University Daily Kansan, March 23, 1981
B102
Absence of legislators delays action on KU budget
By GENE GEORGE Staff Reporter
State legislators, like university students, coasted through last week.
Senators were to have debated and possibly taken final action on the Board of Regents budget bill, but he did the bill to this week's calendar.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Talkington, R-Iola, said action had to be delayed because several senate members were absent last week.
Talkington and other legislative leaders left Topela Wednesday for a meeting with President Reagan in Washington.
Senators could consider the Regents' budget bill at this afternoon's session. The bills cut out about 50 percent of the wide outside from the Regens' 1982 budget.
At the end of last week, Senate President Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, announced that the Legislature might have to meet in a special fall session to make adjustments in the entire state budget, depending on how Congress cut federal aid to
Doyen said he was concerned about the welfare fund and other social services. He says Congress had about 32 percent of Kansas' budget.
The severance taxes considered the key issue to state financing of the 1982 budget, would be nullified if the
Senate moved to exempt royalty owners, Attorney General Bob Stephan ruled Friday.
Stephan said all minerals to be taxed under Gov. John Carlin's proposal were legally considered to be royalties to the owners.
Rep. Keith Farrar, R-Hugoton, an opponent of the tax, pointed out to fellow House members that the House had mistakenly included royalty owners in the version of the tax it passed.
Farrar asked Stephan for an opinion on what might happen if the tax bill was amended to exempt the royalty owners.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said he was not concerned with Stephan's ruling.
"The important thing is we have passed a vehicle dealing with the severance tax," he said. "One benefit of having it also referred in the Senate is that any changes need to be made could be made."
The Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee will start hearings on the severance tax bill today, and the Senate Ways and Means Committee will start hearings later.
This week, the House Local Government Committee will start work on Sen. Jane Eldredge's, R-Lawrence, downtown improvement
The improvement bill, which would allow Lawrence to set up an improvement district, may undergo
changes in the House, according to Ren. Jessie Branson. D-Lawrence.
The Bill would allow downtown businessmen to form a taxing district. The money would be used to support the businesses and attract new ones.
Branson said some Lawrence businessmen were concerned with the version that the Senate passed.
She said the businessmen wanted the improvement district limited to the central business district, and to make it smaller than four square blocks.
The businessmen also wanted to make sure the bill conformed to the city's comprehensive growth plan.
In other action taken last week:
"The House passed the Kaw River bill sponsored by Eldredge. The bill, which is expected to be signed by the governor this week, sets up a hiking trail from Bureham Park near 2nd and SI. St., to the Kansas Turnpike.
*The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee started hearings on a Senate bill designed to exempt rural electric cooperatives from state energy agencies from Kansas Corporation Commission regulation.
The bill, which would allow a group of cooperatives to buy part of the Wolf Creek nuclear plant without conditions passed by the KCC, was supported by the Senate. However, the House gave it a cool reception. Hearings continue this week.
On the Record
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION Safety Board has completed its investigation without determining the cause of the Feb. 13 light plane crash that killed a KU student.
Douglas Wayne Potter, 20. Lawrence junior, died when his Cissena 172 struck power lines near the Kansas Power and Light plant north of Lawrence and crashed into the Kansas River. The cause of death was listed as drowning.
"All we know is that he flew into the wires," said investigator Bob Johnson. "We don't know why.
"We didn't find anything wrong with
the equipment, and we know weather was not a factor in the crash. It just appears that he flew into the wires."
Johnson said the reason probably never would be determined.
The investigation report will go to the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C.
LAWRENCE FIRE OFFICIALS and KU police have determined that arson was the cause of a small fire Thursday in Watson Library.
The fire was discovered in a storage room in the building's basement. The fire was confined to two bookshelves and destroyed about $50 in various
paperback books, Lawrence Fire Department Ll. Larry Stemmerman said.
"We suspect it was set by matches," he said.
Stemmerman said an investigation was continuing.
A FORMER KU STUDENT is sung for damages in excess of $20,000 resulting from a fight that took place while he was a student at the University of Kansas, according to District Court records.
Jon R. Murphy, Overland Park, said injuries he suffered in the unprowoked fight forced him to leave school.
Time . . . 9:30-3:15
Place ... Kansas Union Ballroom
Date . . . March 24-26
sponsored by Panhellenic Association and the Interfraternity Council
Tuition costs will likely rise again
By DALE WETZEL Staff Reporter
TOPEKA-KU students can apparently look forward to a second year of higher tuition costs, and regular future increases, as a result of action taken at the Kansas Board of Regents monthly meeting last Friday.
Staff Reporter
Glee Smith, chairman of the Regents Budget and Finance Committee, had his tentative proposal of a $40 tuition increase in addition to other unanimously in principle by the Board.
The proposed $40 boost, which will not become final until the Regents April meeting in Emporia, will increase resident fees 15 percent to $20, up from the current fee of $28. Out-of-state students will pay the amount of $20, up from this year's fee of $820.
"Here, we wanted to get a figure on the table, so that we could finalize action in April. We take two months to decide matters like this."
costs being naid bv KU students.
"The $4 figure isn't set in cement," Smith said. "We'll have a special session of the Budget and Finance committee at Emporia on April 16, to review our progress and tuition level we should reach. The figure could go up, or it could go down."
SMITH SAID THAT tat训 increases could be fairly regular over the next few years, in an effort to increase to 25 percent the percentage of educational
"We're down to the point where student fees provide roughly 18 percent of actual costs, with the figure being less for smaller Gerschols schools," she said. "Usually, we don't want to correct this all in one go. It will be a gradual process."
Smith said the 25 percent tuition-cost ratio was informally reached in 1963 between the Regents and the Senate Ways and Means Committee. He emphasized that the figure did not include capital improvements, research expenditures and other costs but not foresee a downward re-evaluation of the 25 percent benchmark
"We raised the fees last year, but didn't raise them enough, as we felt constrained by the president's wage guidelines," Smith said. "Being in the public sector, we were especially keen of exceeding the guidelines.
"We usually raise fees only every third year, but we've found this to be inadequate."
SMITH SAID THAT A Senate Ways and Means committee recommendation that fees be raised was a "small factor" in the Board's decision, but emphasized that "there was no arm-wristing involved.
"We were raising of raising the fees anyway," Smith said. "The Senate just advises us, and they didn't and haven't tried to force any on us."
If the Regents were to increase KU
fees to agree with Smith's 25 percent figure, it would mean a $70 increase in tuition, rather than the $40 that Smith has proposed.
FOR EXAMPLE, KU's projected 1982 tuition-cost percentage is 19.3 percent without the $4 increase; with it, the rate climbs to about 22 percent. The three smallest Regents institutions—Fort Hays State, Pittsburgh and Virginia State—pay about 13 percent of their educational costs with tuition funds.
Smith said he thought it "likely" that the proportional system would be maintained, but pointed to Regents data indicating Kansas school costs are below the average costs of surrounding states' public institutions.
In other KU-related Regents business, the University proposed that next year's student health fee be boosted to $1 from $46. A financial impact statement submitted to the Board pointed out that the fee had not been written on. Whereas salaries, medical and operating expenses had
In another economy measure, the University proposed shortening two required field geology courses from four-five day workweeks to three six-day workweeks. According to a report by the National Research Council, shortened course period would reduce some expenses, but course fees would be kept at $50 to offset rising expenses.
monday madness
Fast...Free Delivery
841-7900
1445 W. 3rd St.
841-8002
410 Floors
Hours:
4:30 1:00 Sun · Thurs.
4:30 2:00 Fr & Sat.
Until March 28, 2016 | Durham Preserve Park
Mondays only.
Pay only $50 for a
tray or three pie
mips plus 2 free cups of Pepsi!
(tax included in price)
One coupon per person
Fast. Free Delivery
1W4. 23rd St. 841-7900
610 Fla. 841-8002
Drivers carry less than $10.
$6.50
Call the classified department at 864-4358
comes in black, white, and mexican multi
819 Mass.
843-3470