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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1992)
les loti iprovJ n g vs.; fr °m Page 5 sines, J "lore optiiniij " en 't been hiL Hickey sal ’struggle, 11 is to stru rc hitting la|J TUESDAY Partly cloudy Highs in 80s Lows in 60s X Pro/Con S rx* S Panhandlers: Should y cities stop them from A begging? y^y Sisterly Love A&M employee's partial organ donation helps her sister beat diabetes Page 7 Page 2 A&M routs Texas in Sunday's series finale, 11-5 The Battalion ake you fartlif has been irance to practl me action am 1 thinks Hick lel P the team,' is contagioi lv e one of theld 5 around, into a sit ike Hickey'sii elpus." |ing staff hasi or the Aggiej -n up 121 >t thinking a, aid senior reL >■ When w| we're notl e hitters artj ry to, >me. We feel two runs, weif antage theil 1 series is fc ion. Theh to the Aggie! tory. con seven of fe ainstthel _ Id, includiatl me sweep, ! the Aggies i. "It's at f! trees thattheij the Aggies s ily as longa;| iness. iirpark isg J vantage," hef have to plail Vol. 91 No. 129 College Station, Texas ‘Serving Tex as A&M since 1893’ 3 Pages Monday, April 13, 1992 brown's tax plan will boost economy, A&M professors say By Jayme Blaschke The Battalion Former California Gov. Jerry Brown's lat-rate income tax proposal has become controversial issue in the presidential campaign, but some Texas A&M jconomists believe the plan could be a positive boost for the economy. Dr. Robert Reed, an A&M economist, Isaid the flat tax would simplify the tax {code, eliminating many loop holes. "The tax would be assessed on every- lone at a 13 percent rate, and almost all de ductions would be eliminated," Reed said. "I think Brown would allow for some deductions, like home mortgage payments, but overall there would be fewer exemptions." Many economists support the plan be cause it would lower the overall tax rate and eliminate the corporate income tax, which would stimulate business, said Dr. Morgan Reynolds, an A&M economics professor. "The flat tax is very pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-production," Reynolds said. "This plan would be great for capital investment, and encourage additional la bor supply. "Brown's tax plan is a lot more effec tive for stimulating business than any thing the Republicans have come up with," he said. One of the major criticisms of the flat tax is that it would act as a regressive tax, because poorer people would have less disposable income after taxes than the rich, Reynolds said. That is also a complaint of the value-added tax, a type of national sales tax that is a part of Brown's flat-tax pro posal. "The tax proposals are mildly regres sive, depending how you look at them," Reynolds said. "The value-added tax does act as a national sales tax, so in the short term lower income people will sup port it more. "Over a person's lifetime, though, an individual will spend about 90 percent of what they earn," he said. "The plan is only regressive in the short term, in the long term it evens out." Despite the immediate economic bene fits a flat tax offers, Reed said Brown's motives in promoting the plan are not completely business-oriented. "Jerry Brown sees out there a huge army of tax lawyers and accountants that produce no social product, but absorb all these resources," he said. "He finds these parasites bothersome, and his tax plan would eliminate this class of non-produc ers." Reynolds said tax lawyers would be the group to suffer the most if Brown's plan were adopted, and represented the biggest obstacle to the flat-rate tax. "The drawbacks (of the flat tax) are mostly political, because Brown has to go against the tax lawyers," Reynolds said. ?es the Longl* ■ Aggies, ive probably he said."" ^ thing they tit hope they -I i Page5 is the potffl‘ ■'hey've th the possj d Aggie" Plough Roj r a more 1 ■eplaeing ind ofpli! ^)%0H ne^ back =s you -II. 520 HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Blushing Bride Lisa McLauglin (left), Class of ‘91, waits to have her bridal System Administration Building. Her friend Deanna Huddleston pictures taken by a local photo company Sunday morning at the stands nearby to assist the bride-to-be. Libya to cut ties to world Plans to break off outside contacts 24 hours prior to effect of sanctions TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Libya announced Sunday it will sever all contact with the outside world for the 24 hours before U.N. sanctions take effect in a confrontation over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Arab leaders, meanwhile, con tinued efforts to find a way to head off the sanctions, which would include embargoes on arms sales and commercial air traffic to Libya. The official JANA news agency distributed a statement saying Libya would cut all international travel and communication links Tuesday as a sign of mourning for a 1986 U.S. air strike that killed 41 Libyans. The U.N. Security Council has given Libya until Wednesday, the sixth anniversary of the air raid, to surrender two alleged intelligence agents. The men are charged in the bombing of a New York-bound Pan Am jumbo jet in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people. Libyan leader Moammar Gad- hafi apparently chose to observe the air raid anniversary a day ear ly to avoid the U.N. sanctions overshadowing his gesture. The Security Council is de manding Libya surrender the two Lockerbie suspects for trial in the United States or Britain and pro duce proof it has renounced all forms of terrorism. The council also wants Tripoli to cooperate with France in trying four other Libyans accused of killing 171 people in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over Niger. Libya has agreed only to turn over the Lockerbie suspects to a neutral country — an offer reject ed by the West. Gadhafi denies the men or his government had any role in the bombing. Libya's foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Bishari, met Saturday with U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in Geneva and said he offered proposals for ending the standoff. He refused to provide any details. After a meeting in Tripoli with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Sunday, Gadhafi said they discussed new proposals to resolve the dispute. He did not elaborate. Agents plan to keep tabs on Class of '92 By Melody Dunne The Battalion If you are a member of the Class of '92 and you want to tell your classmates that you got a job or got married, or even if you simply want to know where your five-year reunion will be, your class agents are the people to contact. Kristi Lorson, Vanessa Matthews and Stephen Ruth have been elected Class of '92 Class Agents and are excited about representing their class mates for the next five years. Matthews, a political science major from Atlanta, said the agents will be responsible for planning the five-year reunion and keeping tabs on their class mates jobs, weddings and ad dress changes. The agents will also try to obtain financial aid for the University during their term. Any information the agents receive from their classmates will be printed in The Texas Ag gie, a magazine published monthly by the Association of Former Students. Lorson, a journalism major, said that she is looking forward to putting together the Class of '92 newsletter that will be sent to classmates about three times a year. "I'm honored to have this po sition," she said. "It will be an honor to do the best job possible in everything we do for our class." Matthews said she was excit ed and proud of the Class of '92 because it is an extremely large class with so many outstanding members. "There are a lot of people in the Class of '92 who really care about Aggieland," she said. "It's a special place to them." Lorson said it has been very exciting participating in Class of '92 events this spring. "Dr. (John) Koldus (vice president for Student Services) has supported our class by get ting us together for many events," she said. "He's gone above and beyond to unite the Class of '92. "Stephen (Ruth) has been outstanding as student body president," Lorson said. "He's known as the "Howdy Man" because he says howdy to so many people." Stephen Ruth, this year's stu dent body president, said being elected class agent shows the loyalty and faith that his peers have in him. "You get other awards, but when it comes from your peers is when it really counts," he said. "I will serve them to the best of my ability." The class agents are responsi- See Class/Page 3 Iranians predict election outcome TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The government predicted Sunday that backers of President Hashemi Rafsanjani would win a landslide vic tory in parliamentary elec tions, bolstering his drive to liberalize the economy and mend ties with the West. The early results from Friday's election appeared to be a sharp setback for more radical followers of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who have domi nated the 270-seat parlia ment, or Majlis. Iran's official news me- Rafsanjani dia said 55 of the 123 candidates who won enough votes to capture a seat outright were members of the Society of Combatant Clergy men, whose leader is Rafsanjani. The other 68 decided races were in remote areas and the affiliation of the winners was not immediately clear. But the fact that the government-run news agency was predicting victory early indicated confidence that the measures Rafsanjani took before the vote to eliminate as many radical critics as possible proved successful. A week before the election, the Council of Guardians, a 12-man review panel of religious and civilian legal experts, eliminated one-third of the 3,000 candidates. About 13.5 million votes had been counted in 189 districts as of Sunday, with final results from all 196 districts expected within two days, the Islamic Republic News Agency said. The electorate is estimated at 30 million, with anyone over 15 in the population of 60 million allowed to vote. With 10 percent of the potential 3 million votes counted in the key Tehran area, all but one of the top 30 vote-winners were members of Rafsanjani's society. His most rabid opponents in parliament, Mehdi Karrubi, the speaker, and Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, a former interior minister, were far down the list for deciding candidates for the runoff election. Rafsanjani's supporters, pushing pragmatic government measures, clashed repeatedly in the previous parliament with radicals intent on emphasizing religious fervor at home and Is lamic revolution abroad. The radicals also wanted extensive state ownership of business, while the technocrats argued for a more open economy to deal with Iran's high inflation and unemployment and the lack of reconstruction since the 1980-88 war with Iraq. Pope plans to visit Denver for 1993 youth conference NOTICE DENVER (AP) - Pope John Paul IF said Sunday he will travel to Denver for the Roman Catholic Church's eighth annual world youth day next year, his first U.S. trip in six years. Denver edged out Buf falo, N.Y., and Minneapolis- St. Paul to play host to the pa pal visit, which will coincide with the weeklong youth conference in August 1993. "I have selected the city of Den- Pope John Paul II ver, in the noted Rocky Moun tains, in the state of Colorado, which has not been included on the itinerary of my previous apos tolic trips'' to the United States, the pope told 30,000 worshippers at an open-air Palm Sunday Mass in Vatican City. Catholics rejoiced as they heard the news during church services across Colorado. "I think it will be a dream come true,'' said Renee Fajardo of Den ver. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experi ence," said 17-year-old Tara Need- bone of Northglenn. See Catholic Church/Page 3 Department opens Spanish classes to everyone, disregards waiting lists Because of numerous problems encountered by placing zero limits on all Spanish 101, 102, 201 and 202 classes taught in the fall semester, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages has decided to open these classes to everyone on a “first come, first serve” basis. On April 14. all Spanish 101, 102, 201 and 202 classes wifi be open for telephone registration until the sections are filled. Once limits are reached, registration will end. If anyone has already signed his or her name on a waiting list, he or she still must telephone register to get into the class since all previous waiting lists will be discarded. This open registration applies only to the fall semester; ail sum mer Spanish classes remain restricted to graduating seniors, and students must come to the modern languages main office in Aca demic 219 for registration.