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State finance crisis may cause
budget cuts, Caperton says.
—Page 10
A&M duo trying to knock out
nationally-ranked opponents
— Page 13
The Battalion
>eUtt S— —
'ol. 83 No. 92 (JSPS 075360 16 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 6, 1986
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>n plane
GRAPEVINE — A knife-wielding
an took 221 passengers hostage
)oanl a Delta Air Lines jumbo jet
te Wednesday, and held them at
idlas-Fort Worth International Air-
ort, officials said.
Hrport spokesman Joe Dealey
lid ail the passengers were allowed
(leave thejet within two hours.
Tlis' man held a knife at the throat
fa male steward, and the crew was
•aboard the plane, Dealey said.
He plane was Flight 139, which was
lund for Los Angeles from Fort
auderdale, Fla., with a scheduled
op in Dallas, Dealey said.
Agent John Hippard said two F'BI
■tiators were sent to the scene.
■iere were no reports of injuries
Ward the Lockheed L1011 jet,
ealey said.
• He said officials did not know if
Ionian had help in taking over the
aft or when he took over thejet.
See related story, page 12
Twinkle, Twinkle
Although security lights at the construction site
near the Zachry Engineering Center make the
Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ
area easier to police, they also make a picturesque
view in the darkness.
reform bill to go before Senate
A&M pension plan in danger again
; resulc
iers are«
ingested t
jnal caK
ts incontt
isbestosb
lors in ri
BySONDRA PICKARD
Staff Writer
The future of the primary retire-
ent program used by many em-
byees at Texas colleges and uni-
jrtities is in the hands of the U.S.
(nate this week as it begins hear-
onthe 1985 Tax Reform Propo-
, Hoping to save the Texas Optio-
Retirement Program, which is
e primary pension plan used by
nit 30,000 administrators and fac-
jagel) lymembers at 95 colleges and uni-
pities, officials at Texas A&M and
rh intwgjjr Texas schools are meeting to
ned (' iy with Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of
ican pn' Bs, a member of the Senate Fi-
;n mad-Be Committee,
st ration
T Di' [Participating in the forum are Sys-
to Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen,
in of &M President Frank E. Vandiver,
littee, ■ fe University of Texas chancellor
n adntii'M president, and the presidents of
ionaldtaW University of Houston and
e've g r '|^s Tech University.
•st creMMichael Lytle, special assistant to
r greaio I chancellor for federal relations,
ys he and his counterpart at UT
uiwedtehve been working closely with
nieiideit'Hten and the staff of the Senate
-re H^pnce Committee to make sure
I asajuw understand how the tax plan,
jresiW'Bh includes the ORP, affects
dv to m^Hs universities.
,, to ge: ■ In case lawmakers do recognize
ducts, i ( | need for a change, Lytle and
educatio 11 ® Honea, A&M director of insur-
Ice and risk management, and
^iij staff have developed some al-
^jjjjS^mative language to the part of the
I ii plan effecting ORP. They also
H met with a staff member who
irks for Rep. J.J. Pickle, a member
the House Ways and Means Com
mittee, to discuss the disadvantages
of the plan.
“We’re trying to make sure they
understand that if the Senate passes
the tax bill the way it was written in
the House, it adversely effects our
ORP,” Lytle says. “Informing people
and showing them alternatives is
about all we can do right now.”
As part of its effort to propose re
form in the tax code, the House
Ways and Means Committee drafted
legislation in 1985 which contains
amendments to a section of the In
ternal Revenue Code involving tax
See Pension, page 12
Tax bill may increase cost of giving
By MONA L. PALMER
Staff Writer
Private gifts and support to
Texas A&M during the last fiscal
year exceeded $40 million, but
the tax reform bill pending be
fore the Senate could directly af
fect the cost of giving charitable
gifts, says Charles Salomon,
A&M’s associate director for
planned giving.
A report from the A&M chan
cellor’s office says these gifts di
rectly benefit student aid, faculty
funding and research and exten
sion services.
Salomon says the bill, already
passed by the House, will have
two effects on charitable gifts — it
will change the tax rate and re
strict the deductibility of appre
ciated property.
A person in the 50 percent tax
bracket pays 50 cents on every ad
ditional dollar he earns. If the
rate is reduced to 35 percent,
then the person pays 35 cents on
every additional dollar he earns.
If a person makes a charitable
gift, it’s going to cost them 65
cents on the dollar instead of 50
cents, Salomon says.
“So when you change the tax
bracket you’ve immediately in
creased the cost of giving,” he
says. “But there’s a reverse side to
that — they should have more
funds availible to them to give.”
“When you change the
tax bracket you’ve im
mediately increased the
cost of giving. ”
Charles Salomon, Texas
A&M associate director
for planned giving.
Salomon says people who give
gifts usually will make them re
gardless of the tax rate.
“If they’re so motivated to
make a gift, they’re going to do
it,” he says. “The problem is when
they sit down and look at what it’s
going to cost them, then they may
vary the size of that gift.
“Most of our funds are re
stricted by the donors for a par
ticular purpose.”
A large amount is restricted for
student aid, but gifts to the fac
ulty have increased, Salomon
says.
A donor can make a gift with
any property of value — not just
cash.
“We receive gems, paintings,
machinery — anything that has
value can be used to make a gift,”
he says.
Salomon says items such as
land, a common gift, appreciate
in value since purchase.
Land bought at $250 an acre
40 years ago might be worth
$1,500 an acre today, so it’s an
economic way to make a gift be
cause the donor can deduct the
fair market value and not have to
realize the appreciation, he says.
Salomon says the House pro
posal will treat that appreciation
as a tax preference item for the
purposes of the minimum tax.
The minimum tax treats every
thing equally and insures tax pay
ment on certain monies, he says.
Sometimes the minimum tax
won’t apply to a tax preference
item but the item must be
checked, he says.
When donors give a gift of ap
preciated property, the donor
gives up potential cash value, he
says, and that’s why people op
pose taxing apprecitated value.
Reagan asking
for $994 billion
in fiscal 1987
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan, beginning a five-year drive
to eliminate federal deficits, pro
posed a $994 billion fiscal 1987 bud
get Wednesday that would cut
deeply into domestic programs but
continue increases in military spend
ing.
In compliance with a new budget
law, it projects a deficit of $144 bil
lion, which still would be the fourth
largest shortfall in history.
The president asked Congress to
have faith that his recommendations
will do the job, but many legislators
said his plan was economically ques
tionable and politically impossible.
Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., said “I
don’t think there are 25 votes in the
United States Senate for the bud
get,” and Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wisc.,
chairman of the House Armed Serv
ices Committee, called the budget
“DBA — dead before arrival.”
Even an influential Republican,
Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mex
ico, chairman of the Senate Budget
Committee, said the deficit goal
mandated by the new law could not
be met with Reagan’s proposed
spending cuts alone.
“The solution, in my judgment,
will be a revenue component (tax in
crease) to glue it together. . . . The
time for playing games is past,” Do
menici told a nearing on the new
budget.
Reagan again ruled out general
tax increases to trim deficits and said
that in addition to broad spending
cuts, some programs should be elim
inated, including Amtrak, the pas
senger rail service, and the Inter
state Commerce Commission. In all,
about 90 programs would be killed.
The president also proposed sell
ing federal assets such as the Bonne
ville and Southwestern power mar
keting administrations, some
outstanding loans owed to the fed
eral government, and federal land
and buildings.
And he recommended requiring
able adult welfare recipients to look
for work, increasing premiums for
Medicare insurance for the elderly,
and capping Medicaid spending for
the nation’s poor.
Reagan is seeking a nearly 12 per
cent increase for military spending
authority, before adjusting for infla
tion. The plan would continue every
major weapon system under devel
opment unabated.
In a message accompanying the
proposals he submitted to Congress,
Reagan said that to meet the targets
of the new law aimed at forcing a
balanced budget by 1991, we must
“resist the pleadings of special inter
ests whose ‘era of power’ in Wash
ington must be brought to an end —
for taxpayers as a whole can no
longer be expected to carry them on
their backs.”
However, he added, “We can
hardly back away from our defense
build-up without creating confusion
among friends and adversaries alike
See ’87 budget, page 12
Also see related story, page 12
Students didn’t affect
hunger study: doctor
By MONA L. PALMER
Staff Writer
The number of college students in
Brazos County did not flaw the Har
vard study that stated the county was
one of the hungriest in the state, the
chairman of the Physicians Task
Force on Hunger in America said
Wednesday.
Dr. Larry Brown said the study
compared the number of impov
erished people in the county to the
percentage of poor people receiving
food stamps.
A county that didn’t allocate a
proportional amount of food stamps
to the poor was considered a hungry
county.
The contention that the number
of college students flawed the study
is wrong, Brown said, because under
federal policy full-time students
aren’t eligible for food stamps and
the poverty level doesn’t decrease
when students aren’t counted.
If researchers assumed 100 per
cent of the students living off cam
pus were deducted from the study,
Brazos County would still be a hun
ger county because of its low partici-
ation in the food stamp program,
e said.
Brazos County’s participation in
the Federal Food Stamp Program is
less than 33 percent, Brown said.
“We believe it’s time to put the de
bate about the existence of hunger
behind us,” Brown said. “You’ve
documented it in your state, and
we’ve documented it nationally—it’s
time to do something about it.”
Brown said Texas, compared to
other states, does have a serious
hunger problem, but he sees a lot of
strength in Texas.
Response to the Harvard study is
sometimes “outsiders get out — we’ll
take care of our own,” Brown said.
But this is 1986, he said, and what
goes on is everybody’s business.
“We want to know why this fed
eral program that worked so well in
the past is not working now — why
the participation rate has gone from
65 to 55 percent,” he said.
Brown said food stamp officials
know the program participation is
low but say they need more workers
to reach more people.
He quoted one official as saying,
“We see the hungry people and we
have to turn a lot of them away be
cause the government ties our
hands.”
\lew rules for student elections at A&M outlined
By FRANK SMITH
Staff Writer
In an attempt to sift through the ambigu-
of past codes, the Student Government
6Ction Commission has outlined several
5 1 procedures for candidates to follow in
^spring’s elections, Alan Moore, election
pfcmmissioner, said.
One of the new guidelines calls for filing
be open to the public, Moore said. In past
fictions, candidates were unaware of their
"ttpetidon until after filing closed, he
•d. This year, a list containing the names
those who have filed for each office will
[posted in the Pavilion sometime during
etniddle of the filing period, he said.
, Another difference in this year’s elec
ts is that the campaign expenditure limit
^each office will cover both general and
Biff elections, Moore said.
fVVhat we decided was that for student
body president the maximum expenditure
is $300 on the campaign,” Moore said. “U-
sually if you’re in a runoff, they give you an
extension of money, say $50.
“Well, we’re reading the election regula
tions as saying that that’s $300 maximum
(for the entire campaign). There’s going to
be a little bit of planning involved. It’s going
to require more of the candidates to plan,
to utilize the personal skills — instead of
flooding (people) with flyers. We’d like to
see a more personal aspect.
“No person should be discouraged (from
filing) on the basis of money. A campaign
should be based on personal contact.”
The emphasis on more strategic cam
paigns and more personalized campaigns
are two of the underlying objectives run
ning through the commission’s election
code clarifications, Moore said.
Another, he said, is that each candidate
will be held accountable for his own actions
as well as the actions of the people working
for his campaign.
Thus, all campaign materials must be ac
companied by an itemized receipt, includ
ing information on where the material was
purchased, date purchased and the candi
date’s signature, Moore said.
“We want the candidate’s signature on
there for this reason — then he is account
able for it,” Moore said. “He can’t say,
‘Someone in my campaign purchased this
and I was unaware of it.’ ”
If a receipt is not obtainable, that is, if the
materials were given to the candidate, or if
the candidate is using old or recycled
material, the value of those materials will be
assessed at the current market rate, Moore
said. The market rate will be the average
price on standard items as determined by
the election commission after consulting lo
cal hardware, lumber and printing busi
nesses, he said.
“Gifts and things like that are considered
just as if you had to go out and buy it your
self,” he said.
Moore added that if a candidate does not
use some materials in his campaign and de
ducts the value of the unused materials
from his campaign expenditures, the candi
date must present the unused materials to
the commission for verification.
Another election code clarification de
fines the procedure one should take if he
questions the legality of another’s cam-
paign.
“Questions in which another candidate’s
integrity is involved should be reported im
mediately to the election commissioners,”
Moore said. “They need to come before us
before they’re publicized campus-wide.
“Questions regarding the legality of cam
paigning, as well as the misconduct things
will have to be submitted in writing to Chris
(Gavras, election co-commissioner) and my
self— to our box in 221 Pavilion —no later
than 6 p.m. each day while campaigning is
going on.
“We will go through them and post type
written, signed responses the next day no
later than 10 a.m.”
Moore said the election commission also
will try to put new life into the candidates’
debate for student body president this year.
“In the past, the candidates’ debate at
times has digressed into more or less (a mat
ter of) one candidate’s supporters bad
gering the other candidates’,” he said. “A
small group of people attend. Everyone al
ready knows who they’re going to vote for.
“We want to see a different type of de
bate this year. We’d like to see about seven
people from different aspects of our college
community represented on a panel.”
These panelists would pose questions to
the candidates during the debate, Moore
said.