8
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Friday, Jan. 31, 1986
Voters could change laws
By Mark Siebert
Staff writer
Kansans could be making big changes in the state's constitution this year if legislation now being considered at the Capitol is passed, State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, said yesterday.
Charlton told a meeting of the Lawrence chapter of the League of Women Voters last night that as many as five amendments could come to a popular vote this fall — including a state-owned and operated lottery and pari-mutuel wagering.
A liquor-by-the-drink amendment has already passed both legislative houses.
Charlton and three other Lawrence politicians met with about 25 people in the home of Marlys Harder, 1351 Engel Road, for an informal meeting with area legislators.
State Democratic Representatives Jessie Brannon and John Solbach and Republican State Senator Wint Winter Jr. attended the event.
Eleanor Woodyard, Lawrence chapter president, said the annual meeting gave the league an opportunity to find out what the Legislature was doing and voice some league concerns.'
Each legislator reviewed the action in the committees they served on and fielded questions from the group.
Solabach said the Legislature got off to a fast start this session but had slowed since Gov. John Carlin's proposed sales tax increase was tabled on the House floor.
"Usually the first week of the Legislature is relatively slow." Solbach said. "After the sales tax was voted down, the legislative wheels screeched to a halt."
He said the Legislature was now discussing inevitable revenue increases, including support for higher education.
"A revenue increase is necessary," he said. "The question is how much it will be increased and where it will come from."
Charlton said the governor's investment budget, which included a $190 million increase over last year, wasn't an extravagant use of revenue.
"As you probably all know, money is the big question this year," Charlton said.
Winter said the Senate committee briefing on the Gramm-Rudman Act was a "real eye opener."
Winter said that in the first year,
$7.8 million would be cut from the budget and in the next year, $50.6 million would be cut.
Alumni solicit readers' ideas
Bv Tim Hrenchin
Staff writer
Staff members of University of Kansas Alumni Association will travel to Texas and California next week to discuss with alumni the format in which alumni news will be reported.
Jennifer Jackson Sanner, the Alumni Association's director of communications, said the alumni staff and publications committee was conducting informal group discussions with readers to determine what they would like to see in future issues of alumni publications.
Sanner and Loren Taylor, director
of alumni chapters and student programs, will travel to Dallas and Houston where Taylor will conduct alumni chapter meetings and Sanner will meet with small groups of alumni to discuss their preferences, Taylor said.
Sanner and B.J. Pattie, the Alumni Association's director of membership development, will interview in California later in the week.
"Once we have an idea of what the alumni want we'll go to a permanent format," Sanner said. "We could put out a combination of newsletters, tabloids and magazines, or any one of the three."
The Alumni Association this month published an eight-page newsletter instead of the magazine it formerly published every January and June.
The newsletter was simply a one-shot deal to see what kind of a reaction we would get," said Sanner, who was editor of the newsletter.
Publication of this year's January and June issues of the semi-annual magazine was suspended last July by the Alumni Association's board of directors because financing was unavailable and the board wanted to find a format that would better serve the readers.
Tax bills praised by clerics
TOPEKA — A throng of priests, ministers and lawmakers yesterday a chorus of witnesses who testified in support of three bills that would exempt church-owned parsonages from local property taxes.
The lawmakers and clerics all extolled the public deeds performed in church rectories and parsonages and warned that such services as food banks and soup kitchens would be endangered if property taxes are imposed.
The Associated Press
The testimony came during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Assessment and Taxation Committees. No action was taken on the bills.
Sen. Edward Reilly Jr., R-Leaenworth and sponsor of one parsonage-exemption bill, said the $1.4 million which would be generated by taxing parSONes was
insignificant compared to the harm such action might cause.
"We recognize the need and support of those who spread the gospel and preach the ministries of our respective churches throughout this state," Reilly said. "Take the $1.4 million and divide it by our 105 Kansas counties to seek really what the small impact would be.
"The hardships, however, that such a new tax might impose would be a disservice to our fellow Kansans of all religious denominations and persuasions."
The committee is considering three bills, which were prompted by a recent Shawnee County District Court ruling that ordered county appraisers and commissioners to review exempt property and restore all parsonages to the property tax rolls on Jan. 1, 1986.
The court was acting on an appeal
from a Board of Tax Appeal decision to allow the First Assembly of God Church of Johnson County an exemption on its parsonage.
The court based its decision on a 1969 law which removed parsonages and rectories from tax-exempt status. Application of the law statewide, however, was inconsistent and the tax appeal board regularly granted exemptions to churches who appealed.
Fred Weaver, chairman of the tax board, told the committee his panel will no longer be able to dance around the law as it had by routinely granting exemptions.
"You can't expect this board or county attorneys to turn their backs on a portion of the law," Weaver said. "This was challenged in court and you have to remember that."
Weaver said the bills before the committees had serious problems
Craig Sands/KANSAN
Lawrence officials in the Kansas Legislature participate in an informal review session with the Lawrence chapter of the League of Women Voters, Seated, from left to right, are Republican Senator Wint Winter Jr., and Democratic Representatives Betty Jo Charlton, John Solbach and Jessie Branson. They discussed last night what the Kansas Legislature had done so far this session.
FIND IT—In the Kansan Classifieds
On Campus
The movie "Never Cry Wolf" will be shown free at 7:30 p.m. today at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave.
The KU Ki-Alikdo Club will meet at 8:30 p.m. Sunday in 130 Robinson Center.
On the Record
A 1848 Oldsmobile Cutlass valued at $9,000 was stolen while parked in the 1200 block of West 19th Terrace between 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Lawrence police said.
The vehicle was unlocked and has not been recovered, police said.
A 22-caliber revolver valued at $140 was stolen from a pawnshop in the 800 block of Massachusetts Street between 12:45 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, police said. The owner of the shop said he thought he left the door unlocked while on his lunch break, police said.
A leather jacket and a pair of sneakers valued together at $260 were stolen about 10 p.m. Tuesday from a Lawrence resident's car in the 400 block of North Ninth Street, police said.
Revenue fund introduced in House
A guitar amplifier, guitar cords and a distortion box valued together at $450 were stolen from the back of a KU student's pickup camper in the 1000 block of Emery Road between 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
Forty cassette tapes, a briefcase and an umbrella valued together at $415 were stolen from an Emporia man's car in the 2100 block of Harvard Road between 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Under the proposal, any revenue the state would receive from a lottery or pari-mutuel would be distributed monthly to three separate funds to benefit prisons and economic development and to pay counties for statewide reappraisal costs.
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LITTON
TOPEKA — A measure that would create a state gaming revenue fund to handle money generated by a proposed state-run lottery and legalized pari-mutuel betting was introduced yesterday in the Kansas House.
The action came after the House
Ways and Means Committee voted Wednesday to introduce the bill. House Speaker Mike Hayden said he favored the measure because it would help voters make decisions in November if the Kansas Legislature approved constitutional amendments that would allow the lottery and parimutuel betting to appear on the
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