Thursday, Sept. 5, 1985
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
11
Tax reforms
Church groups say plan won't aid poor
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Prominent religious groups, while praising President Reagan for trying to revise a "jungle-of-injustices" tax system, are complaining that his plan still would do too little for the poor and too much for the rich.
In broadsides issued as members of Congress began returning from summer recess, a large coalition of Protestant and Jewish groups and the American religious hope national organization addressed details of the president's proposal.
The bishops' U.S. Catholic Conference asked rhetorically: "Should we allow a large windfall for the rich at a
time when the gap between rich and poor is widening, at a time when millions lack even the most basic necessities required for human dignity?"
The Protestant-Jewish coalition, Interfaith Action for Economic Justice, called Reagan's plan "an assault on the progressivity of the tax system," the skewing of the system so wealthy people pay a higher percentage of income in taxes.
Both groups also said further help for the poor should not come at the expense of middle-income Americans.
Those specific complaints concern a Reagan recommendation that the top tax rate for the richest Americans be lowered to 35 percent from 50 percent. The top rate was 70 percent until Congress passed another Reagan tax bill in 1981.
The administration bill also aims to provide tax relief for the poorest Americans, and the interfaith group said the president's proposal was on the right track in that regard.
But the group also contended in a nine-page evaluation sent to the congressional tax-writing committees that the plan "would only partially make up for the tax increase they would pay in 1978 and would continue to allow some families to be taxed into poverty."
GULFPORT, Miss. — President Reagan declared the Mississippi coast ravaged by Hurricane Elena a disaster area yesterday, making the thousands of people who lost homes and businesses in the 125-mph storm eligible for federal aid.
Richard Glazier, public information officer for the Harrison County Civil Defense, estimated damage from Elena, which raked four states in its destructive path, at more than half a billion dollars in Mississippi alone.
The relief effort will be coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which reported the Labor Day storm damaged or destroyed 3,790 dwellings and 1,400 businesses in the three counties along Mississippi's 80-mile Gulf Coast.
FEMA said 3,000 homes were damaged so severely they were unlivable and temporary housing must be found for the occupants.
Paul E. Hall of FEMA's Atlanta office, who will head
From Kansan wires
the relief effort, said homeowners could borrow a maximum of $100,000 for structural repairs and a maximum of $20,000 for personal property.
Victims of Elena to get aid
The Small Business Administration will authorize loans ranging to $500,000 for businesses damaged or destroyed in the storm. The interest rates on loans will increase by 8 percent, depending on the borrower's credit rating.
Glazier indicated the overall damage in Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana could exceed the $2 billion total of Hurricane Frederic in 1979.
O'Neill says public shows interest in deficit, not taxes
FEMA said "millions of dollars" in federal assistance would be available to the hurricane-ravaged coast, but said official estimates of Elena's damage were not yet available.
"We're going to have a hard time, but we're going to try to put it through the House," O'Neill said as members of the House returned to work after the August congressional recess.
But O'Neill said he found during the recess that people weren't interested in the tax reform.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Thomas O'Neill said yesterday that there was little public interest in tax reform this year, but that the House would try to pass a reform bill despite the difficulties involved.
The Senate is not due to return until Monday, when it will prompt resume debate on the bill to impose economic sanctions on South Africa.
"The damage itself (from Elena) is less than in Frederic, but the dollar amount is greater because of inflation." Glazier said.
O'Neill told reporters the Democratic leadership was concerned that failure to act on a tax reform bill would invite political attacks by President Reagan, who was pushing for an overhaul of the present tax code.
United Press International
Federal officials said an overall damage total should be known soon, but Glazier said preliminary estimates placed Mississippi's damage at more than a half-billion dollars.
"I found very little sentiment for the reform tax bill, very little," he said.
When I talked to people in the
street they never even mentioned it," he said.
O'Neill said business leaders were more concerned with the budget and trade deficits.
"Unless the president can really move the people out there, there is no desire to change what we've had for 75 years," O'Neill said.
Action on a trade bill also is likely, O'Neill said, complaining Reagan "doesn't give a damn" about the loss of U.S. jobs as a result of growing imports from other countries. He criticized Reagan's recent decision not to approve import quotas on footwear.
"It appears it will be a long session. We'll be here until Thanksgiving anyway," he said.
He mentioned appropriations bills, reauthorization of the Superfund program, the farm bill, and possibly an immigration reform measure.
The competition from subsidized foreign manufacturers is causing members of Congress to favor trade restrictions, he said.
O'Neill outlined several items of business Congress must deal with before adjournment for the year and predicted the session would go beyond the Nov. 1 target for adjournment.
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