THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
The University of Kanso.
KANSAN
Vol.89, No.100
Thursday, February 22, 1979
Jayhawks bask in 66-59 victory See page nine
Lawrence, Kansas
Spending lid legislation puts KU in difficult spot
By DEB RIECHMANN
Staff Writer
The University of Kansas appears to be between a rock and a hard place in its annual battle with the Kansas Legislature to secure state funds for its next budget.
The rock, a 7 percent spending lid that was recently passed by the Legislature and then vetoed by Gov. John Carlin, was an attempt to cut down state spending. For the current fiscal year, KU's Lawrence campus received 52 percent of its operating expenses from the state's general fund.
The hard place is a second proposal aimed at limiting state spending. This proposal, which was sent by Carlin to the Kansas Senate yesterday, proposes that legislators pass an annual resolution to outline state spending.
The current bill, which was vetoed by Carlin Tuesday, would hold $1.02 stewardship to a 7 percent budget increase each year and provide an ending balance of at least 8 percent.
Del Shankel, executive vice c章eller, said, "I hate to see the Legislature tie its hands by mandating a spending lid. If inflation runs at 10 percent and personal and income taxes should continue to go up, then the Legislature has tied its hands unnecessarily.
"A TAX lid limits your ability to respond to the real needs of the state. It means they have to make cuts in the budget somewhere and KU would be a likely candidate to share in those cuts. I like to see budetining done with maximum flexibility."
Carlin agrees. He says the current bill is impractical and not flexible enough for state supported facilities, including KU.
Although Carlin believes in the concept of reduced state spending, he vetoed the current bill, saying it was not "workable." He voiced three basic complaints.
First, he said, he did not want to see a specific limit placed on spending.
"The people of Kansas want us to do what's right and not just set some arbitrary figure we have to adhere to every year," Carlin said.
Secondly, Carlin said, the current bill would make it more difficult for him to send about $31 million back to Kan'ans to ease property taxes as he has recommended.
Carlin's third point was that the 8 percent ending balance would not leave enough money in the state treasury for unforeseen expenses. He wants a 10 percent cushion in the treasury at the end of the next fiscal year.
KANSAN Analysis
IF THERE were unexpected expenditures, then taxes might be raised to compensate for them, which is contrary to what Carlin says he is striving for.
Unexpected expenditures in the future for KU come in the form of inflation. In many cases, the costs of equipment and supplies are soaring, Shankel said.
He said the whole idea of saving pennies on the state level had stemmed from Proposition 13 in California where property taxes were rolled back, leaving less money for the state to work with.
"Proposition 13 is a mood that has spread from the West across the country like the Russian flu and we haven't escaped the epidemic," Shankel said.
1. don't think Kansas has gone on wild spending
screws in the past."
The future of the spending lid is still uncertain. Legislators predict that the Senate will override Carlin's veto, but the House is expected to sustain it.
IF THE current spending lid dies as expected, then Carlin's idea of a spending lid could emerge as the means for curbing state spending.
Carlin's proposal, which sets no specific limit on spending, is more practical in the eyes of some KU administrators.
Chancellor Archie R. Dykes said he thought Carlin's proposal would be more flexible when regarding KU's budget, but said that any type of spending lid would limit the amount of state funds KU could receive.
Carin's recommendation for the Lawrence campus budget cut KU's request of $126 million to $115 million. Carin also recommended that a $119 million request for the University of Kansas Medical Center be cut to $112 million.
The crux of the matter, Dykes said, is that KU needs to get adequate funds each year to keep improving its quality of education and to "keep pace with inflation."
"initiation is rising at the rate of 8 or 9 percent, and faculty salaries are not going to keep pace," he said.
State Rep. Mike Glover, D-Lawrence, also said that a spending lid of any kind would be bad for higher education in Kansas. He said, however, that Carlin's proposed spending lid would be the lesser of the two evils for the seven Kansas Board of Regents schools.
CARLIN'S PROPOSAL calls for the Legislature to determine the amount of state revenue available to spend and set an annual limit on spending.
This would prevent the Legislature from being locked into a 7 percent increase every year, from being locked into a 7 percent increase every year.
Carlin said, "The Legislature might want to set the spending limit at 5 percent one year and 10 percent another year. Circumstances would dictate."
Under the Senate's spending lid, he said, the total amount of money that could be given to a university, including capital improvements, could not be more than 107 percent of the last year's budget.
Under Carlin's proposal, however, capital improvement requests would be exempt. That is, they would be considered independently from the rest of the budget requests.
SHANKEL SAID if Carlin's proposal passed the Legislature, KU would have a better chance for getting funds for building improvements.
Three projects on the Lawrence campus at KU are at stake in the fiscal year 180 budget. Shankel said these priorities were the continued renovation of Spooner Museum and renovation of Lindley and Marvin halls.
Hoch contended that if Carlin's proposal exempted capital improvements from his spending lid, then it would not have any direct negative effects on higher education.
Still, Dykes said, "Any type of spending lid would tend to work against higher education."
There is a possibility that Carlin's proposal will be discussed but not voted on during this legislative session, Glover said.
"If they don't vote on Carlin's proposal we would have no spending lid and we would probably spend more money," he said.
However, Carlin said it was not too late in the session to consider his bill.
"If the legislators are serious about passing a spending lid," Cartin said, "then they will introduce it and stop playing political games."
If the governor gets his wish, then there will be some kind of spending lid that will clamp the state's budget before the end of this session.
Darnell Valentine cheered through most of KU's 66-59 victory over Nebraska, but responded well when he
Dancing Darnell
entered late in the game. "It was really fun to sit back and watch them play," Valentine said, "but I wouldn't want to make a steady diet of it." See story page nine.
Legal services attorney makes plans for program
By CAITLIN GOODWIN
Staff Reporter
Kansas City, Mo. - Steve Ruddick is a lawyer who shudders at the prospect of losing his job.
Yet Ruddick, who will be the attorney for the new KU legal services program, said yesterday that he was eager to get to work.
Ruddick, 29, accepted the position Friday, but he said it would take some time for him to open the office for business.
"There's a lot of little things I have to do before I can start see people," he said. "I need to find out exactly what I'll need and how I can get the money for it."
"There are about 22,000 students there," he said, "so the magnitude of intake will be a problem. They will probably need some help." "And they know whether they have a legal problem.
Ruddick, who graduated from the KU School of Law in May 1977, will have to reacquire himself with the Kansas general law before he explains it to KU students.
"WHAT I'M HOPING to do is talk to dorms and make up a pamphlet, just lay out the
He said he expected problems in starting the legal services program, particularly as the agency was preparing for the new era.
"I've been working with the Missouri law," he explained, "and I need to go back and review the Kansas law. I really haven't worked with it since I was in law school."
Steve Ruddick
"I've made lists and lists of things I needed to check out. I'll be officially assuming my position Mar. 19, but whether or not we can take any clients then, I don't know."
Ruddick has worked for the Western Missouri Legal Aid Society in Kansas City, Mo., since September 1977. He defended
"A lot of the same problems are going to crop up," he said. "I've worked with a lot of consumer cases and landlord-tenant problems."
He said he thought the experience he got from working with the Legal Aid Society was much more helpful than his own.
people who could not afford a lawyer in municipal court for a year, before he was 25. Mr. Hunt also
"I work with people who are poor here, and the students are like these people because of their position in society. They are forced to rent apartments and buy on credit. These are the areas I think I will be working in the most."
THE LEGAL services program was designed by the 1978-79 Student Senate to provide pre-paid legal services, except for institutional representation, to all KU students.
The program's funding, including Ruddick's yearly salary of $16,500, will come from $1.25 of each student activity fee.
Mike Harper, former student body president, originally had planned to start the program in November, but questions from the administration and conflicts within the legal services board delayed the selection until last week.
"I think it's a good idea," he said. "When I was an intern in Lawrence, many times I'd see students come in court by the lawyer and ask questions; they needed a lawyer to represent them."
"I don't know if we'll let them stand in line or come by appointment," he said. "I will have some legal interns to help me handle it, so that I won't have to handle it alone."
Ruddick said he did not know what the student response to the program would be.
Ruddick said he thought the students needed a lawyer to handle some problems.
HE SAID he also would like to hire a legal secretary, but he said he did not know.
He was a journeyman carpenter for
himself, before returning to KU for
law school.
Ruddick graduated from KU in December 1972 with a degree in American Studies.
"Good legal secretaries are expensive," he said, "and I don't know how many there are."
"I needed a break before law school," he said.
rives lives in a farmhouse about eight miles east of Lawrence in Linwood, but he said he might buy a house in Lawrence to be closer to his job.
"I'm looking forward to getting back to the University," he said.
Coal slurry issue defused
By TAMMY TIERNEY
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA-A a bill that would grant "limited eminent domain" to a coal slurry pipeline company was killed by the Kansas House Judiciary Committee yesterday after differences between the company and railroads were resolved.
Ement domain is the state's ability to claim land for public use while providing compensation to the owner.
Energy Transportation Systems Inc., Wichita, has been battling for five years with Kansas railroads for the right of eminent domain in laying down its 1,400-mile pipeline.
The pipeline would carry a 50-64 mixture of crushed coal and water from Wyoming through Kansas to Arkansas.
water from Yewning to the ocean.
Yesterday, however, Judiciary chairman Joseph J. Hoagland, R-Overland Park, said that the two sides had reached an agreement on their differences.
Hoa land said the agreement concerned the pipeline's rights of way under railroad lines.
According to yesterday's agreement, any company wishing to construct a pipeline under the railroad tracks would not need to acquire the right of eminent domain.
THE AGREEMENT will save Energy Transportation Systems about $31 million if the company builds the pipeline.
"We could have solved it five years ago," Hubble said, "but the earlier bills were totally for eminent domain. This is the first time they've asked to go under the railroads.
Pat Hubble, lobbyist for the Kansas Association of Railroads, said there had never been a need for the bill.
Houghtland said he hoped the coal slurry issue would never come before the Legislature again.
"Now, all they have to do is negotiate with landowners to buy the land on each side of the railroad tracks. I'm not sure they can do that."
Duane S. "Pete" McGill, lobbyist for Energy Transportation Systems, said that because an agreement had been reached, there no longer was a need for the legislation.
“Our only purpose of seeking legislation,” he said, “was to get eminent domain. Now that they have agreed that we have the right to take our land.”
MGill said he was confident Energy Transportation Systems would be able to purchase the land necessary to lay down the
Mike Meacham, R-Wichita, said he agreed with the committee's decision on the bill.
"My impression," he said, "is that this committee feels this legislation is no longer necessary. I agree with that conclusion."
Sadat plane brings patient
KANAS CITY, Kan. - A 10-year old Egyptian boy arrived at the University of Kansas Medical Center Tuesday for an operation on his heart.
The boy, Mohammed Fawzi, flew to Washington, D.C., aboard a plane belonging to Egyptian President Awad Sawat. He arrived in Cairo on Saturday.
David Waxman, executive vice chairwoman for the Med Center, said yesterday that the Egyptian government had arranged to send
beta risk operation
FAWZI WAS accompanied to the United States by Maher el Ashri, an Egyptian physician. Ashri will observe the operation, which is expected to last about six hours.
Marc Asher, an orthopedic surgeon at the Med Center, said he probably would operate on Fawzi Monday. He said he wanted Fawzi to rest for a few days and adjust to his new environment before the operation.
Fawzi is suffering from scoliosis, the lateral, or sideways, curvature of the spine.
Asher said the operation would not cure Fawzi, but would improve the condition of his spine by 50 percent and prevent it from curving any further.
"It's a large deformity, but we can improve it by a great deal." Asher said.
After the operation, he said, Fawzi will remain in the hospital for 2 to four weeks and will be fitted for a back brace, Asher said.
ASHER SAID Fawai' fainted spiritually but was caused by a case of polio Fawai' had several years ago. The scoliosis appeared at 35. He had been treated for the disease.
Aarrr said through an interpreter that scoliosis caused by polio was very uncommon.
Ashtri also said operations on scoliosis patients had been performed in only one hospital in Egypt. He said he wanted to observe the effect of his treatment.
Fawzi lived in a village in northern Egypt called "Fath and Hope Village" where village was established for handicapped Sadaf's wife.
Fawiz has five brothers. No members of his family came to the United States with him.