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/ol. 82 No. 213 USPS 043360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, September 22, 1986
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Coming Through
Photo by Dean Saito
led on a coup, Si-lex,i S A&M's Matt (»mlev (:i8) gets wrapped up by North Texas
attorney-agen State s Mike Rhone (18) alter gaining nine yards on this run during
!•'( . West) divistori |; ;
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the Aggies’ 48-28 home-opening victory over the Eagles on Saturday.
Gurley had 35 yards on 13 carries and scored one touchdown.
Dcmiloff case
could affect
summit plans
Shultz calls meeting 'unlikely'
unless Soviets free journalist
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secre
tary of State George Shultz contin
ued Sunday to press the Soviet
Union to let American journalist
Nicholas Daniloffleave Moscow, say
ing a superpower summit was “most
unlikely” until the case is resolved.
Meanwhile, members of Congress
supported the Reagan administra
tion’s position to hold a firm line
with the Soviets until Daniloff is
freed.
“I think it is most unlikely that you
could have a fruitful meeting in the
conditions that we have today,”
Shultz said on ABC’s “This Week
With David Brinkley,” reiterating re
marks he made Saturday evening af
ter he concluded two days of talks
with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze.
“It seems to me that what we must
do is get this case settled before
really you have an atmosphere that
you can make some progress on the
things people want to talk about,”
Shultz said during the broadcast.
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texas leaders fight for research funding
■USTIN (AP) — When Texas leaders de
cided they wanted the state to have a reputa
tion as a natiomil center for research and high
technology, legislators treated the notion
more as a measure of pride than need.
So when Hi “high-technology” hills pro-
mked by Gov. Mark White went to lawmak-
|s in 1985, the Legislature passed only one
requiting new money.
• But supporters argue now the status of the
technology bills has changed.
hi the wake of the oil-price drop that has
left the Legislature battling a projected $2.8
billion deficit, business and university leaders
throughout Texas are arguing that the state
hmst invest in diversifying its economy.
I Pike Powers, formerly a slate representa
tive and now an attorney with Fulbright 8c
Jaworski in Austin, said,“Business as usual is
out of business; it is imperative that the state
develop the technologies needed to make it
competitive.”
During the next two months, two key state
groups — the Select Committee on Higher
Education and the governor’s Texas Science
and Technology Council — will map strategy
for how the Legislature should support re
search and technology during the regular ses
sion in January.
A draft report of the governor’s Science
and Technology Council says, “Advanced
technologies combined with the traditional
entrepreneurial abilities of Texans will form
the base for a new Texas economy.”
The council proposes three five-year plans
for raising the state to national prominence in
science and technology.
But policy leaders admit today that Texas
has done little compared to other states such
as North Carolina and Pennsylvania, which
spent more than a decade developing their re
search and technology to boost their econ
omies.
Jurgen Schmandt, a political scientist at the
LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University
of Texas, said “In every single respect you can
think of, we’re coming from behind.”
Gerhard Fonken, vice president of UT,
said “We’ve not only had to fight tooth and
nail with Harvard and MIT, we’ve had to
fight with our own Legislature, which still
views research with suspicion.”
Last week, a task force of the select commit
tee presented recommendations to ask the
Legislature to spend $80 million more on re
search during 1988 and 1989, bringing the to
tal state research spending to nearly $300 mil
lion over the two-year period.
The 28-member Texas Science and Tech
nology Council debated its draft report,
which will recommend similar increases, on
Thursday. The plan seeks increases of at least
$15 million in research and a $5 million plan
for a new state organization to coordinate en
trepreneurial activities.
Some gains are being made. Earlier this
month, UT-Dallas received a $10 million
grant from the Department of Defense to
support research on a gamma-ray laser.
At separate news conferences af
ter their meetings ended Saturday,
Shultz and Shevardnadze reported
they had made some progress in
preparing for a second meeting be
tween Reagan and Gorbachev.
But Shultz said the' Soviet spy
charges against Daniloff were a
stumbling block and Shevardnadze
cited the American expulsion of 25
persons from the Soviet U.N. mis
sion as an obstacle.
Soviet Foreign Ministry spokes
man Gennadi Gerasimov, appearing
Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,”
said resolution of the Daniloff case is
“not a very big problem at all.”
“Mr. Daniloff is under investiga
tion, he is charged and usually he’s
going to be put to trial, but because
we don’t want this particular case to
be an obstacle in our relations, we
can find some kind of solution and
let him free,” he said.
Gerasimov said “there are several
ideas in air” to resolve the Daniloff
case. “They were discussed and they
can continue to be discussed,” he
said, but he declined to disclose spe
cifics of the ideas.
Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., also ap
pearing on the CBS program, said
that while he agrees on the need for
a summit meeting, the United States
must set preconditions “lest we walk
in and simply talk and build up
hopes and have those hopes dashed
in front of the world where the Sovi
ets can take advantage of that propa
ganda forum that we give them.”
Daniloff, the Moscow correspon
dent for U.S. News & World Report,
was arrested Aug. 30 by the KGB on
suspicion of spying. He was released
Sept. 12 to the custody of the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow.
Zakharov, an employee of the So
viet mission to the United Nations
who is charged with espionage, was
turned over to the custody of the So
viet mission in New York pending
further court proceedings.
CS awaiting response
from GSU on rate hike
By Craig Renfro
Stall Writer
Htllege Station of ficials are await-
ng Gulf State Utilities’ response to a
proposed 7 percent rate increase for
wholesale electric customers, Mayor
Larry Ringer said Sunday.
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Motorcycle
accident kills
A&M student
■Funeral services were to be
held today for one Texas A&M
student while another student re
mained in a Houston intensive
cate unit following a Thursday
traffic accident.
BiServices for Mark Allan Chil-
dress, 20, were scheduled for 10
a.m. at the Klein Funeral Home
chapel in Tomball.
■fPiildress, of Houston, was
killed Thursday afternoon near
■vasota when the motorcycle he
was riding collided head-on with
a pickup truck, a Bryan Depart
ment of Public Safety spokeswo
man said.
pthildress, who was not wearing
asalety helmet, was pronounced
dead at Grimes County Hospital
.u4:23 p.m.
■The driver of the motorcycle,
Stephen Robert Johnson, 19,
from Pasadena, was flown by
Ufdlight helicopter from Grimes
County Hospital to St. Luke’s
Hospital in Houston. Johnson,
who was wearing a safety helmet,
was still in intensive care Sunday
night with internal chest injuries,
I hut a hospital spokeswoman re-
* ported he was in good condition.
/■IPS said the accident occurred
i about nine miles east of Navasota
"when a truck traveling south on
FM 405 collided with the north-
t bound motorcycle.
North Bardell, Lone Star Munici
pal Power Agency executive direc
tor, said College Station residents
will pay less for electricity than they
did two years ago if the proposal is
accepted.
Under the proposal, the city will
buy large bulks of electricity at re
duced rates and pass the savings on
to the consumer, he said.
Bardell said the LSMPA proposed
the increase after their wholesale
customers complained about the
possibility of a 40 percent increase.
The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, which regulates whole
sale rates, granted GSU an interim
40 percent rate increase Aug. 25. If
the increase had taken effect, Col
lege Station would have had the
highest electricity bills in the state,
Bardell said.
He said he hopes the proposal will
be accepted by GSU.
“GSU doesn't" want to be tbe bad
guy,” he said.
College Station and three other
cities — Caldwell, Newton and Kir-
byville — buy electricity wholesale
f rom GSU, then resell it to their resi
dents.
After GSU’s customers com-
plained, GSU proposed a 24 percent
rate increase Sept. 8, Bardell said.
The College Station City Council
held a special session Sept. 11 to dis
cuss GSU’s latest offer.
Under that proposal GSU would
supply power to College Station
through July 1, 1987, he said. How
ever, the proposal would allow GSU
to cancel the contract with a 30-day
notice, Bardell said.
Bardell said city officials wanted
the same option to back out of the
contract as GSU had. Under tbe new
proposal the city has the same option
to cancel the contract as GSU, he
said.
“Under the new proposal each
side has the right to decide when
they want to get out,” Bardell said.
“This new proposal is much fairer.”
Tax reform to restrict bond sales
Texas Water Plan in danger
By Dawn Butz
Staff Writer
Federal tax reform would
cripple the Texas Water Plan by
placing new restrictions on the
sale of tax-exempt municipal
bonds, a Texas Water Alliance of
ficial says.
The new water plan, approved
in November 1985 by about 72
percent of Texas voters, autho
rized the sale of $980 million in
municipal bonds to aid in water
project development.
Steve Stagner, executive direc
tor for the Texas Water Alliance,
said in an interview last week he
believes the proposed legislation
will increase water development
costs at the local level, putting the
financial burden on water users.
The tax bill puts a limit on the
amount of tax-exempt private ac
tivity bonds that can be sold in a
state in a given year. By 1988, the
state will be limited to $800 mil
lion in these bonds.
Previously, private activity
bonds were categorized as such if
more than 25 percent of the pro
ceeds were used by a trade or
business. The tax bill would re
duce the maximum percentage to
10 percent.
This means that an estimated
one-quarter to one-half of all wa
ter and sewer projects would fall
into this category, amounting to
over $300 million per year by vol
ume, Stagner says.
Also squeezed under this cap
are bonds for multi-family rental
housing, single family housing,
student loans, redevelopment,
and gas and electric systems — all
involved with private activity
bonds.
An indication of the severity of
this limitation is the Texas 1984
total private activity bond sales of
$2.3 billion. Meeting this $800
million cap will mean a 66 per
cent decrease from the 1984 vol
ume, Stagner says.
Several categories of bonds can
be issued without limit, including
bonds for tax-exempt entities
such as hospitals and universities.
Thus, cities will be left to compete
with single family housing and
student loans for private activity
bonds to build a water plant.
The tax bill also places new re
strictions on issuance costs — all
costs leading up to the issuing of
the bonds — limiting them to 2
percent of the total cost of the
project. Stagner says this con
straint will make some projects,
especially the smaller ones, im
possible.
Stagner says he feels govern
ment reform has gone too far,
and that traditional governmen
tal activities should have been
protected.
Two other water programs af
fected by the tax reform bond is
sue are the federal government’s
construction grant program, un
der which local governments can
receive federal grants to build
needed sewage treatment facili
ties, and the state’s loan program
for sewer and water supply pro
jects, whereby local governments
can borrow money from the state
to finance such projects.
Through the federal construc
tion grants program, eligible po
litical entities can receive grants
to pay for up to 55 percent of the
cost of new projects to meet cur
rent wastewater treatment needs.
Eligible local governments sub
mit plans and given a priority
ranking with cities in the same
population group.
Congress has not yet appropri
ated money for the federal fiscal
year beginning Oct. 1, 1987. The
amount allotted will determine
how many grants are issued.
In Texas the program is ad
ministered by the Texas Water
Development Board for the Envi
ronmental Protection Agency.
The board also administers the
Texas loan program for sewer
and water supply projects.
Both programs will be hurt by
the new tax reform, a TWDB of
ficial says, but implementation of
the loan program will be greatly
affected because of the proce
dure used in offering the loans.
Ray Grasshoff, information of
ficer for the board, said in an in
terview last week that the loans
are made when the state buys the
bonds the local government is
sues.
“If those aren’t tax deductible,
they cost more and the interest
rates are higher,” Grasshoff says.
Cargo ships transport nuclear weapons
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Navy uses at least two cargo ships
sailed by civilian crews to transport
nuclear missiles across the Atlantic,
according to public documents and
sources.
The ships, assigned to the Military
Sealift Command, have been given
the job of ferrying ballistic missiles
of the type deployed on submarines
to and from various sub bases — pri
marily Charleston, S.C., King’s Bay,
Ga., and Holy Loch, Scotland.
Defense analysts who specialize in
the study of nuclear weapons say
such movements are not unusual be
cause of the United States’ emphasis
on frequent inspections to ensure
safety and reliability.
The role of the Military Sealift
Command in such transport work,
however, is largely unknown and be
lies the common perception that nu
clear weapons assigned to the Navy
are handled only by active-duty per
sonnel.
And unlike the cargo ships or am
munition ships that are accompa
nied by Navy battle groups, MSC
ships frequently ply the oceans with
out escort by armed warships.
William Arkin, an analyst with the
Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal
Washington think tank, said, “Most
people don’t realize how often we
move nuclear weapons. It’s a daily
event because of maintenance re
quirements, safety checks, upgrades
and replacements with new weap
onry.”
Navy officials who requested ano
nymity said missiles such as the Tri
dent deployed on Ohio-class subma
rines and the Poseidon on older subs
are too large to make aerial trans
port feasible.
Navy literature states the cargo
ships always carry a small detail of
seven to 10 active-duty sailors re
sponsible for communications and
security. Navy sources say the vessels
also rely on the anonymity that ac
companies their outward appear
ance as standard cargo ships and the
Navy’s policy of never confirming
nor denying the presence of nuclear
weapons.
The vessels are carefully tracked
during their voyages and are in con
stant communication with Navy fa
cilities.