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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday. September 18
Car tax proposed
City may require permit
By Bob Kearnev
Slowly, too slowly for the old professor, the line of parking permit applicants moved forward.
The professor grumbled aloud, his patience thinned by the hour-long wait outside the Traffic and Security Office window.
But the price may go even higher.
"I guess this is the price you have to pay for having a car on campus." he philosophized.
Boosters of a special $10 Lawrence vehicle tax have high hopes for its passage in the Nov. 5 general election. It's the second time the issue will go before the Lawrence voters.
The measure was crushed in its first bid-Aug. 8, 1967-by an overwhelming margin-4,549 to 1.813.
The tax, proposed by the City Commission, would affect every KU student and staff member driving a car on the city's streets.
Blame for the initial defeat of the tax was attributed to a lack of voter education. At the same time, the opponents of the tax hammered at three major points:
- City Officials intentionally set the election for a time when many of those being taxed, KU students and staff, were away from Lawrence.
- The special tax was directed at KU students.
- No tax distinction would be made between a multi-ton truck and a lightweight motor scooter.
The first charge, city officials contend, has been remedied by including the issue on the November ballot when a larger turnout is expected for the presidential voting than for the Aug. 6 primary.
Mayor John H. Emick has answers to the second and third points. "This tax is definitely not aimed at the students but at the vehicles," Emick said. "In fact, the students will greatly benefit."
By law, all revenues from the vehicle tax would be allocated for street maintenance.
It will benefit them, now and in the future, to have streets to carry the traffic and to have the through streets we need in Lawrence. Emick said.
Emick cited the installation of three traffic lights on Iowa Street, especially the one at 15th Street, as examples of benefits to students.
Without that light, traffic would be clogged all the way up the hill on 15th. says Emick.
The measure, in the eyes of its advocates, represents an equitable way of taxing KU students for the costs they cause for street maintenance.
Emick also points out that trucks are already heavily-taxed, and that motor scooters or cycles are as much, if not more, of a traffic control problem as automobiles.
The mayor's commitment to the elderly people of Lawrence, especially those on fixed incomes or Social Security, is perhaps the number one reason Emick is pushing the vehicle tax.
The street improvement
SELECT aids in college choice
A computer program has been developed to help prospective college-transfer students select new colleges or universities.
Called SELECT, the program determines the 10 to 15 schools in the country which best match a student's interests, aptitudes and financial requirements.
The student's specifications are compared with more than two million data entries on approximately 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States.
SELECT does not guarantee admission, but it advises applicants of colleges where they stand the best chances of acceptance.
"Why is it, when we build streets, the property owners carry the load of the tax?" Emick asks.
budget has been eliminated, and the street maintenance budget was chopped from $100,000 to $45,000. Actual improvements were budgeted at $65,000 last year.
Emick said the wheel tax would provide enough revenue to build the needed streets. At the same time, the property owners would save 3 to 4 mills on the levy, he said.
"That's a pretty good sum for those people on fixed incomes," said Emick.
"Of course, I can't speak for all the commission, but the
property tax is as stiff and steep as possible. Some of the older people are forced to go on welfare or to their children for support.
"Not many people like to vote in a new tax. But if enough people get the right information, I believe it can pass."
To date, there have been 11,129 car registrations at KU, including 8,619 students and 2,510 staff members. Ian Davis, manager of the Traffic and Security Office, expects more.
The tax, therefore, would take as much as $111,290 from KU pocketbooks.
And $10 of that would come from the troubled prof waiting in line.
Record Dept.