UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan
Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
JANUARY 24,1979
Spending lid has merit
Responding to the voice of the disgruntled taxpayer, the Kansas Legislature is alive with a tax relief hoopla that has begun to sound commonplace in these post-Proposition 13 days.
And neither Republican nor Democrat seem unaffected. Legislators from both sides are eager to join the bandwagon—introducing and sponsoring tax cuts, tax credits and tax lids. This new found enthusiasm for tax relief surely would bring a grin to Howard Jarvis.
YET AMIDST all these proposals, one stands out as most important a proposed 7-percent state spending lid.
Already 39 of the 40 state senators have sponsored a bill establishing such a spending lid and the Kansas House Ways and Means Committee now is working on its own version.
A spending lid, such as the one passed by the Kansas Senate Ways and Means Committee last week, would place a 7-percent ceiling on annual state spending increases.
At question in the house committee is whether the lid should include supplemental expenditures, those made after the regular session. The
Senate version does not exempt supplemental expenditures.
URGING HIS colleagues to adopt a loophole-free spending lid, House Speaker Wendell Lady, R-Overland Park, park, "If you want to say you are in favor of the spending lid, then let's enact the spending lid and mean it. Let's not just use it for political rhetoric."
THERE IS nothing startling or new about the need for more efficient government. Legislators, quite simply, just have ignored it.
Although the spending-lid proposals must still face a long legislative battle, they are an encouraging sign. Perhaps legislators finally have seen that the long-term solution to taxpayer relief is not to be found only in tax cuts and tax labs, but that relief must be combined with reduced government spending.
Jarvis and his rowdy across the country have demanded nothing more, at the bottom line, than a trimmer government. In California that resulted in a crash diet.
For now there is no reason for Kansans to resort to similar extremes, and the Legislature can ensure this by voluntarily cutting back government expenditures. A spending lid would be an excellent starting point.
Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown recently used his second inaugural address as the kickoff for his 1980 presidential bid, once he became governor and then people exactly what they wanted to be.
Brown's budget stand is hypocritical
Brown, who was praised in 1974 as one of the most socially enlightened young politicians to come along for some time, has closed his eyes to problems he once saw as crucial. And he also has sought to close the gap between the two, calling the right strings—their purse strings.
In his address last week Brown criticized "the false prophets who have risen to advocate more and more government spending."
But during his bulldog for the 1974 governor's seat, Brown could have fit the description of what he now has chosen to call "false prophets." Indeed, Brown has been at a loss by several leading Democrats for what they see as hypocrisy on Brown's part.
SEN. GARY HART, D-Colo., blasted Brown recently for his move to enforce a federal balanced budget by a constitutional amendment at the same time that California is receiving $7 billion in federal aid each year.
Hart said the federal aid allotment to California had itself contributed heavily to the state's recovery.
In fact, Brown had not even supported California's Proposition 13 referendum last year, when it involved making it politically dangerous, not because of an obvious and overwhelming support for it. And he now sees it politically advantageous to be the first, and therefore should win, in his own right.
What is alarming is not that Brown seems to support the issue for purely political reasons.
But what is terribly alarming is that Brown, and many others, want to call a
U.S. must rethink OPEC policies
N. Y. Times Feature
NEW YORK-K The prognosis for the world's oil supply-and-demand balance in the late 1980s is disturbing, and that disquiet is bound to intensify if we examine the prospects for development of petroleum in the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
We must expect that many producing countries will soon question seriously whether their programs will really contribute effectively to their future economic and social progress. This has already been demonstrated by the political upheaval in
Rv WAL TER. I. L E V Y
The challenge facing OPEC members is that during the relatively short period when they can count on a large flow of oil revenues, they have to develop economies that can provide sufficient government revenues, foreign-exchange income and employment for the period when the oil bonanza begins to peter out.
MANY DIFFICULTIES and dilemmas they face could not have been easily avoided. In addition, there were huge pressures to improve the economic well-being of their citizens due to the dramatic increase in the flow of oil revenues since early 1974.
Equally, with billions of dollars spent on creating new plants and their supporting facilities, OPEC governments must be prepared to provide for annual operating costs that may amount to one-quarter to one-third of the initial establishment costs.
Since 1974, OPEC government revenues have amounted to some $500 billion. An estimated $300 billion may have been spent on goods, services and military expansion. The value received, as well as the revenue generated, appears not to have exceeded $200 billion to $300 billion.
Moreover, all of them have to cope with the political and social problems posed by the vast inflow of money: inflation, feverish rate of development, negative impact on agriculture and traditional industries, increasing dependence on subsidies for imports or for industries providing domestic subsidies, large influx of foreign labor and lossed distribution of wealth.
FOR EXAMPLE, as of 1976, the cost of capital projects in most OPEC nations, including supporting facilities, was about
THEY WILL all realize that rapid, force development tends to weaken, if not destroy, established values, mostly without replacing them with new ones. This may stimulate disappointment and resentment directed largely against the foreigner and the producing countries' national governments in their nations. Ira's turunc indicates what may lie ahead elsewhere.
two to three times that of competing enterprises in developed countries. Any ventures are also burdened with substantial overhead costs.
At present, of each $1 billion received by OPEC for crude oil exports, perhaps $900 million is accrued to a country as government revenue and are obtained in the form of foreign exchange.
In contrast, an industrial-development project with an output of $1 billion might provide in direct taxes no more than $50 million. A country's foreign-exchange income depends on its competitiveness in world markets.
Sooner or later, producing countries will begin to doubt whether they can establish a self-sustaining non-oil-based economy, and will inevitably consider slowing down their development programs.
THIS WOULD enable them to stretch oil reserves by producing less and to sustain the future viability of their economies through an increased flow of revenues from foreign investments.
The resulting stringency of oil supplies and their high cost would cause very serious economic and political problems for the country.
We must thus rethink our policies toward OPEC members. Up to now we have mostly accepted their desire for rapid development and large military expenditures even when it has been wasteful.
What is needed is a candid exchange of views with OPEC on the practicability of their national programs, even though we risk their interpreting our advice as a manifestation of neocolonialism.
We must be willing to assist them in developing industries that offer the prospect of economic viability of providing technology, managerial talent and access to markets. Such an industry is a major source of consensus among all nations of the industrialized world.
WE CANNOT any longer afford a situation where the importing countries waste a substantial part of their energy, while the producing countries waste a substantial part of their oil revenues. In the past we have too often been stymied in our efforts to cope with these problems by entrenched national and private interests.
If we should ultimately fail, as well we might, prospects for the progress of the world's energy-based economies could be very poor.
Walter L. Levy is an oil consultant to industry and governments. This article is based on a longer version that appeared in the Journal of American Business.
"It's going to come on like a freight train," says Oregon State Sen. Jason Boe, president of the National Conference of college coaches, which is leading the convention campaign.
Indeed it looks as if such a move will have the force of hundreds of freight trains, unless efforts to derail the movement are successful.
ROBERT BORK, a conservative Yale law professor and a former official in the Nixon administration, tried to draft a constitutional amendment that would limit federal spending. But he says he soon became dubious about it because he knew he was not a partisan who "would see Womh" whom they sue?
Before such a convention could be held, it would have to be approved by 34 states. Twenty-two already have approved it, in addition, and others likely that 12 others won't be far behind.
constitutional convention that could mean a field day for changes in the U.S. Con
Carter also sees problems with such a constitutional amendment—but they go beyond who would sue whom. He said recently that Brown's proposal would create a federalism that would be suffered an economic crisis in which it was impossible to maintain a balanced budget.
However, what has really scared Carter, and several constitutional experts, is the thought of what could happen to the Constitution if such a convention had convened. The Constitution would be made, and could leave the Constitution looking much different than it does today.
"IT IS TIME," Brown said, "to get off the treadmill to challenge the assumption that
Perhaps the country needs a closer look at the relationship between spending and the levels at which its citizens—all of them—are spending is time to slow down government spending.
But despite Brown's hope that this could be his chance to gain the presidency, his call for a constitutional convention is not only a dangerous move but also an irresponsable one.
more government spending automatically leads to better living."
The momentum of the Proposition 13 movement is gaining and Brown wants to be the chief engineer for a nationwide sweep by the movement.
However, his visions of residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have clouded his eyes to the constructive moves he could be making to reduce the federal budget.
--themselves to lawsuits from workers such as Weber.
And those visions may be forcing him to lead millions of Americans into a dead-end alley—with the only exit being the institution of certain constitutional foundations.
Weber, 32, an employee at a Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Co. plant in Gramercy, La., applied for a training program that would lead to a skilled craft job. But the company, finding that there were only five blacks among 273 skilled workers, had signed an agreement with the United Steelworkers Union to admit one black employee and instructed the programs until black representation reflected the surrounding black population. When Weber was turned down, he sued the company and the union.
Cramer, a 32-year-old sociologist, taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for a decade and has been a position in that school's sociology department. When women were hired for both spots, Cramer contended that he was wrong to assume that the women hired were "less qualified."
Are voluntary affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to minorities and women in employment constitutional?
High court should refute job discrimination charges
The answer, which could affect millions of workers, may come in the near future when the Supreme Court reviews the case of James Crane and considers the case of James Crane.
Weber and Cramer are two white men who have filed charges of "reverse discrimination" that challenge the legality of voluntary affirmative action programs.
The court in last year's headline-grabbing Bakke decision outlawed the use of explicit racial quotas for admission to universities receiving federal funds. However, the high court also ruled that race could still be a factor in selecting applicants.
BUT THE COURT did not say how far employers could go with affirmative action programs designed to give minorities and women a break, particularly when there is no established proof of past discrimination. The Court and Cramer may provide an answer.
OPPONENTS OF Affirmative Action have had little success in challenging programs instituted after past discrimination was documented.
"There can be no basis for preferring minority workers if there has been no discriminatory act that displaces them from their 'rightful place' in the employment scheme," the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 21-day appeal.
But last year's lower court ruling on behalf of Weber threatens these voluntary
But complying with the decision puts companies between the proverbial rock and hard place: If they don't adopt voluntary affirmative action programs, they can be sued by minority workers; if they do admit to wrongdoing, they risk being sued for back pay and damages; if they give preference to non-white workers without admitting past errors, they open
THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT Opportunity Commission also disagrees with the Weber decision. Commission officials issued new guidelines in an effort to encourage voluntary affirmative action and to address discrimination in compliance and violating federal guidelines.
The commission and the Justice Department want the case sent back so lower courts can reconsider the evidence on Kaiser's record on past discrimination. But Weber says he's optimistic that the court will see things his way.
Ironically, Eleanor Holmes Norton, commission chairman, says the new affirmative action guidelines would have the same need for both the Bakee and Wear suits.
WHILE THE COURTS will have the last word, the increase of complaints by white males charging "reverse discrimination" reflects a mood of resistance to affirmative action fueled by intense competition for increasingly scarce jobs.
Also, this latest round of suits once again raises the question of how far should American society go to compensate for past injuries suffered by minorities and women.
Granted, some gains in the area of equal employment compensation have been made. But race and sex are still key criterion in the job selection process, thus enhancing the need for increased governmental pressure in guaranteeing jobs for women and minorities in an ever tightening job market.
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