UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 23, 1996
5A
Speaker hails flat tax
Nobel Prize winner says present system flawed
By David Teska
Kansan staff writer
Publisher Steve Forbes isn't the only fan of a flat tax. James Buchanan, a 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize Winner in Economics, told about 50 students and faculty yesterday that a flat tax proposal deserved serious consideration. He gave a lecture in Green Hall entitled, The Pros and Cons of the Flat Tax: A Public Choice Perspective.
"Iam interested in what he has to say," Gandhi said.
Alka Gandhi, Topeka graduate student, said that although she was skeptical about the concept of the flat tax, she came ready to listen with an open mind.
Tall interested in what he has to say, Gauthmi said.
Despite the recent interest in the flat tax by Forbes,
former senator Jack Kemp and Rep. Dick Armey, R-
Texas, Buchanan said the idea of a flat tax was not
a new one.
"All of a sudden, it caught on and received a lot of media attention." Buchanan said.
Using a blackboard and the example of three tax payers — designated A, B and C, and three tax "rates" of low, medium and high — Buchanan said that our present tax system was flawed because individuals and groups had infused the tax code with loopholes and exemptions. The result is a system that is unequal to all taxpayers, he said.
Luby Montano Lauret / KANSAN
"These are the only three positions that treat people the same," he said. "
Using his model, Buchanan said that a flat tax would only be fair to all taxpayers if each had the same tax rate, no matter whether it was the low, medium or high rate.
Buchanan said that in our political system of majority rule, the majority had exerted its way at the expense of the minority.
"That's the natural outcome of the majority process," he said.
The advantage of a flat tax, he said, was that it would eliminate those loopholes and tax each person at the same rate.
Nobel Prize winner James M. Buchanan speaks to about 50 KU students and faculty yesterday in Green Hall at the School of Law. Buchanan, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1986, lectured on the benefits of a flat tax.
"Everyone is taxed at the same rate on every dollar of income," he said. "That's the only way you can get generality in the tax system."
Buchanan said that there were serious concerns about the flat tax option, and that he recognized it wouldn't solve all the federal government's fiscal problems.
"All this stuff of putting it on a card and paying it off is an illusion," he said.
Henry Butler, director of the Law and Organizational Economics Center at the University of Kansas, was a student of Buchanan's at Virginia Tech University and arranged for Buchanan's lecture.
Buchanan said that although rewriting the tax code was a popular idea, Congress needed to focus on the more-pressing problem of reducing the deficit.
"I think getting the budget balanced is far more important," he said. "We can't continue to impose on future generations what we're doing now."
University decides to go green
Recycling coordinator post earns approval from administration
By Heather Kirkwood
Kansan staff writer
As Kernit the Frog would say, it's not easy being green — but the University of Kansas is trying.
The University has given the department of environment, health and safety approval to hire a campus-wide recycling coordinator, said Mike Russell, environmental health safety officer.
of tires and 150 to 200 gallons of antifreeze a year, according to statistics provided by the department.
That is no small job at a University that recycles 70 to 80 tons of newsprint, 50 to 60 tons of white paper, 15 to 20 tons of groundwood paper, 10 tons of aluminum, 2 tons
The move follows three years of bureaucratic restructuring after the environmental ombudsman left in 1993.
The position also required special permission because of the hiring freeze.
"It was because of all the interest the public and various constituents in the community showed," Russell said. "It helped us get the issue pushed through."
The new job will carry a salary of $25,000 a year and will begin on July 1.
Other responsibilities for the environmental health coordinator include looking for ways to prevent pollution and minimize waste on campus, planning training and infor-
national seminars for faculty, staff and students, and performing environmental impact studies for KU projects and activities.
The job description also includes becoming a liaison between the department and the campus committee on the environment, formed six months ago to help devise environmental policies at the University.
Andrea Repinsky, Olathe freshman, said she was thrilled to hear that the University had put such a priority on its responsibility to the environment.
"The people responsible for producing the waste should be more responsible for dealing with it," Repinsky said. "Many people are not willing to take action or change their lifestyles in order to avoid having such a great impact on the environment."
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