Tlir^ M D 1* _ ^
1 ne Battalion
of 198;'
otes mort
needed',
'und oppo
ndia For.;
ioue ptfij
American
problems
' a gor.
rg Etsuk
t and
said, "Tb
■ doul
■ woul
fter she
Vol. 82 Mo. 169 GSPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, June 30, 1987
Reagan sees
candidate list
for justice job
itairdown
JNo, the parallel lines don’t represent an abstract artist’s view of life,
fpCi Bperty or the pursuit of happiness, but they show an exterior stairwell
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
winding down in the new Engineering CE/TTI Building. The build
ing is expected to be completed in October.
UD. I
brmer A&M System chancellor
ins suit disputing lawyer’s fee
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
case involving lawsuits between
Jjhmer and a current Texas A&M
offi' i.il was decided Saturday in fa-
voi of Dr. Arthur G. Hansen, for-
,Hr A&M System chancellor. No
Iptilement has been announced.
■Hansen and Jerry Cain, A&M as-
■tiate general counsel, sued each
other in October in a dispute con
cerning Cain’s fee for representing
Hansen in a malpractice action
against the University of Texas Sys
tem. Hansen negotiated with the
System after a nerve leading to his
right leg was damaged in November,
1984, during a hernia operation at
M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tu
mor Institute in Houston.
While no lawsuit was filed, the
System agreed through the negotia
tions to settle for $350,000. It issued
a joint check to Hansen and Cain.
Cain sent a bill to Hansen requesting
one-third of the settlement as his
fee, which Hansen refused to pay.
The check then was placed in es
crow.
One of Hansen’s attorneys, Steve
Rodgers, of the Bryan law firm Ca-
perton, Rodgers and Miller, said the
jury found that services rendered by
Cain might have cost $3,000, but
that damages to Hansen amounted
to about $8,000.
Rodgers said Judge Charles Sher
rill of Kerrville, who presided over
the trial, will render a judgement on
damages to be awarded after study
ing the jury’s recommendations.
The judgement should be decided
this week, Rodgers said.
Hansen and his attorneys are
asking to be awarded attorney’s fees,
the money still being held in escrow
and either the $8,000 for damages to
Hansen or the $5,000 difference be
tween these damages and the $3,000
the jury estimated Cain’s services to
be worth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan and key advisers re
viewed a list of possible candidates
for the Supreme Court on Monday
as administration leaders tried to
play down the importance of politi
cal ideology in selecting a successor
to retiring Justice Lewis F. Powell.
One senior administration official
said he “would just be shocked” if
the nominee wasn’t Robert H. Bork,
a strongly conservative federal ap
peals court judge here.
The 30-minute meeting in the
Oval Office ended without any an
nouncement of a nominee. White
House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater
said a decision was not expected
Monday but could come quickly.
“This is the kind of thing where
opinion can coalesce behind a candi
date, and the president says, ‘This is
the person I want and then — do
it,’ ” Fitzwater said. “That can occur
very fast.”
In a surprise announcement Fri
day, Powell, 79, said he was leaving
the court after IS'/s years because of
health problems and his age.
White House legal advisers, work
ing over the weekend, prepared a
summary for Reagan of legal opin
ions and positions taken by potential
candidates for the high court.
Reagan discussed potential candi
dates with Attorney General Edwin
Meese III, chief of staff Howard
Baker and presidential counsel A.B.
Culvahouse. Afterward, Meese left
the White House without comment
ing to reporters.
People widely mentioned as likely
candidates include Bork, Republican
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and
two other appeals court judges, Rob
ert A. Posner of Chicago and J. Clif
ford Wallace of San Diego.
“I would just be shocked if it
wasn’t Bork,” one senior official
said.
“The last time it was (Justice Anto
nin) Scalia and Bork that went into
the president as being equally sound
and confirmable,” the official said.
“Regardless of what Meese or Baker
thinks, the president’s natural incli
nation is going to be: ‘Why not
Bork?’ ” The official, who refused
to be identified, acknowledged he
was merely speculating about a nom
inee.
Democratic leaders, fearful of a
conservative takeover of the court,
have urged Reagan to name some
one similar to Powell, who avoided
the rigid ideology that at times split
the court’s liberal and conservative
wings. Powell cast decisive votes on
abortion rights and affirmative ac
tion and at the same time voted con
servatively on law-and-order issues.
The eventual nominee is subject
to approval by the Democratic-con-
trolled Senate.
“We’re replacing the pivotal mem
ber of the Supreme Court,” said Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a member of
the Judiciary Committee that will re
view the nomination. “This is a far
more important Supreme Court ap
pointment than any that President
Reagan has made before.”
During his 6‘/2 years in office,
Reagan has appointed Justices
Sandra Day O’Connor and Scalia to
the high court and promoted Wil
liam H. Rehnquist to chief justice.
Fitzwater said candidates would
not be judged on their stand on
abortion, which Reagan opposes.
“There are no specific issues that will
be litmus tests,” he said.
Meese stressed the same point in a
speech in Chautauqua, N.Y., earlier
Monday.
“We don’t have any test,” Meese
said. “We don’t care about the politi
cal or ideological allegiance of a pro
spective judge. We are concerned
about how they view the Constitu
tion and how they view their partic
ular responsibilities as a jurist.”
The comment drew laughter
from many in the audience of about
3,000 people.
“We are looking for someone who
is as qualified and as capable as the
people who the president has pre
viously appointed,” Meese said.
At the White House, Fitzwater
said, “I think it’s clear the president
wants someone who shares his view
of the strict interpretation of the
Constitution, but beyond that would
not prescribe any geographic or
philosophic or certainly ideological
guideposts to use in measuring can
didates.”
At the same time, Fitzwater ac
knowledged that Powell’s successor
could play a major role in shaping
the nation’s law for a long time.
Because
id,'Here,
strengtli
House votes first OK to bill cutting faculty retirement fund
ithers,
AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas House
Monday voted preliminary approval to a
i bill that would save $24.4 million by tempo-
Iraiily cutting the state’s portion of a retire-
i ment system for college educators.
■ The plan was advanced on a voice vote,
bin not without harsh criticism.
B “We have spoken about making a com-
I pitment to education,” rep. A1 Price, D-
Buumont, said.
i “What we are about to do is probably cre
ate the first crack in that commitment,” he
said.
“What we are about to do will do irrepa
rable damage to that commitment,” Price
said.
The bill by Rep. Ed Kuempel, R-Seguin,
which faces a final House vote that would
send it to senators, would cut the state con
tribution for a retirement system that cov
ers about 90 percent of state college faculty
members.
Now, the state contributes to the fund an
amount equal to 8.5 percent of a faculty
member’s annual salary.
Kuempel wants to lower that to 7.5 per
cent for 1988-89 to save state money.
The state contribution would revert to
8.5 percent on Sept. 1, 1989.
The bill also would require faculty mem
bers to keep their jobs for three years be
fore becoming eligible to get their money
out of the system.
Faculty members currently have to wait
only one year to remove their money.
Kuempel denied the decreased state con
tribution would guarantee lower payments
to retirees.
Some supporters of the bill have noted
Insurance premium tax considered
L s possible solution to budget woes
that the House Appropriations Committee
proposed 1988-89 state budget calls for col
lege faculty salary raises that could offset
the reduced retirement benefits.
Rep. Anne Cooper, R-San Marcos, un
successfully offered two amendments to re
duce the impact of the Kuempel bill.
“I don’t want to send another message to
higher education that we are backing away
from them,” she said.
House Higher Education Committee
Chairman Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin,
said, “We are having a hard enough time
recruiting people for our universities.”
She said the decreased benefits could
make recruiting faculty members even
more difficult.
Kuempel on Monday also won prelimi
nary House approval for a bill that would
temporarily lower the state contribution to
the Employees Retirement System from the
current 7.4 percent to 7 percent.
The contribution would revert to 7.4
percent in September 1989.
The temporary change would save the
state $17 million.
USTIN (AP) — The tax picture
ne into clearer focus Monday as
House leaders talked about taxing
ISeclical bills, insurance premiums
and many other currently exempt
items.
0 flfB: a * so probably would include
U ^ Saxes that Gov. Bill Clements has
vowed to veto.
va c||l'Brh e House plans a Tuesday vote
' on a proposed $38.3 billion 1988-89
jfl.li ;spelling plan. But a tax vote was
. Delayed because the House Ways
' 1 and Means Committee took no ac
tion Monday on a tax plan.
BWays and Means Chairman Stan
Pfhlueter said the committee would
.ineei Tuesday and a tax plan could
be ready for House debate Wednes-
■Lawmakers are tussling with a
projected $6.5 billion 1988-89 defi
cit Clements met privately Monday
1 ! with some House members to push
, J % further budget cuts to avoid tax
'si/ hikes.
^^■Schlueter, D-Killeen, Monday laid
^ OU! several tax-plan combinations.
Most included expanding the sales
tax to cover many now-exempt serv
ices and adding the insurance tax,
but he cautioned that nothing is cer
tain.
|f“Broadening the base is just one
of the options,” he said.
But he added, “The
S!
insurance
(tax) bill is in every scenario.”
At a 5-percent rate, the insurance
tax would raise $1.8 billion for the
state in 1988-89.
“It’s progressive,” Schlueter said.
“It taxes people based on their abil-
“It (the tax plan) taxes
people based on their abil
ity to pay in that the larger
your house, the more
money you pay. ”
— Ways and Means Chair
man Stan Schlueter
ity to pay in that the larger your
house, the more money you pay; the
bigger your car, the more money
you pay.”
On the sales-tax base, he said it
might be possible to expand it far
enough to allow for a reduction
from the current 5.25-percent rate.
Speaker Gib Lewis talked last week
of a limited expansion of the base
combined with an increase to a 6-
percent rate.
Lewis said Monday he now hopes
to expand it far enough to allow for
a rate cut. But he added he now
backs “all taxes . . . that would get us
out of here and meet the budget.”
Ways and Means committee mem
ber A1 Luna, D-Houston, who also
filed an expand-the-base bill, said
the current sales tax plan is obsolete
because it does not cover services.
“It is based on an economic reality
that no longer exists,” Luna said.
Luna’s version of expanding the
base does not cover medical services.
“That would come directly out of the
pockets of poor Texans,” he said.
Schlueter favors taxing medical
services.
“The basic thought among mem
bers of the House is you need to
broaden it to everybody or nobody,”
he said.
Luna said he does not oppose tax
ing legal fees.
“I’ve heard a lot of malarkey
about what we are doing is taxing ac
cess to justice,” he said, adding that
Texans already pay filing fees to go
to court. “An extra $5 per $100 is
not going to rob a person of access to
the justice system.”
While House members churned
toward a possible solution, Texas
Democratic Party Chairman Bob
Slagle Monday called on them to
slow down.
Slagle wants the House, which is
controlled by the Democrats, to
show Texans why a tax hike is
needed by drawing a budget that
would not require one.
“The consequences of such a bud
get are destructive,” Slagle said at a
news conference.
George Strake, chairman of the
Texas Republican Party, Monday re
leased results of a poll, sponsored by
the COP, that showed Texans op
pose higher taxes.
“It is obvious that Texans have
had enough of (Democratic Lt. Gov)
Bill Hobby’s and the Democrats’ tax-
“I’ve heard a lot of malar-
key about what we are
doing is taxing access to
justice. An extra $5 per
$100 is not going to rob a
person of access to the jus
tice system. ”
— Ways and Means com
mittee member A1 Luna
and-tax, spend-and-spend solution
to every problem,” Strake said.
An anti-tax call also was issued by
The Committee for Economic Re
covery, a coalition of 85 organiza
tions and individuals.
Gore announces plan
to run for White House
CARTHAGE, Tenn. (AP) — Sen.
Albert Gore Jr. began his long-shot
campaign for the 1988 Democratic
presidential nomination on Monday,
standing in the brilliant sunshine on
courthouse steps to declare “we no
longer have the luxury of waiting” to
face the challenges of the future.
The 39-year-old politician from
Tennessee said that a “young and
eager and restless nation” is ready to
elect him the youngest president in
its history — like it was in 1960.
“Twenty-seven years ago, the vot
ers of America, looking for the
strength and hope of a new genera
tion, replaced the oldest man ever to
serve in the office of the presidency
with the youngest ever to be elected
to that office,” he said. “I believe
they are ready to do so again.”
In 1960, the voters picked John F.
Kennedy to follow Dwight D. Eisen
hower. If elected, Gore would be 40
on Inauguration Day 1989, succeed
ing Ronald Reagan, the oldest man
ever to occupy the Oval Office.
Gore, the first Vietnam veteran to
make a serious bid for the White
House, talked of war and making
nuclear war obsolete.
“I served in Vietnam,” Gore said.
“I know the importance of protect
ing our national security. 1 know
there must be better ways to resolve
our differences than through war.
Gore, who said at one time this
year he would not run, is now the
sixth candidate officially in the Dem
ocratic race.
He is also the first Southerner to
jump in, but he was quick to declare:
“I am not running as a Southern
candidate but as a national candidate
from the South and proud of it.”
This small farming town of 5,000
outside Nashville — Gore’s home
and that of his father, longtime sen
ator and House member Albert
Gore Sr. — turned out to cheer their
favorite son in 90-degree heat.
On stage with him in front of the
Smith County Courthouse were fel
low Tennessee Sen. James Sasser;
Gov. Ned McWherter; his father
and mother; his wife, Tipper, a cru
sader against X-rated rock lyrics and
movies, and their four children.
The other declared Democratic
candidates are Rep. Richard Ge-
S hardt of Missouri, former Gov.
ruce Babbitt of Arizona, Gov. Mi
chael Dukakis of Massachusetts, Sen.
Paul Simon of Illinois and Sen. Jo
seph Biden of Delaware.