v>. < • .
A&M professor will appear
on program for children
— Page 8
Aggies use Cotton Bowl win
to sign top schoolboy recruits
— Page 13
Tfie Battalion
Vol. 83 No. 97 USPS 075360 16 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 13, 1986
tigh taxes
pede
rowth:
&M study
Associated Press
USTIN — Income taxes signifi-
tly hinder a state’s economic
wth while states enjoying robust
wth often have low income and
feperty taxes, a Texas A&M study
duded Wednesday,
telvin Greenhut, an A&M eco-
|mics professor and author of the
Spy, said, “High-growth states
jve had dramatically lower income
H property taxes than low-growth
wes.”
preenhut said income taxes de-
roy incentives for people to work
irderand save money, thus reduc-
]g investment and a state’s produc-
vt capacity.
I The results of his study were re-
sed by the privately funded Cen-
cr lor Education and Research in
|e Enterprise.
he study comes at a time when
|ne Texas politicians have said the
Ite may need to enact a corporate
individual income tax to offset
es in tax revenue from oil and
Texas never has had an income
Jreenhut said his study shows
t when state governments find it
'tessary to raise revenue, the best
results generally come from taxes on
sumption.
esides raising more money for
state, sales and luxury taxes also
[courage savings as a way of avoid-
Igadditional taxes, Greenhut said.
|In the long term, higher income
es produce lower tax receipts for
{O'ernment than could otherwise be-
pained, Greenhut said.
■According to his study, only three
nil?states with “high” income taxes
d above-average growth between
|69 and 1976.
[Vermont, for example, is the
rd most heavily taxed state in the
don, but neighboring New Hamp-
ire ranks 47th. Greenhut said a
dyof the two found that Vermont
gs far behind New Hampshire” in
measures of economic growth.
He also cited the case of Massa-
usetts, where the individual tax
rden grew from 13 percent to
|,6 percent between 1970 and
, making it the fifth-highest tax
tein the United States.
iGreenhut said that as a result, per
pita income fell from 10 percent
love the national average to 3 per-
|nt above during that time.
Sneaking A Snack
Texas A&M students may want to take a good look
at the Commons Snack Bar because some changes
Photo by MICHAEL A. SANCHEZ
will be made there at the end of this semester. The
renovation is set to be completed in Fall 1986.
Reagan told
not to support
a Marcos win
Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines - Corazon
Aquino warned President Reagan
Wednesday against supporting the
National Assembly’s expected proc
lamation of President Ferdinand E.
Marcos as winner of last Friday’s
presidential election.
The assembly, dominated by Mar
cos’ New Society Movement party, is
to begin official tabulation of votes
this Friday, using what the opposi
tion has said are fraudulent local
vote tallies.
“I would wonder at the motives of
a friend of democracy who chose to
conspire with Mr. Marcos to cheat
the Filipino people of their liber
ation,” Aquino said, who claimed
anew that she has already won the
presidency.
Marcos has declared himself the
“probable winner.”
Reagan asserted at a news confer
ence Tuesday night that the elec
tions were marred by fraud on both
sides, but his remark was disputed
by several U.S. election observers
who said they had seen no evidence
of fraud by Aquino’s supporters.
No immediate reaction came from
the presidential palace to Reagan’s
statements or to his decision to send
diplomatic trouble-shooter Philip
Habib to Manila as his personal emi
ssary.
Aquino said only that Habib
would likely get a courteous wel
come.
As to suggestions that she recon
cile with Marcos, she replied: “It
would be a delusion of policy that an
ders at
opposition whose lea
lowers have been and are
and fol-
being
killed can suddenly settle down to a
Western-style opposition role in a
healthy two-party system,” she said
in response to suggestions that she
reconcile with Marcos. “Too many
will be dead the moment the world’s
head is turned.”
The nation’s Roman Catholic
bishops arranged to meet Thursday
to review the election.
'Confusion comes with understanding issues'
SCONA speaker explains Mideast problem
By CRAIG RENFRO
Staff Writer
“If you are not confused by the is
sues of the Middle East, you don’t
understand it,” William Stewart, a
diplomatic correspondent for Time,
said Wednesday.
Stewart outlined the historical and
political developments that have
made the Middle East a “myriad of
challenges” in a keynote address,
which kicked off the 31st Student
Conference on National Affairs.
Stewart said the problems in the
Middle East are important to the
United States because of the large
amount of oil imported from the
area and because of the strategic po
sition, which has access to China and
the Soviet Union by way of the In
dian and Pacific oceans.
The Arabs control several strate
gic locations — the Suez Canal, the
William Stewart
i
Straits of Gibraltar and the northern
approaches to the Indian Ocean.
Stewart said it is the presence of
the Jewish state of Israel on territory
that was once Palestine that causes
difficulties in the Middle East.
From 1948 to 1976 the Arabs re
fused to recognize that the state of
Israel had a right to exist, while the
Israelis insisted that the Palestinian
refugees had no right to a national
state of their own, Stewart said.
Since 1960, he said, a few Middle
East countries have controlled a
large percentage of the world’s oil.
Although Israel has highly edu
cated, hard-working people and the
active support of the American Jew
ish community, he said, it has nei
ther oil nor strategic borders.
Popular use of the term “Middle
East” can be traced back to World
War II.
The Middle East includes the
Arab-speaking states of the eastern
Mediterranean seaboard, Israel, the
Arabian peninsula, the valley of the
Tigris-Euphrates, the Nile Valley
and Libya.
Stewart said the area has long
been synonomous with trouble, tur
moil, terrorism, fanaticism and oil.
The United States also sees the
area as the Holy Land, he said. Juda
ism, Christianity and Islam are the
principal religions practiced in the
Middle East.
Islam is an Arabic word meaning
submission to God’s will.
Those who submit are called Mus
lims and believe God, or Allah, is the
ultimate sovereign of the state and
all creation.
Stewart said the Arab oil embargo
of 1973 made the West realize how
dependent it was on the Muslim
world and served as a stimulus for
Islamic revivalism.
During the latter half of the
1970’s, Muslim politics saw the dra
matic re-emergence of Islam, as the
media reported political upheavals
in Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Stewart, who served as Time mag
azine bureau chief in the Middle
East, Tokyo and South Asia, said
most people have distorted percep
tions of the Middle East.
“It’s beautiful country and you
can have a wonderful time,” Stewart
said. “But you become fascinated
with the decadence and when you
get home you say that you had a
good time, but you’re glad you don’t
live there.”
Stewart said in the Middle East,
terrorism is seen not as cruel, but as
a useful political device.
Health Department
seeking to help B-CS
By BRIAN PEARSON
Senior Staff Writer
\ If the neigbors have rat prob
lems, a septic tank needs inspect
ing or someone’s stomach is tied
in knots from the restaurant food
he just ate, the Brazos County
Health Department wants to
know about it.
Department inspectors, called
“registered sanitarians,” may
sometimes have the reputation of
being clipboard-wielding hot
[beads who look for reasons to
close down an establishment, but
a spokesman said the depart
ment’s purpose is not to close res
taurants down but to keep them
open and operating safely.
David Jefferson, a registered
sanitarian at the department, says
the five inspectors at the depart
ment have several duties.
Jefferson says the duties in
clude inspecting septic tanks, reg
ularly inspecting food and drink
ing establishments, following up
complaints and making follow-up
inspections.
If a person has a complaint
about a neighbor’s pile of junk
that attracts rats, a health inspec
tor will call the owner of the
property and make him aware of _
the situation.
See Inspectors, page 12
Family homes must register with state
By JEANNE ISENBERG
Staff Writer
Editor’s note: This is the first
story in a two part series on day care
and home care centers.
Tammy Larsen used to have a ca
reer in Colorado, where she lived
with her husband and two children.
Her mother had a licensed family
home where Tammy and other
women left their children while they
worked.
When the Larsens moved to
Bryan so Tammy’s husband could
attend Texas A&M, Tammy discov
ered she didn’t earn as much as she
had in Colorado. But because her
husband was attending school, Tam
my’s reduced income was needed
even more.
And Tammy also worried about
where she could leave her children
during the work day since she didn’t
know anyone here.
Her solution — to follow in her
mother’s footsteps and start a regis
tered family home.
This is a pretty common story
among the directors of registered
homes, says Carol Eubanks, a day
care licensing representative with
the Texas Department of Human
Resources.
The Human Resources Depart
ment defines a registered family
home as a facility that takes in up to
six children under the age of 14 on a
regular basis for less than 24 hours a
day.
People who plan to watch unre
lated children in their homes on a
regular basis must, by law, be regis
tered with the department, Eubanks
says.
The process of applying for regis
tration is not difficult, she says.
While the operation of a licensed
day care center requires a detailed
inspection and stricter standards,
registered family homes need apply
only on paper, she says.
The application is a 10-page
packet with questions concerning
the home and the background of the
caregiver or anyone who will be in
contact with the children during
care. It includes questions about
mental stability, criminal back
ground and physical health.
Mary Jane Hutto of the Human
Resources Department says that, af
ter the application is received, the
department conducts its own inter
nal check on the applicant’s criminal
history and previous record with
child welfare — whether any com
plaints have ever risen about the ap
plicant, whether he’s been registered
before or been denied approval.
Also on the application is a section
for the applicant to estimate the
number of children he plans to care
for and their ages. This way, Hutto
says, the department can make sure
the applicant is aware of the require
ments regarding ages and amount.
Within the standards is a list of
how many children of each age
group may be cared for at a time.
See Law, page 12
Inspection uncovers flaws in Texas nuclear plant
Associated Press
HOUSTON — A federal inspec-
Miofthe South Texas Nuclear Pro-
t has found “significant deficien-
s" in hardware and design control
at could mean fines or other en-
kcement actions against Houston
ghting& Power Co., officials said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion noted HL&P already had acted
to correct some of the problems. But
it said tardiness in taking other cor
rective actions could delay comple
tion of the nuclear power plant.
The problems stemmed mainly
from weaknesses in the plant’s con
struction program, according to an
NRC inspection report released
Tuesday by HL&P, the managing
partner in the project.
Jerry Goldberg, HL&P’s nuclear
group vice president, said in a pre
pared statement that several of the
problem areas cited by the NRC had
been identified by the project man
agement’s consultants.
“The NRC’s review, however, un
covered additional areas which re
quire increased project attention,
and corrective actions in these areas
have been initiated,” he said.
But James M. Taylor, director of
NRC’s office of inspection and en
forcement, wrote to HL&P saying
the agency is concerned with the
timeliness of some of HL&P’s
planned corrective actions.
Among the problems cited in the
inspection report was one involving
the design control of motor-oper
ated valves.
NRC inspectors, however, said
elecrtrical work, reinforced concrete
construction, welding and structural
steel installation at the project were
generally adequate.