UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editors.
September 1, 1978
Smokers' tax a cancer
The quest for a 3-cent tax on cigarette sales in Kansas by Associated Students of Kansas and Concerned Students for Higher Education is itself a cancer that must not spread.
The proposed tax, which ASK plans to present to the Kansas Legislature next spring, would raise $8.4 million for women's athletics and programs for the handicapped at the six Board of Regents schools. The tax would shift the burden of funding these programs from the students' shoulders onto the backs of cigarette smokers.
Funds for women's athletics and programs and structural improvements for the handicapped are badly needed and long overdue. But they should no sooner be funded by penalizing cigarette smokers than by raising student fees.
Cigarette smokers, however distasteful their habits may be, contribute $31 million to state coffers on the current 11-cent per pack state tax. An 8-cent federal tax and 3 percent sales tax bring the total tax on a pack of cigarettes to more than one-third of its price.
Asking cigarette smokers exclusively to subsidize women's athletics and improvements for the handicapped is ludicrous. The proposal is
not only discriminatory, but its irony is matched only by its lack of logic.
In the unlikely event of a nationwide smoking ban or a disaster in the tobacco industry, the funds, and subsequently the programs, would dry up. KU's women athletes would once again be forced to run to Topea to beg for money.
Government ethics seem to be giving way to a "funding regardless of fairness" mentality. By supporting the tax, ASK and CSHE are tacitly supporting smoking.
Smokers apparently will be permitted to puff themselves to their early graves while picking up the tab for student programs.
Mike Harper, student body president, recently called the 3-cent tax a good alternative to charging the students. It is a good alternative only to students who do not smoke.
It is also a good method of post-poning, or avoiding altogether, the proper means of supporting student programs—through general state funding.
No select group, whether it be smokers, students or left handed golfers should be asked to fund student programs at state supported schools. The burden should shift back to Topeka, and taxpayers as a whole, where it has always belonged.
Death came painfully slowly to Staff Sgt. Robert Thomas.
Caustic vapors of leaking miscellain propellant sifted through the protective suit he wore, searing his lungs and throat as it snuffed out his life.
Missile leak tragedy inexcusable
The 29-year-old father of two who saved another airman from the lethal fumes, was the only Air Force missileman to die from the propellant leak last week at an underground Titum II missile also near Rock, a town in Wisconsin. However, 20 airmen were hospitalized after exposure to the leaking oxidizer propellant, and one was critically injured.
FOR TWO DAYS the gas, which consisted of nitrogen tetroxide, a chemical used in the missile's fuel, continued to leak from the silo, reported to be one of 18 such complexes in the Wichita area operated through McCannell Air Force Base.
As the toxic mustard-colored gas escaped from deep inside the 143-foot silo, it spewed forth from vents and formed a mile-long cloud that forced a two-day evacuation of more than 200 area residents. At least 13 civilians were treated at area hospitals for symptoms relating to exposure to the toxic vapors.
A steady southerly wind lifted and dissipated the vapors, preventing 'a major reduction in CO levels.'
Inflation poses threat of recession
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Letters Policy
NEW YORK-IF, as is highly probably, the United States is, by this time next year, in the early stages of the decade's third recession, the fault will be located neither in the mysterious inevitabilities of our unemployment nor even the person of lovable Howard Jarvis and the effects of his infamous Proposition 13.
Recession is likely because inflation is nearly twice as high as unemployment and is the No. 1 economic problem for most Americans. The economy has not taken by Congress and the White House, the Federal Reserve Board administered a remedy—sharply higher interest rates.
MORTGAGE LOAN Rates, now more than 10 percent in some parts of the country, will escalate even higher. Small businessmen, builders, young families seeking new homes, and purchasers of cars and major vehicles may soon face problems from ballooning monthly payments. Business investment, a sickly child of the current expansion, will decline.
The burdens of recession are unequally imposed. As usual, the poor, black, Hispanic, female, youth, and urban will suffer most. In our inflationary world, a recession must be deep and protracted to produce a significant impact upon inflation.
Everybody, including G. William Miller, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, realizes that recession is both a cruel and an inefficient technique of inflation control. But it will also be useful alternative to still another monetary crunch, the men (and one woman) of the
Board of Governors will do their thing, and the promise that a bad policy is better than no policy.
The alternatives to Federal Reserve action are politically painful, but one would think less painful than running for reelection in the middle of a recession.
The single most sensible response to 10 percent inflation is selective controls over the prices of autos, steel and aluminum, processed foods, hospital room rates, physicians fees, and the products and services in a locality that is concentrated market power is significant.
At the moment, no price control con- tractory exists; there are numerous additions necessary to meet the demands of exhaustive, unoriginal anthology of measures available to Congress, the president.
- Increase quotas on imported beef.
- Lower steel trigger prices so as to
doubtly increase价 hike prices by domestic
power.
- Give tax-based incentive plans a whirl.
a tax-based incentive plan, as a set of rewards for exemplary wage and price behavior, or, as a combination of rewards for good behavior and penalties for bad behavior, is the few genuinely new nations around.
- Exact legislation to compensate states that reduce their sales taxes, levies that are both taxed and compensated
- Reduce Social Security taxes. The effect is a pay increase without added cost to employers. Mr. Carter's proposed tax reduction might be withdrawn to focus upon the anti-inflationary benefits of lower payroll taxes.
- Cut federal Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates.
- Exact the administration's long-stalled well-funded tax, and rebrace the proceeds to make it less expensive.
- Index personal income taxes to the rate of inflation.
- Subject local utility rates to federal guidelines.
- Resuscitate the hospital cost containment bill.
10 measures will not miraculously insure zero inflation. The effects will be felt over months rather than years, rising in the post of living and diminishing pressure upon family budgets, this program will dispel the panic that we are becoming a dangerous public mood.
Evidence that Congress and the president are taking inflation seriously will reassure Mr. Miller and his colleagues and encourage them to reverse, the upward course of interest rates.
If Congress adjourns early in honor of the November elections without taking credible anti-inflationary action, inflation will proceed at current unacceptable rates. The economy may face more desperate games of catch-up. Tight money will lead in short order to recession.
If the political actors were of more heroic scale, and their defects were more noble than a simple cowardice, I'd be inclined to say that we are in the middle of the prologue to a totally unnecessary, and entirely economic tragedy—recession in 1979.
Robert Lekachman teaches economics at City University of New York.
Already Sen, Robert Dole has asked Defense Secretary Harold Brown to review safety procedures at Titan missile in Kansas. At least Dole's move is a start.
residents and the Air Force were lucky. Many more people could have been injured or worse yet, killed. The incident should have required that demands some action by the government.
But the Air Force should go further. Inspections of the missiles should be stepped up to help prevent so-called "mechanical failures." Although it would be easy to dismiss the Rock incident as an isolated Thian II's track record demands otherwise.
The tragic death of Staff Sgt. Thomas on his wife's birthday, likewise, must not be unnoticed or unanswered. How many more lives will be required before government officials react and determine whether the Titan poses serious safety hazards?
Barry Massey
specialist said But a tragedy still occurred, and one for which no excuses can be accepted.
The leak, according to Air Force investigators, was caused by mechanical failure—a valve broke during the refueling process. The leak could not be termed an isolated incident.
it's happened before--most recently at a Titan II silo near Damascus, Ark., about 50 miles north of Little Rock. Ten farm families and about 500 school children were evacuated when a fire held a fuel storage area with a leak Jan. 27. Two airplanes were inured in the incident.
AT LEAST THREE similar incidents have happened near Wichita since the Titan
Its were placed in operation in 1983, but none caused a death. However, the first of the accidents occurred, ironically, at the same silo where Thomas was killed.
Ask Mrs. Linda Thomas and her two young sons.
Although the leak has been stabilized, and plans are being made to extract the remaining propellant from the silo, the full impact of the incident remains unclear.
Concern among area residents centered on the potential environmental damage caused by air pollution, probably will die, according to Air Force specialists. In addition, fish kills and water contamination are possible, because the gas becomes nitric acid upon contact with air.
But the long-term affects of the leak should be minimal, according to an Environment Protection Specialist in City Max. Wilcoxley specialist in hazardous waste control for the EPA, has said that there was little chance of the leak going to humans or animals because of the gas.
BUT THE FACT remains that area
University responsive to handicapped
Dave is planning to continue his education next spring. It's good to hear that he wants to finish college, but it's unfortunate that he studies finish college at Emporia State University.
Last spring, while washing his room windows, Dave Russell fell off the ledge of his third floor room at Joseph R. Pearson Residence Hall.
Dave says, "The handicapped facilities
down there and I don't have to
battle those guys."
Entrances at Twente and Nunemaker halles and the Wales building, behind Smith Hall, have been renovated for accessibility. The Memorial Stadium and Hall are completely facilitated for the disabled. The Memorial Stadium renovation includes new restrooms for the handicapped building.
Dave is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Recently he went through a heart attack.
For several years, the University of Kansas has had a reputation of being inaccessible.
Since Congress enacted Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, making it mandatory for all federally funded institutions to remove architectural barriers to the disabled by 1800, the University has been gaining slowly, but surely, on Emporia State.
Until recently, KU's reputation unfortunately was deserved. However, it's time the University received credit. It has come a long way toward being completely accessible to handicapped students, but it still has a long way to go.
For several years, Emporia State has had the reputation of having the best facilities and accessibility for handicapped students in Kansas.
Admittedly, there still are problems. Transportation is the biggest problem. It is a long-term problem.
Flint Hall and Allen Field House have new elevators. All buildings that have been built since 1873 are completely accessible. The building provides numerous services for the disabled.
And recently, a group calling itself Students Concerned with Disabilities announced they would hold their first meeting next week.
This perception of KU facilities for the handicapped has to be changed.
Brian Settle
A Kansas investigation this summer found the handcapped parking in front of old Green Hall had been replaced by parking for trucks carrying audio-visual supplies. Wattkins Hospital continue to provide handcapped parking, but it is unmarked.
riding through snow in a wheelbarrow. Busing
in the winter is not accessible to those in
wheelbarrow.
Obviously, the University is not yet completely accessible to handicapped and disabled students. However, to be fair, KU is on the right track.
"By and large, the university administration has evidenced a willingness to meet the spirit and letter of the 94 requirements," said the chairman of the Committee for Architectural Handicap.
Emperor State has a campus that can be traversed from one end to the other in a wheelchair in 10 minutes. It also started operating on its own in 2004, the handicapped 20 years earlier than KU.
Currently at KU, it's up to AI Wiechert. HEW guidelines are met by 1980. HEW guidelines are met by 1980.
A statement issued in 1977 by Joseph A.
andone J., secretary of health, educatio
n and the Department of Education.
habilitation Act. "Higher education institutions must assure accessibility of programs and activities to handicapped students and employees. Architectural barriers must be removed where the program is not made accessible by other means."
Federal assistance is doubtful, because the government could not possibly fund it.
Wiechert says the University is meeting its timetable for the 1980 deadline. How many years do students have to complete their degree?
"If the legislature provides funding for the big projects, we'll be in compliance by law."
It's mandatory that a push for complete accessibility for the handicapped continues. A University as important as KU can't lag behind and be required as necessary as handicapped facilities.
Uquestionably, KU has better educational facilities and better curriculum than Emporia State, and is getting closer to Emporia State in terms of handicapped accessibility.
Already KU is considered the second best Regents institution for disabled and handicapped students.
With a continued and stronger effort, KU can match Emporia State in handicapped facilities, despite inherent size and topographical differences.
Now is the time for the administration to start the push for funding to complete accessibility projects, and not wait until 1980 because completely accessible to the handicapped.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday through July for the Kansas City Star. Posted to the University of Kansas daily Monday through July for the Kansas City Star. Points placed in Iowa are based on attendance in Kansas City, Kansas and Dallas County and $1 for each visit on ESS or $2 for each visit outside the United States. Visit dates will vary.
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