■
Viewpoint
Wednesday
April 11, 1979
The Battalion
Texas A&M University,
Feds tax breaking
A House subcommittee has begun work on legislation that would give
members of the House and Senate a $50-a-day income tax deduction to
help offset the cost of living in Washington. The bill would cost the gov
ernment an estimated $2.5 million a year in lost income tax revenue.
The $50-a-day deduction would be allowed when Congress is in ses
sion, including weekends, recesses of four days or less, and when a
member attends committee hearings even though the full House and
Senate is not in session.
It was only two years ago that Congress voted itself a $12,900 annual
pay raise, raising members’ wages to $57,500 a year.
The Senate in 1977, senators agreed to limit (senators’) outside income
to $8,625, or 15 percent of the annual salary. On March 8, the senators
voted 54-44 to suspend the ceiling and they will be able to make $25,000
in honorariums, at a maximum of $2,000 a speech, plus other outside
earned income.
Members of Congress deserve a decent standard of living, but too
much emphasis on their own pay problems will soon set them apart from
their constituents — who cannot pass legislation to counter the effects of
inflation. If the 7 percent guideline limit on raises is to prevail for the rest
of the nation, it ought to cover congressmen, too.
Dallas Times Herald
“MY CAMPAIGN MANAGER AND I ARE MAKING LAST MINUTE
ROUNDS TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR ME. HE’LL
ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MAY HAVE.’’
Carter and Congress: More troubles?
By STEVE GERSTEL
WASHINGTON — After two years and
some months in the White House, neither
President Carter nor those who surround
him fully understand just how sensitive
Congress is.
The perfect way to make members of
the Senate and House boil is to treat them
as toilers in a lesser branch of government.
To be sure, the administration has made
great strides in patching up White House
relations with Congress since those first
disastrous months. It was all-out war
then and Carter had hardly an ally on
Capitol Hill as the newcomers stumbled
around.
Despite the very noticeable improve
ment, however. Congress is still being left
out in the cold at some critical junctures.
That can only hurt Carter in the months
ahead.
The latest example occurred in relation
to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty — an
achievement for which Carter received
almost unanimous praise from members of
Congress.
But according to both Senate leaders.
Democrat Robert Byrd and Republican
Howard Baker, Carter never mentioned a
C ommentary
“Memorandum of Agreement” until it was
signed, sealed and delivered.
This “Memorandum of Agreement,”
which does not have to be ratified by the
Senate, promises Israel that the United
States could take diplomatic, economic
Texans should heed
Proposition 13 trial
By GORDON WILHELM
The people who live in Texas
have not felt the impact of Proposi
tion 13; we have only watched from
a distance. What have been the ef
fects of the Howard Jarvis-Paul
Gann proposition? Jarvis and Gann
are co-authors of Proposition 13
that passed in California on June 6,
1978.
Reader s Forum
The essential elements of the bill
are as follows:
—It slashes maximum property
tax rate to 1 percent of the full cash
value (1975-76 assessed value) of
real property. ^
—Assessed values may not be in
creased more than 2 percent per
year except on property that
changes hands.
—At the state level, the majority
vote is replaced by a two-thirds vote
requirement for new or increased
taxes. New taxes based on the value
or sale of real property are banned.
—No new substitute taxes can be
levied at the local level unless ap
proved by two-thirds of the “qual
ified voters.”
The proposal has slashed $7 bil
lion from current government
spending. But the loss isn’t as big as
it really looks. The state of Califor
nia had a fat surplus of $5 billion to
help curb the deficit, at least for this
year.
The state of California is now in a
state of limbo, using the surplus as a
crutch. What happens when the
state surplus is gone? The people
will have to make decisions on what
programs or facilities offered now
will be cut back on. Choices like, is
a park worth more than a library or
is a museum worth less than a senior
citizens’ handicraft program?
Cutbacks have already been felt
in the public schools. Summer
schools were closed in the Los
Angeles system. This cutback alone
shut out 260,000 students and put
10,000 full-time employees on un
paid summer vacations. School dis
tricts are the biggest dollar losers.
Some $3.5 billion, nearly 30 percent
of total revenue sources, was lost to
Proposition 13.
San Diego is contemplating a
shutdown of one-third of the city
parks and has laid off 38 city
planning staffers. Alpine put its
entire 21- man fire department staff
on notice, including the chief.
The money shortage will
progressively get worse as years go
by. Proposition 13 limits property
tax to a 2 percent increase a year
while inflation rampages upward at
6-10 percent per year.
The local units of government are
of course the real losers. The schools
were mentioned before, but another
visible cutback is seen in the Los
Angeles Police Department, which
lost $17.6 million of its current
budget. It now operates with 353
fewer police officers; 445 civilian
employees were given notices.
Meanwhile the fire department
had to reduce its fire crews sent out
on trucks from five to four because
of a $10 million budget cut.
In neighboring Orange County,
where this year’s budget is about
$34 million less, virtually all county
programs have been cut. Forty so
cial and mental health workers were
laid off along with personnel in
other county programs. Libraries
have been open less during the
week and closed on Sundays and
Mondays.
To look another step further into
Proposition 13, from the property
owner’s point of view, we see that a
change was needed. Ten years ago
the average annual property tax for a
single family home in California was
$362. But values have risen so fast
that in 1978 the tax paid on the av
erage home in California was $811.
Proposition 13 will roll back taxes
for single family dwellings to an av
erage of about $400.
The passage of the proposal allows
for savings of 50-60 percent in prop
erty taxes for owners of any real
property. According to the Los
Angeles Herald Examiner, Dodger
Stadium was assessed in 1975 at
$24.4 billion. Based on the Proposi
tion 13 figures, the Dodgers would
be levied a tax of $244,220, approx
imately $1 million less than in 1978.
Although the reaction pours in
from opponents and proponents of
the bill, we here in Texas can look at
it as an experiment knowing that
right now it has no effects on us. If it
works, we may try it; if it doesn’t
work, it was no loss to us. Right now
though, local governments and tax
payers in California have some real
tough decisions to make on how
their tax money is allocated.
Is the police department more
important than the fire deparmtent?
How much money does it take for
upkeep of a city park? Are county
hospitals and health centers really
needed? How much do we cutback
on education?
We as taxpayers in Texas may or
may not be faced with these deci
sions, but we are fortunate we can
just stand back and watch from a dis
tance the Proposition 13 experiment
in California.
Gordon Wilhelm is a junior rec
reation and parks major at Texas
A&M.
and military steps to enforce the treaty
under certain conditions until it was
signed, sealed and delivered.
What made Baker furious and what irri
tated Byrd was not the content of the
agreement. What set them off when it be
came public knowledge was that no one
had bothered to inform them.
Baker’s contacts with the administration
have been dwindling recently.
He laughingly attributes the lack of
communication to his call for a special
prosecutor to investigate the Carter family
peanut business. It may also be that he is
gearing up for a run at the presidency.
Nevertheless, Baker said he attended
two White House briefings on the peace
treaty and the “Memorandum of Agree
ment” was never mentioned. The same
thing happened to Byrd, Carter’s key man
in the Senate.
Alfred Atherton, the chief American
mediator in the Middle East, disputes the
point made by Byrd and Baker.
“We had a continuing process of consul
tation with the Congress during the
negotiations,” Atherton said. “There are
no secret agreements of commitments. ”
The chances of Byrd and Baker suc
cumbing to joint amnesia being negligible,
the question is with whom did the State
Department consult.
And why — if there was a “continuing
process of consultation” as claimed by At-
hrton — were Byrd and Baker left out.
There is more involved in this than
niceties.
Congress is going to have to appropriate
the “price” for the Egypt-Israeli peace and
the failure of the administration to be exact
on the cost from the beginning has already
Letters to the Editor
Education
Editor:
The Battalion’s articles concerning the
problems in the College of Architecture
were invaluable. Unfortunately there are
similar problems in at least one other col
lege, specifically the College of Science.
Decisions are being made with an appar
ent disregard for student welfare.
A specific example is the treatment of
Dr. Andrew T. Young. Dr. Young is one of
the top three or four planetary astronom
ers in the country, according to Dr. Carl
Sagan, a distinguished professor of as
tronomy from Cornell University. Dr.
Young is no longer a faculty member at
A&M.
Why? His change of status was not due
to deficiencies in his research.. His works
were cited over 80 times in 1977 alone.
His change of status was not due to in
adequacies in his teaching. The student
evaluations of his teaching were consis
tently above average. His change of status
was not due to long-term policy. The
physics department doesn’t have a perma
nent head to set such policy at present.
Apparently Dr. Young’s situation is due
to administrative whim rather than con
cern over the overall standards of the Uni
versity. This is a disgrace. We were led to
believe that Texas A&M was established
by law as an educational institution of the
first rank.
It is sad that the students have to point
out these problems, but the faculty is
afraid to do so. The fear that our faculty
members have of the administration was
illustrated last fall in The Battalion articles
concerning the new Architecture Build
ing. The professors who criticized the
building were afraid to be quoted for fear
that doing so would jeopardize their
careers. Many of our professors in the Col
lege of Science have the same fears.
This letter is not meant as an attack on
A&M and its traditions. It is, instead, a
sincere attempt to develop the free flow of
thought so that the Aggie tradition of
providing a first-rate education can be up
held.
—John E. Pearson, ’81
Dave Crisp, grad, student
Editor’s note: Dr. Young is currently a
research scientist at Texas A&M. This let
ter was accompanied by 50 other signa
tures.
rankled some members of Congress.
And past that. Carter faces the most dif
ficult foreign policy fight of his administra
tion when he sends a SALT II treaty to the
Senate for ratification.
Carter’s memory cannot be so short that
he has already forgotten that without Byrd
and Baker there would have been no
ratification of the Panama Canal treaty.
Writing, the editor
The Battalion welcomes letters to
the editor on any subject. However,
to be acceptable for publication these
letters must meet certain criteria.
Thev should:
V Not exceed 300 words or 1800
characters in length.
V Be neatly typed whenever
possible. Hand-written letters are
acceptable.
V Include the author’s name, ad
dress and telephone number for
verification.
Letters to the editor are printed as
a service to our readers. Publication
of a letter is never guaranteed. The
editorial staff reserves the right to
edit letters to remove grammatical er
rors and to avoid litigation.
Address letters to the editor to:
Letters to the Editor
The Battalion
Room 216
Reed McDonald Building
College Station, Texas 77843
\ -J
overlooked
Photo safari best
Editor:
Last Thursday evening, Tom Gillis gave
a talk and slide show presentation about
his latest hunting and photographic safari
in Africa. The slides from the photographic
segment, in Kenya, were very good.
Gillis strongly recommended a photo
graphic safari since, “it is like going to an
outdoor zoo.” He also said that “tourists
cannot hunt there.” Thank God for this. If
it were left up Gillis, the situation would
be much different. I’ll never forget how he
admired those “excellent trophy animals,”
and remarked several times how he
wished they’d “open those outdoor zoos to
hunters. ”
May God save us and our cherished
wildlife from such reckless and potentially
dangerous mentalities. Our international
wildlife parks and reserves are too few in
number as it is. Those that exist, serve
vital ecological functions and provide
aesthetic enjoyment. Enjoy while you can,
for hundreds of beautiful wild animals and
birds, there is no tomorrow unless we all
begin to really care.
—L. Ashley Phillips, ’80
Clarification
Some lines were accidentally left
out of an article in Tuesday’s Batta-
tion about the A&M Consolidated
School Board.
The corrected version reads:
In other business, the board ap
proved the “concept” of the high
school curriculum changes that in
clude additional health courses,
English as a second language, pot
tery and basic guitar.
Herman Brown, one of the new
trustees, protested the board’s in
volvement in curriculum changes,
saying it is “a matter that should be
worked out between teachers and
administrators. ”
Trustee Bruce Robeck reassured
him that the board was approving
only the concept and that the
changes would be handled by the
administration.
The Battalion regrets the omis
sion.
Top of the News
CAMPUS
Engineering magazine to begin
The publishing committee of the Students Engineers Council is
now accepting applications for editor for the new Texas A&M Engi
neer. The magazine is to be published quarterly by the College of
Engineering. Any engineering student interested in applying for the
position may contact Rick Griffith at 846-9706 for an interview.
STATE
Clements hires FBI No. 2 man
The FBI’s No. 2 official, James B. Adams, is retiring next month to
take a job with the Texas state goverment, in a move not related to
allegations of perjury against him. Director William Webster an
nounced Tuesday in Washington. Adams will become executive di
rector of the Criminal Justice Division in the office of Texas Gov.
William Clements Jr. An FBI spokesman said Adams’ departure after
27 years is unrelated to a Justice Department investigation of charges
he lied or withheld information about illegal bureau activities. The
charges against Adams were made by Wesley Swearingen, a retired
FBI agent, who claimed Adams covered up extensive illegal break-
ins, wiretaps and mail openings in the 1960s and ‘70s. Adams, a
native of Corsicana, Texas, was a state legislator before joining the
FBI in 1951. He rose steadily through the ranks, and was appointed
to the bureau’s No. 2 job of associate director a year ago.
Drinking age may be raised to 19
NATION
Talks continue in trucking strike
WORLD
Priest drinks poisoned wine
Don Giuseppe Mura, 39, the parish priest of the church of the Holy
Cross at Pattada in northern Sardinia, sipped the communion wine be
fore his congregation at morning mass, dropped the chalice, and
clutched at his stomach. As he told police later: “The wine tasted bitter
so I only drank a few drops. ” Police were waiting Tuesday for a chemi
cal analysis of the poisoned wine as Mura recovered in a hospital.
Sea quake felt near Phillipines
An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale
struck the South Pacific early Tuesday, but there were no reports of
casualties or damage, the Philippine Geophysical Division in Manila
said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu told the divi
sion the tremor originated from the sea in the vicinity of Talaud
Island 227 miles southeast of Davao Port City in the Mindanao re
gion, Southern Philippines.
WEATHER
The Texas Senate Tuesday approved 25-5 and sent to the House a
bill raising the legal age for drinking alcoholic beverages from 18 to 19
years. Sen. Walter Mengden, R-Houston, accepted an amendmentto
the bill allowing 18-year-olds to continue to work in restaurants and
stores that sell beer and liquor, but said 18-year-old drinking should
be banned. Critics said the legislation is unconstitutional because it
allows 18-year-olds to sell liquor but not drink it. Mengden initially
attempted to pass the bill last week, but ran into opposition from
senators who said its provisions would prevent teen-agers from work
ing in grocery stores where alcoholic beverages are sold.
Negotiators in the 10-day nationwide trucking strike may be ap
proaching a break in their bargaining deadlock. Teamsters President
Frank Fitzsimmons indicated in Washington Tuesday. The 2.1
million-member union and the trucking industry resumed contract
talks under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service aftera 10-hour session Monday. Chief federal mediator Wayne
Horvitz said when talks recessed shortly after midnight that “some
progress” had been made but that there was “a considerable amount
of ground to cover. ” Sources close to the bargaining said the two sides
reached basic agreement last week on major wage issues that would
give the Teamsters a 28 to 30 percent overall boost during the three-
year term of a new contract.
‘Spy’ ship watches missile explode
As a suspected Soviet spy ship watched, a Trident missile made a
submerged launch 35 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
Tuesday from a submarine but was destroyed 30 seconds into the
flight because it veered off course. “It probably was a Russian intelli
gence collection ship,” said Cmdr. Walter B. Davis, head of Navy
Operational Test Support on the Range Sentinel, an observer ship in
the area. The Navy said the submarine was shaken by the shock
waves, but there was no damage and no injuries. The Navy and Air
Force both said they would have to study the launch before they
could determine what went wrong with the first test at sea of the
multiple-warhead Trident.
Mostly cloudy skies turning partly cloudy this afternoon. High
in the 70’s and a low of 60. 30% chance of rain today.
The Battalion
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Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor KimT)**
Managing Editor LizNe^
Assistant Managing Editor .Andy WilluS 1
Sports Editor David i
City Editor Scott PendleK 1
Campus Editor Steve l/*
News Editors Debbie PanoS
Beth Calhoun
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Editorial policy is determined by theeditt