CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, February 1, 1984
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Page 7
TOPEKA — The Jayhawk mascot wings it with State Sen. Merrill Werts, R-Junction City. Phil Schmitt, Hutchinson junior, donned the garb yesterday at the direction of state Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, and went into the Senate to present a KU cap to Werts and to remind him that the University of Kansas beat Kansas State University this weekend in basketball. Last year when K-State won, Werts pulled a similar prank and gave a K-State cap to Winter during a Senate meeting.
Official urges stricter traffic laws
By ROB KARWATH Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — Violators of Kansas traffic laws are getting off too easily and stricter penalties are needed, a Senate committee studying driver's license suspension rules was told yesterday.
Letting violators off easily has become the rule rather than the rule, and it is a fact that they do.
John Smith, director of the state Division of Motor Vehicles, testified before the Senate Transportation and Utilities Committee that judges across the state were abusing their power to lessen punishment for traffic violators.
**"ANYTIME YOU GRANT exceptions, minimums or exclusions, it's easy to make that the rule," he said.**
Smith said that the judges' power to reduce punishment should be used only in special cases when the law would punish the offender too much.
The committee voted to introduce the bill to the Senate and then hold further hearings before deciding whether to recommend it.
He asked the committee to recommend that the Legislature pass a bill that would take away almost all of the court's power to punish violators and give it to the state Department of Revenue.
Under the present system, the courts are solely responsible for punishing violators. But officials of the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Department of Revenue thought judges were being inconsistent in giving out different penalties for the same offenses, and this led to the bill's formation.
The bill, written by officials of the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Department of Revenue, would put the department in charge of punishing violators and suspending driver's licenses using a point system.
The Department of Revenue would keep track of the number of points
drivers accumulated for convictions of traffic offenses. More serious offenses would be worth more points under the plan.
SPEEDING WOULD BE worth one point, careless driving — two points, speeding in a school zone — four points, running in an open liquefied container — six points.
Driving while intoxicated and vehicular homicide would both be worth 10 points. The most serious offense, worth 50 points, is driving with a suspended license.
The bill would require a driver to attend a driver improvement clinic after receiving four to five points. After six or seven points, the driver could drive only when necessary, such as to work outdoors, supported after eight or more violations, and the suspension would last 10 days for each point on record.
Smith said that these punishments would be tough on serious offenders and repeat offenders, and that the department would not have discretion to lessen them.
less tense in STATE SEN. JOSEPH Norwell, D-Hays, said that he did not want to take away the power to punish from judges. He said he was worried that all violators would be punished the same way, which might be unfair in some cases.
FRED CARMAN, assistant revision of statutes, said that the bill would not transfer all the power of the courts to the Department of Revenue.
Nerville used drunken driving as an example. He said that often the state's blood alcohol legal limit of intoxication, 0.1 percent, did not truly indicate how drunk a person was. Some drivers might be far above the limit and be fine, he said, while others could not. He explained, and be "blushed out on their mind."
Judges could still punish, he said, but only above and beyond the penalties imposed by the Department of Revenue.
House panel pondering a variety of bills
By LORI DODGE Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — A House committee yesterday heard testimony on a variety of measures — from a bill that would raise the maximum small-claims court award, to a bill that would limit the wholesale costs of prescription drugs.
limit from $500 to $1,000.
The House Ways and Means Com-
munity is expected to vote on the bills
State Reps, Dennis Spaniel, R-Wichita, and Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, testified in favor of a bill that would raise the small claims court
BRANSON SAID THAT Lawrence had more than its share of landlord-tenant disputes because of its large population of students. She said the bill would provide some people, who might not have the means to get legal help in a higher court, with an effective method to recover their losses.
Committee chairman Bill Bunting,
opposed, at the $00 limit had been
bypassed.
ROBERT HARDER, secretary of Social and Rehabilitative Services, testified in favor of the bill, saying that it would require uniform pricing of prescription drugs sold to Kansas pharmacies.
The committee also heard testimony on a measure that would prohibit drug manufacturers and vendors from selling prescription drugs to Kansas
pharmacies for prices higher than what they charge other pharmacists across the country.
Harder said the measure would also assure consumers of prescription drugs
Bunten said that questions about whether they could coaltie or trust laws should be raised.
request the secretary of corrections to conduct a population and program analysis of the state's correctional institutions.
The resolution also includes a provision that would require the secretary to conduct an analysis of converting the Kansas Correctional Vocational Training Center in Topkapi into an institution that could house women inmates.
STATE REP. Wanda Fuller, RcWichita, said that the female inmate population at the state's prisons was increasing at an alarming rate and the increase was expected to continue.
The committee also heard testimony yesterday on a resolution that would