Tribune-Progress (Bartlett, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 34, Ed. 1, Thursday, June 7, 1979 Page: 4 of 10
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7"
Page 4 Tribunc-Pr ogress Thursday Junc7 1979
Trib une -Progress
USPS 04800
Oartlett Tribune founded In ttt
Holland Progress founded In tl?l
All opinion! and viewpoints In the Tribune Progress do not necessarily represent
the editorial opinions of this newspaper
Published weeMy In Bartlelt Teas 74511 by Taylor Newspapers Inc Taylor
Teas.
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THE SYSTEM
Monday through
Circleville Philosopher
'A.Ik A . A .. . A
44 O 0 4 tkti4t -
usually
PriHnv.
It is hard to realize but As if a this wcrc not
this session of Congress is cn0ughif youhopctohavc
now well into its fifth any knowledge at all about
month. As I reflect on those lhc scorcs of votcs cast cach
months many mixed cmo- wcck lhcn cach night
tions emerge about our mcans thrce or four nours
ability or perhaps our m-rcading and study( Anyonc
ability to effectively solve
the problems we face as a
nation.
The demands placed on
a Congressman arc over-
whelming. Our office will
handle an average of 300
letters several hundred
phone calls and 35 or 40
personal visits daily. Most
members serve on two ma-
jor committees and five
subcommittees. There is
seldom a day that at least seeking election to the Con-
three of these committees grcss would expect long
don't meet. After the first hours and complicated
few weeks of the session work these go with the
the legislative schedule gets territory and always will
longer and more frequent. There is however ab-
From now until late solutcly no justification for
November in addition to the utter confusion the
the normal demands floor lack of organization and
debates will require from the absolutely unbelievable
five to ten hours a day waste of time and effort.
Last week as an exam-
ple our Committee on
Public Works was piepar-
ing for final submission to
the House four very impor-
tant and far-reaching bills.
At the same time debate
was taking place on the
House floor on another
hearing the debate; but cach
time this happened it com-
pletely broke the continuity
of the equally important
Committee meeting. This is
not an unusual occurrence.
With all these demands
and confusion it is obvious
that changes should be
h m iiiti
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HBLJ 4iimill! Tumi
HMMLvwHrf lllllHllllllliaf
ijt From Congressman
Marvin
Leath
vital bill. The result was
that on six occasions during
that day the bells that
notify us of a record vote
rang and here we went
scurrying off to the
Chamber to vote. Not only
did we know less about
what we wcrc voting on
than we should have
known because of not
made. In my judgment
congressional terms should
be changed from two years
to four years and limited to
no more than three terms.
This would reduce the cost
of elections take a great
deal of politics out of the
system and give us new
members and fresh ideas. It
would eliminate the private
power bases and "commit-
tee kingdoms."
Next annual sessions
should be limited to no
more than eight months re-
quiring the Congressman to
be at home at least four
months cach year. The first
four months should be for
committee hearings and
work only with no
legislative action. The se-
cond four months should be
for legislative debate and
action only with no com-
mittee work. Members
should not be allowed to
vote unless they have heard
at least 80 of the debate
on the bill they arc voting
on. At least we would have
votcs based on knowledge
not impulse.
Change docs not come
easy especially in
something like the Congress
but in my judgment un-
til we make some mean-
ingful changes it will
continue to be a mad house.
(Editor's note: The Clr-
clcviltc Philosopher on his
Johnsongrass farm on the
San Gabriel IUcr looks at
the jounger generation this
week somewhat.)
Dear editor:
Every once in a while you
hear somebody say America
has lost its punch.
People say the spirit the
early settlers of this country
had the spirit that made
them make out with what
they had and press on to
something better seems to
be playing out. Where once
American ingenuity was
hard at work giving us the
light bulb the automobile
the airplane the atom bomb
mass production etc. now
we're finding it hard to
compete with foreign cars
Japanese TV sets and
Chinese pocket combs. It
makes us look like we're
behind the rest of the world in
everything except red tape.
I didn't believe all that
until I read an article In a
newspaper last night.
According to it a kids'
baseball team had to be
disbanded because Its city's
recreation money ran out.
I can sec the kids standing
around with their gloves
bats and balls not knowing
what to do because there was
nobody there to tell them to
play ball. How can you play
ball without somebody there
to organize you9 The only
thing they could think to do
was go home and watch
television and during
commercials I guess gripe
about city hall
I don't know what to think
of this. Surely it can't be
typical of the young
generation because if it is
we'd better not be looking to
them to grow up and invent a
new source of energy.
The world sorely needs a
generation vastly more
ingenious then the present
one composed of us adults.
All we know to do when the
electricity goes off is call the
power company and ask
when it's coming back on. If
the line is busy no use calling
Washington. Washington is
on the phone asking the
power company the same
question. I don't know who
the power company can call.
Yours faithfully
J. A.
Would You Believe..
Franco became domi-
nant in the 18th century
in the glass-making field
with tho invention of a
process for casting glass.
French plate glass was
used to line the Galcrio
des Glaccs at Versailles.
One of the rarest cross-
matings was between a
lion and a tiger and is call-
ed a tigon.
Originally tobacco
derived almost exclusive-
ly from Turkey.
r-STATE CAPITAL
HIGHLIGHTS
By Lyndoll Williams
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN Hesidcsj ap-
proving a multitude of oth-
er bills on the very last d.iy
of the fifilh session the Tex-
as Legislature also finally
agreed on a state budget a
school finance plan and tax
relief legislation.
Hurriedly pumping out
minor bills and putting the
finishing touches on major
legislation on the 140th and
final da of the session is
the traditional way of doing
things for the Texas Legis-
lature 'I he fifith session was no
different.
On the way to the last 24
hours of lawmaking legisla-
tors had been sidetracked by
such nagging matters as a
presidential primary altera-
tions to the consumer pro-
tection act and a change in
the usury ceiling.
Dut with the presidential
primary effectively killed by
the flight of the "Killer
Bees" in the Senate and
with changes in the consum-
er protection act already
passed and with the usury
ceiling upped to a maxi-
mum of 12 percent law-
makers spent the final day
of the session working or.
the budget agreeing on the
final details of how oublic
schools would ' .anced
and approving legislation to
implement the tax relief
amendment passed by vot-
ers last November.
The state budget for
I9K0-8I passed by both
Houses after some expected
haggling over different pro-
visions of the plan would
cost $20.7 billion. That's a
19 percent increase over
the last i vn-yc.ir spending
plan the I egislature drew
up in 1977 during the 65th
session.
When sou consider that
inflation it appears law-
makers succeeded in Keep-
ing spending levels as low
as was humanly possible.
But. the $20.7 budget
p.issed on to Gov. Bill Cle-
ments for his signature is
SI billion higher than what
he suggested to the Legisla-
ture in his budget message
earlier in the session. Cle-
ments wanted to return an
additional $1 billion to tax-
pavers. Indications are that Cle-
ments will approve the
spending plan although
some Capitol observers warn
that the governor might end
up approving one year of
the biennial spending draft
and then call lawmakers
back for a special session
to write another one-year
budget for the last year of
the biennium.
But the special session the
governor has said he will
call will probably deal with
another of his Iceislativc
goals initiative and refer-
endum. The House came
Berry's World
" 979DVNEA inc
"Aw shucks!"
. sir' wv
qjttKWi
close to passing "indirect"
initiative and referendum
rights for voters and Cle-
ments addressing the House
on the final night of the
session warned lawmakers
that he would be seeing
them again sometime in the
next two years in a special
session on the subject.
Included in the state
budget were 5.1 percent pay
raises for state employees
and a boost of 8.3 percent
for Department of Public
Safety troopers.
Teachers also got a 5.1
percent pay raise on top of
automatic step increases
bringing their pay hikes to
7-10 percent.
Last session. Sen. Oscar
Mauy of Dallas chairman
of the Senate Education
Committee found the school
finance plan so objection-
able he talked until the clock
had run out leaving law-
makers without a plan.
This time Mauzy said he
felt the Legislature had done
a better job of "getting
equalization aid to the poor-
er districts."
In the past. Mauy
claimed that the rich school
districts wcrc simply getting
richer while the poorer ones
were getting poorer.
"This is not a perfect
bill" Mauy told his fellow
senators "but it's a good
bill that I wholeheartedly
recommend to you in good
faith."
The school finance pack-
age contains $334 million
new money for teacher pay
$152 million for equaliza-
tion to school districts and
almost $00 million in ad-
ditional funds for the oper-
ation and maintenance of
public schools.
Inseparable from the ques-
tion of school finance is
the matter of tax relief
legislation House Bill 1060
the measure to implement
the constitutional amend-
ment approved by voters is
expected to cost local school
districts across the state al-
most $384 million.
Homestead exemptions
will be granted under the
tax relief legislation for the
elderly and the disabled.
Family cars and household
goods arc also exempted.
And farm and ranch land
will be' taxed on its produc-
tivity rather than its market
value.
What legislators had to
agree on was a plan to reim-
burse local school districts
for the tax dollars they
would be losing. House Bill
I OfiO contained $200 million
for reimbursement and the
school finance plan ended
up containing $184 million
for the same purpose.
But how that $384 million
set aside for reimbursement
would be parceled out was
another question. Lobbyist
for the large metropolitan
school districts in most
cases the richer districts
pushed for a minimum 45-
cents per dollar reimburse-
ment plan and got it. But
to use another example.
Austin would be reimbursed
67-ccnts for every dollar
lost because of mandated
tax breaks.
Austin Sen. Lloyd Dog-
gett said that the increased
payments to the large school
districts would mean a de-
crease in longevity pay for
state employees.
And Sen. Bill Moore of
Bryan labelled HB I OfiO as
"a fraud and a sham" be-
cause of the compromises
made after heavy pressure
was applied by lobbyists
from Dallas and Houston.
But a representative of
the Dallas school district
was quick to point out that
even with the reimbursement
plan plus other state aid
DISD would fall $4.5 mil-
lion shy of its revenue needs.
And Dallas may not be
the only school district that
will be facing that same
problem after tax relief leg-
islation is put into effect.
That mcans of course that
some programs will have to
be cut back or new taxes
will have to levied. That led
one Dallas school represen-
tative to say that he thought
any new taxes that might
have to be collected should
be called the "Briscoe Tax"
after former Gov. Dolph
Briscoe who called a special
session last summer to draw
up tax relief legislation.
Critics charge that HB
1060 is not a tax relief mea-
sure but merely a shifting
of the tax burden from local
school districts to the state.
And those same critics
point out that the average
homeowner will probably
only save $40-$50 in taxes
in cach of the next two
years.
Hpl'ive l&JK
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3Uuiit'SuUn
News Roundup
Judge Rules Guideline
Unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that President Carter has acted
unconsititutionally in trying to enforce his "voluntary
guidelines by threatening to withhold contracts. Dealing a
heavy setback to Carter's anti-inflation program U.S.
District Judge Barrington B. Parker ruled that Carter cannot
legally deny federal contracts to companies that violate hiS
wage-price guidelines.
Air Crash Death Toll Rises To 274
The death count of the nation's worst air disaster has risen
to 274. The American Airlines jumbo jet crashed last week
near Chicago while taking off Officials say they have
identified 17 victims.
Anti-Nuclear Demonstrators March
Hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators marched
chanted and sang their way from nuclear power plant sites to
jail during worldwide protests against atomic energy. The
protests here were generally peaceful but a woman was
killed Sunday in Spain when a policeman fired a submachine
gun into a crowd of demonstrators
Oklahoma Stops Blocked By Rigs
All major truck stops were shutdown this morning in
Oklahoma City and Tulsa early this week by independent
truck drivers angered by high diesel fuel prices. The
truckers promoting a strike to demand guaranteed diesel
allocations and surcharges to pass on the cost of rising fuel
prices said they would seek to keep truck stops closed If a
nationwide strike materialized.
Governor Says No Gas Crises In Texas
There will be spot shortages of gasoline in Texas this
summer but Texans will get by without a crisis says Gov
Bill Clements The governor said he expects gas station
closings on Sunday but said he will not restrict service station
operating hours or impose a rationing plan. Texas will have
91 percent of its June 1970 allocation this June with 10 per-
cent of that set aside for emergency distribution and
federally imposed priority uses
Synthetic Fuels Must Be Developed
Rising oil prices should prompt the nation to start a high-
gear effort to develop synthetic fuels says W.W. Rostow
former presidential adviser. Rostow adviser to the late
Prcsldet Lyndon Johnson reminded a House subcommittee
that the U.S. produced Its first synthetic rubber substitute 287
after the decision was made during World War II.
Tax Relief Measures Working
Parts of the tax relief program that was overwhelmingly
approved by the voters last November have gone into effect
the Governor's office says. The news release says the
Governor signed the measure last Thursday without special
ceremony or announcement. The action was the climax to a
process that began last summer when Gov. Dolph Briscoe
called a special session to cut property taxes shortly after
California voters approved Proposition 13. The constitutional
amendment passed by the special session and later approved
by voters authorized the Legislature to enact the so-called
tax-rcliefbill(HBlOCO).
Pope Demands Rights
For Christians
While visiting in his native Poland Pope John Paul II has
demanded that the communist government there recognize
the rights and beliefs of Christians although their view of the
world is "diametrically opposed" to Marxism. It was the
most powerful political statement the pontiff has made so far
in his homeland.
Many Japanese Fear Attack
Nearly 44 percent of 3000 Japanese questioned in a recent
opinion poll said they were afraid of attack by a foreign
power. For 78.9 percent of these the Soviet Union was the
biggest threat while 20.0 percent feared the United States.
There were 16.9 percent fearful of China 12.2 percent
suspicious of North Korea and 7.4 percent doubtful of South
Korea
California Squirrels
1 ?
May Carry Plague
Ground squirrels and the plague-Infected fleas they are
believed to carry are being hunted by health officials who
have set traps in the hills east of Los Angeles. The effort
began when a 15-year-old boy In Riverside County was
stricken with bubonic plague after visiting a campground
near Idyllwild some 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
BARBS
Phil Pastoret
Happiness is finding two
other Joggers so the thrce of
you can completely deva-
state sidewalks Inhabited by
less energetic pedestrians.
Sure sign of spring: When
the neighbor brings your
suowblowcr back and ex-
changes It for your rotary
mower.
U
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Tribune-Progress (Bartlett, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 34, Ed. 1, Thursday, June 7, 1979, newspaper, June 7, 1979; Taylor, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth81489/m1/4/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bartlett Activities Center and the Historical Society of Bartlett.