je 8/The Battalion/Thursday, January 19, 1984
7iilf Oil victorious
wer Texas oilman
Warped
Z SPLMt m CHXIST^A^ 1.. COlWCl DENTALY, MOTHER
VACATION FT. 4- OH, R'l THE W All START E D CAKKUNG A SE IDE-
United Press International
PITTSBURGH — Gulf Oil
j^p. officially reorganized
■ider Delaware law Wednes-
*/, — a victory over Texas oil-
tr n and dissident shareholder
j r Boone Pickens after one of
tr biSS est P r o x y battles in U.S.
C( porate history.
a( The reorganization gives the
. 5 oil company an edge in a
te entially lengthy war with the
h<
sa Petroleum Co. chairman,
jjlargest shareholder.
a j At a special meeting lasting
ar s than five minutes, Gulf
airman James Lee formally
announced the results of a Dec.
2 stockholder vote approving
the plan and declared the mo
tion adopted.
Officials of the No. 5 oil com
pany then filed papers with
Pennsylvania’s secretary of state,
making the re-chartering offi
cial.
“It is clear that the sharehol
ders understood the need to
protect and preserve (our) prog
ress and to continue our efforts
to enhance their investment in
Gulf,” Lee said.
The move makes Gulf Oil a
subsidiary of a recently-formed
Delaware company. Gulf Corp
:p it
but
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and means Gulf Oil can keet
headquarters in Pittsburgh
operate under Delaware law,
making it harder for Pickens or
his allies to influence the com
pany’s affairs.
Without the change, Pickens
— leader of a dissident invest
ment group holding 13.2 per
cent of Gulfs stock — probably
could have placed two directors
on the company’s board at the
annual meeting in May.
Spokesman for Pickens re
fused to say if he would pursue
his lawsuit to block the reorgani
zation. Pickens lost a plea to
postpone the plan in federal
court Monday.
But Pickens has vowed to
keep pushing Gulf to boost its
return to shareholders by plac
ing oil and gas reserves into a
royalty trust — a controversial
tax shelter he pioneered.
The royalty trust concept was
the underlying issue in the $14
million proxy battle Gulf and
Pickens waged over the reorga
nization plan last fall.
by Scott McCullar
.. AAD, /A/ CLOS/A/6, X. RETURNED75
COLLEGE STATIOA, LEAV//VG ttY
FAMILY FREE OF THE TERROR OF
WONDERING WHAT ABOUT THEIR
PRIVATE LIVE5 WAS SUBJECT TO
APPEARING IN' A COMIC STRIP.
Bell official says pricing policy
threatening cheap phone service
Gulf claims the idea won’t
work at a big oil company,
although Mobil Corp. has asked
the Internal Revenue Service to
rule on its proposal to establish a
$1.5 billion royalty trust.
United Press International
ST. LOUIS — A Southwest
ern Bell official said Wednesday
that lack of a national pricing
policy threatens the future of
affordable local telephone ser
vice.
“Clear the air of uncertainties
surrounding telecommunica
tions policy,” said John Hayes,
company vic-president for re
venues and public affairs.
“The confusion surrounding
critical issues is sending the
wrong signals to state regulatory
commissions, the investment
community and customers at a
time when we can least afford
misunderstanding.”
Hayes said access charges and
bypass of local networks are
pivotal issues. Any phone system
that does not use local telephone
company equipment is a bypass.
An example would be a com
pany that installs its own private,
telephone system.
Without fair access charges or
some clear national pricing poli
cy, state commissions will con
tinue to pile costs onto “interex
change” carriers, said Hayes,
adding that greater expenses
will drive off large business cus
tomers'.
“The fewer people on the net
work, the fewer customers over
which to spread costs,” he said.
“That means higher telephone
prices for those remaining on
the network.”
The Federal Communication
Commission’s order on access
charges reduced the financial
incentive of heavy users to
bypass the network, Hayes said.
“In fact, the FCC plan is our
best insurance policy against a
bypass,” he told a seminar for
state utility commissioners and
industry representatives.
A study by Touche Ross and
Co. found that at least 25 per
cent of the Southwestern Bell
Corp.’s large business customers
in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklaho
ma, Kansas and Texas already
have installed bypass systems.
“Two-thirds of all businesses
surveyed are bypassing or plan
to bypass within three years,”
Hayes said. “Network bypass is a
fact and a growing concern."
Hayes said there are political
incentives not to recognize a
bypass problem, which would
indicate the need for higher
phone costs.
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Dr. Robert Leslie, Pastor
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Money hard to come by
Funding plans studied
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United Press International
DALLAS — With a scant six
weeks remaining before its com
prehensive report recommend
ing an overhaul of the state’s
schools is due, the Select Com
mittee on Public Education
Wednesday began grappling
with the basic issue of how to
finance the planned changes.
Comptroller Bob Bullock, a
member of the committee, un
veiled an alternative method to
fund public education which
hinges on equalization of state
funds distributed to school dis
tricts.
The equalization aspect re
vealed rifts between members of
the blue-ribbon panel’s over
sight committee on what general
form the public school overhaul
should take.
“This is up-front equalization
of the state funds,” Bullock said
of his funding proposal. “I think
that for all students to get a qual
ity education, they all have to
start equal.
“How can you talk about qual
ity education unless they’re all
equal.”
Under Bullock’s proposal,
school districts would receive
three basic block grants for
salaries and general expenses,
educating special students and
transportation. Districts now re
ceive funds under several more
complex categories.
Bullock said his system would
guarantee that districts with the
greatest need are given priority
in the distribution of state funds,
meeting the concept of equaliza
tion.
He said if his plan had been in
place during the current school
year, 340 of the poorest school
districts in the state would have
received approximately $123
million in additional state aid
without requiring a tax raise,
primarily at the expense of the
Dallas and Houston districts
which would have lost a com
bined $30 million under the
plan.
But Gov. Mark White, who
attended the Wednesday meet
ing of the committee, said the
panel should concentrate more
on a quality education for all stu
dents and not an equal educa
tion.
“We need to be sure the kid in
Cotulla is getting the same quali
ty of education as the kid in Dal
las,” White said. “If we just
equalize the number of dollars
spent on every child, we won’t be
gaining a lot, we’ll just be spend
ing a lot.”
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White repeatedly proposed
that the committee look to tele
communications and other
forms of technology to bring ab
out uniformity in the Quality of
education Texas students re-
“Television is the most impor
tant learning tool that is under
used today in education,” White
said. “Television is relatively
cheap and we can uniformly
apply it in every classroom
across the state.”
H. Ross Perot, the Dallas com
pute magnate who chairs the
committee appointed by White,
said equalization would have to
be addressed and indicated it
could raise new issues.
“If we have a good equaliza
tion program, do we want fewer
school districts or we more •
school districts?” Perot said. ‘
“You could make a case for more
school districts to put the schools
back in the hands of the people.” \
But Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby !
deemed it “irrational” that
Texas has more than 1,100 .
school districts and said consoli
dation would both ease im--
plementation of the proposed
school reforms and cut costs.
Though no cost has yet been
put on the committee’s pre-;.
liminary proposals, Perot has^
said that without a revamping of
the system, state spending for
education will increase from the
current $8.3 billion a year to $25
billion annually in the year 2,000
with no improvement in quality. ■
But Bullock warned Perot
that state coffers already are
strained.
“Just about any number (cost) '
you can recommend right now is
more than we have,” Bullock
said. “We still don’t think there’s
going to be any more money
than our last estimate last year.” ■
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