter and ‘' ' asked for the protection. Battalion seeking writers, columnist The Battalion is looking for a spe cial set of people to add to its staff, and is canvassing the student body for the traits necessary for the job. The task is to fill a variety of po sitions in the organization. Book, movie and art reviewers are being sought, as well as feature writers, feature and editorial columnists, cartoonists, illustrators, editorial as sistants and general assignment re porters. Review applicants are required to be able to communicate effectively their views, based on a of the position covered. No join nalism experience is necessary Feature writers and reporters"^ participate in campus and city ^ ats, investigative reporting and sp# cial interest reporting. Applicants are encouraged to or drop by The Battalion office, Reed McDonald Bldg., 845-26H Positions will be both paid voluntary. Hours are flexible an® will be negotiated. 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