KANSAN
The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, January 26, 1982
Vol. 92, No. 82 USPS 650-640
Reagan rejects 'sin tax' levy
By United Press International
WASHINGTON—President Reagan has decided against raising excise taxes but will ask for a restructuring of almost all government social services in his State of the Union address tonight, administration and congressional sources said yesterday.
the decision to forego tax increases on items such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco was made during the weekend by the president and vice president from last week's position in favor of the levies.
A congressional source told UPI there would be "no major tax increase" proposed in Reagan's State of the Union address scheduled for A.n. r.u.today.
Reagan had seriously considered increasing federal taxes on gasoline, whiskey and wine, tobacco and other luxury items as a way to lower the federal deficit.
The restructuring of programs such as welfare, Medicare and food stamps, would be carried out over the next five years at a savings of some $83 billion, but the changes would not affect the social security system, the sources said.
In a trade-off the federal government would take over administration of the Medicaid program, which helps finance medical expenses of some 22 million people.
The restructuring would involve a transfer of significant authority for those programs to state governments as part of Reagan's approach to a "new federalism."
Sources on Capitol Hill said states would be required to continue funding those programs involving "basic human necessity," such as food and water, at least 40 percent of the existing federal allocation.
Sources also said Reagan planned to create up to 75 enterprise zones in rundown urban areas, which would offer companies an incentive to develop a system of minimum wage requirement for local workers.
The plan is designed to revive economically depressed areas by giving companies who move from the rural to urban economy new opportunities.
Reagan's plan would create up to 25 zones a year in the next three years, congressional sources said. Up to 10,000 areas are eligible to become zones, but only 75 will be chosen during a three-year period as sort of a demonstration project, sources said.
Congressional sources said Reagan, in another cost-cutting maneuver, will turn over responsibility for maintaining the interstate highway system to state governments. The only part of the government to be responsible for retain control will be the completion of the system, which is already 90 percent finished.
Sources said Reagan was dissuaded from raising the excuse taxes by opposition from
several quarters, particularly from leaders of the U.S. chamber of commerce and "supply side" congressmen led by Rep. Jack Kemp, R.N.Y.
Last week, Reagan indicated to his top aides that he would reluctantly approve some increases in the so-called "sin taxes" to raise some $15 billion in revenues.
"He changed his mind," said one source.
Sources said Reagan's speech would also include some "bold initiatives" to promote his "new federalism" by turning over to the states administration of some social programs in
Reagan set aside most of his afternoon to work on his speech and to fill in any final decisions regarding the fiscal 1983 budget he will submit Feb. 8
"The president is sharpening his pencil on it a few days," afterment. Press Secretary Larry Spoerre
Reagan completed a rough draft of the 30- to 40-minute address during his weekend retreat at Camp David, according to Speakes. That copy, composed on a pad of yellow legal paper, was circulated among a handful of top White House aides yesterday.
John Sloan, a Memphis bank president and chairman of Reagan's small business advisory board, got an early tip-off indicating that Reagan had backed off from the tax increases.
No state money for Three Mile Island
House ponders shutoff of nuclear aid
By KEVIN HELLIKER Staff Represent
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA- Utility users in Kansas will not contribute to the $1 billion cleanup at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant if the Kansas state government considers an application for representation.
However, the bill probably would shut out any hope for similar assistance from other states in the event that a costly accident ever occurred at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant now under construction near Burlington, State Rep. Robert Cloud, R-Shawnee Mission, said yesterday.
“This puts Kansas on the line as being opposed to everyone running in and handing out money to a utility that has a problem,” said Cloud, who introduced the bill.
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, disagree, calling nuclear accidents "a national
"An insurance policy like that would cause utilities to be less careful," he said, adding that "A state kind of has to take care of its own problems."
1 don't support Wolf Creek," she said yesterday, "but there's nothing we can do about it. And there's no way Kansans could foot the hill like that." Three Mile Island happened at Wolf Creek.
The bill, which prohibits state electric companies from drawing funds from Kansas ratepayers out-of-state nuclear power plants, has sparked little opposition, Cloud said.
this run did not surprise anyone because the Kansas Corporation Commission, which must approve all utility rate hikes, already had announced its unofficial disapproval of Kansans paying for the cleanup at Three Mile Island, he said.
The bill, introduced last Friday, was referred to the House Energy and Natural Resources
However, the bill had spawned some ironic comments from representatives of state utilities.
These utilities are on record as saying that
one chance of an accident at Wolf Creek is
miniscule, not even worth talking about," he
"But concerning this bill, the only comment utilities have made is, 'If we do have an accident, we'd like to go back to the people in Peninsula Island (Mile Island) and other states and ask for help.' "
"All I can say to them is, you guys have always said we cannot be worried."
Cloud declined to say which utilities made the comments.
The possibility that Kansas might participate in the cleanup after the 1979 accident arose in 1980 when the General Public Utilities Nuclear Corp., which owns the Three Mile Island plant, asked for assistance from the Edison Electric Institute, an association of utility companies.
The Institute agreed to pay $192 million and to draw that amount from member utilities with nuclear projects, including Kansas City Power and Light and Kansas Gas and Electric. Combined, the two companies own most of Wolf Creek.
The federal government also donated $131 million to the Three Mile Island cleanup and now is considering an additional $100 million, Cloud said.
Roy Shenkel, a lobbyist for Kansas City Power and Light, said yesterday that the company never had intended to draw its $750,000 portion of the aid from its customers.
"If we drew the Three Mile money from our customers it would amount to about 1 cent per month per customer for a year," he said, but added that the company was not planning to do it.
The company is unconcerned about Cloud's bill as well as about any ramifications of that bill upon a possible breakdown at Wolf Creek, he said.
"And we're not worried about Wolf Creek. Don't think an accident will ever happen there. The accident at Three Mile Island was a goofball thing concerning the operators."
Jerry Coonrod, a lobbyist for the Kansas Gas and Electric Company, said yesterday it was possible that his company might contest Cloud's bill.
"We might testify against the bill, and we might not," he said. "Hight now I couldn't tell
As for passing its $660,000 share of the Three Mile Island expense onto its customers, the company "has not contemplated anything along those lines," Conrod said.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, said she did not believe these companies would pay the Three Mile Island fund out of stockholders' shares.
"KCP&L will take it out of its surcharge," she said, explaining that this charge ideally was drawn on for energy research. "One way or another, the money will come out of rates."
Ed Peterson, an attorney for the Kansas Corporation Commission, said he was not certain whether any utility had requested a rate in-
See ENERGY page 5
Weather
Today and tomorrow will be partly cloudy and warmer with the highs in the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka.
Lows will be in the upper 20s with south to southwesterly winds gusting 15-20 mph.
Kevin Sykes, Overland Park junior, takes advantage of yesterday's clear, cold weather. His makeshift buckeye rink is near Nichols Hall on West Campus.
Police still gather leads in local theft
Staff Reporter
BY BECKY ROBERTS
The Lawrence and Kansas City, Mo., police departments continue to watch Kansas City precious metals and pawn shops for more leads in the burglary of a downtown Lawrence jewelry store.
Last week members of the Kansas City police property unit found 17 rings in three different shops. The rings, valued at $9,000, are part of the merchandise stolen from Mark's Jewelers, 817 Massachusetts St., in August. About $90,000 worth of items was taken.
So far, police have not made any arrests and Lawrence Det. James Haller would not say yesterday whether or not any suspects had been named.
Max Geiman, a Kansas City, Mo., FBI agent, said yesterday that the FBI was in charge of his investigation.
merce laws may have been broken when the jewelry was taken across state lines.
Members of the property unit found the jewelry after watching the merchandise in various Kansas City stores and then having a representative from Mark's identify the items, said James Post, Kansas City, Mo., police sergeant.
"We're fortunate to have found this much after so long." he said.
The jewelry is easily identifiable because Mark's carries a complete description and picture of each article, Delbert Eisele, store owner, said.
Police recovered the first of the stolen articles at Quality Wholesale Jewelers, 2807 Main St.
"We recovered 11 pieces, all rings, after they gave us consent to search." Post said.
Police recovered six more items at Continental Coin Co., Independence Avenue and Prospect Road, and Constantine Fine Jewelry Store, 7917 State Line.
Lee McManness, lock systems specialist, has his hands full as he displays some of the 15,000 keys that open all the doors on campus. JOHN MCKANMANSSHAW SMITH
OHN HANKAMMER/Kanaan Staff
KU's 'Keeper of the Keys' unlocks security problems
Staff Reporter
By LISA GUTIERREZ Staff Reporter
There's hardly a door on campus that won't open for Lee McManness.
McManness is a lock systems specialist in the locksmith department of facilities operations. But around the office, he's jokingly referred to as the keeper of the keys—and with good reason.
McManness, Ervin Huslig, another lock systems specialist, and Steve Brown, a maintenance and repair technician, guard the appartment keys that open all the doors on the KU campus.
"We have a copy of every individual key." McManness said viederdav.
McManness said he could not even try to estimate the number of doors on campus
"Haworth has about 700 doors and Malott has more than 800 doors," McManness said.
McManness, a KU locksmith for 12 years, not only has keys to every campus building, but he also has keys to the Regents Center in Overland Park, snake farms that the University owns west of Lawrence and several University buildings at the Lawrence Municipal Airport.
But he did say that Haworth and Malcolm Hall probably have more doors than the other
"Many people walk down balls and don't realize that there could be 10 doors behind one door," he said.
McManness led the high-tech system of locks five years ago to facilitate a growing need for security. Currently, 10 of the 88 KU campus are coated on the system, he said.
"With the new system, assigning keys is easier
and we can keep track of how many keys are
available."
"Keys cannot be duplicated on this system either."
McManness said that with the security system, key blanks are registered to the University and no other distributor or locksmith in the country could use the same key.
"A lot of research went into the high-security system," he said. "We tried to figure out the best way to keep people out of buildings."
In addition to the buildings McManness already has key 16, he said that whenever a new building is built or additions to buildings are made, he and his staff hold "keying con-
"If a new building is built, I go to meetings with the people who will occupy the building," he said.
During these conferences, McManness orients
to EVVRN over NR.