Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 8, 1990
3
Apartment owners object to tax plan
By. Rod Griffin
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — A representative of the Lawrence Apartment Association warned state representatives yesterday that tenants would face rent increases if a proposed constitutional amendment was passed.
Scott Bloch, representing the association, told the House Taxation Committee that the bill could financially devastate apartment owners.
"Of the apartment owners in Douglas County, nine actually had their
taxes increase," he said. "To reclaim them at an assessment of 20 percent, a 67 percent increase, would literally place them out of business."
Increased taxes on apartments would be passed along to tenants that are renting to the public.
The bill was proposed by State Rep. Robert Vancrum, R-Overland Park.
The proposal would classify apartments as commercial property, increasing the tax rate from 12 percent to 20 percent. The tax rate on
other commercial property would be reduced from 30 percent to 20 percent.
Residential property and complexes of four units or fewer with the owner occupying one unit would continue to be taxed at 12 percent.
Vancrum's proposal would reinstate the inventory tax repealed by the 1986 classification amendment. The proposed would be phased out over five years.
The bill drew support from owners of commercial real estate, such as
hotels and motels.
Steve Craig, president of Linquist-Craig Hotels and Resorts, 1611 St. Andrews Drive, said his company was paying more taxes on the Holiday Inn in Lenexa than on a 20-story high-rise on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. He said his company managed hotel and motel chains across the country.
"We feel that this tax increase has placed a burden on our company that we can't afford," he said.
The property tax per room at his
company's Lenexa property was $721.08. Craig the taxi was higher than at any other hotels or hotels his company managed. For example, he said, the per room tax on his Holiday Inn in Tuskaloosa, Ala., was $84.75 and the Holiday Inn in Costa Mesa, Calif., $118.98.
"There is no way, in the highly competitive hotel industry, that we're able to pass this type of increase on to our customers," he said.
Brian T. Schoenl/KANSAN
Shadow and light
Wescoe Hall frames a student as he hurries to his afternoon classes. Sunny weather pushed highs into the low 60s yesterday, about 20 degrees above the average for this time of year. Forecasters expect the warm weather to continue through the week.
By a Kansan reporter
The first day of spring isn't until March 20, but KU students already have hung up their winter wrap-ups and reached for the sutan lotion.
Yesterday's high climbed to the low 60s, and above normal temperatures are forecast for today and into next week, said Rick Katzfey of the KU Weather Service.
But students might want to think twice before putting away those winter clothes for good. Katzfey said extremely cold air in Alaska still might make its way to Kansas.
He said a pattern could develop similar to last year when November was unseasonably warm and December bitterly cold.
Robert Wavrin of the National Weather Service said the average high temperature for this time of year was in the upper 30s to low 40s.
Wavrin said southerly winds were bringing the warmer weather to Lawrence.
Students are taking advantage of the spring-like weather.
Brad Klumpp, Leawood junior,
said he planned to spend today at
Clinton play playing frisbee with his
dog.
Others, including Colleen Kelly, St. Louis junior, said they were going to study outside and hoped to soak up some rays as well as some knowledge.
Alert issued about mailings Stephan investigates drug-test kits
By Chris Siron
Kansan staff writer
Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan issued a consumer alert yesterday regarding a Texas company's mailings that suggested children may have used illegal drugs.
The National Drug Awareness and Detection Agency, a Houston company, recently mailed postcards printed with the message, that have been informed that your children may be using illegal drugs."
Art Weiss, deputy attorney general in charge of consumer affairs for Kansas, said the alert was to inform parents that the company had no information about their
children.
The card listed a phone number in Houston for parents to call for more information.
Callers were offered a $99.95 test kit that company representatives said would show whether a child used drugs.
Weiss said Stephan had requested one of the kits and would evaluate the product.
He said company representatives told his office that the business began three years ago. He said a corporation owned the company.
Company employees told callers that the test was designed by Forrest Tennant, drug adviser for the National Football League, and
endorsed by sports figures such as Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Weiss said his office was working with the Texas Attorney General to investigate the company and its claims.
Erv Sanchez, sales manager for the company, said yesterday that he personally was offended by the investigations and caller comedians who were reacting to their own fears that drugs could be in their homes.
He declined to release the name of the corporation that owned the company.
Sanchez defended the validity of the company's claims and said he thought the attorney general's office was shooting itself in the foot.
KU professor says people are responsible for their sexuality
By Mark McHugh
Kansan staff writer
In order to make sex enjoyable, people have to realize that they are responsible for their own sexuality and the sharing thereof, a KU professor said last night.
"A lot of people believe that you just have to do it, and it will be great," said Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare. "You have to be taught how to make it a pleasurable experience in the same way you have to avoid making it hurt."
In a lecture sponsored by the KU Wellness Center, Dalley told an audience of about 50
people that talking about sexuality was avoided today because it was considered taboo.
"We're not a long way off from Queen Victoria," Dailey said. "She's still alive and well in Lawrence, Kansas."
Dailey mentioned several ways to express sexual pleasure, including touch.
Daley said that some people pressured themselves to enjoy sex. The result was not pleasurable, but reactionary. He said that men were pressured by societal norms to be macho
"Just holding someone can be very erotic," Dailey said. "Most of the touch that occurs is that which just zooms in."
and consequently to act sexual at an early age.
"If all the guys in junior high were getting as much as they said, we'd be in big trouble," he said.
Dailey said another unhealthy attitude toward sex was that people thought that engaging in a sexual relationship would instantly make them happw.
"Bombastic sexual relationships don't happen because you're in love, or at a certain age," he said. "If it happens at all, it usually happens by accident."
Todd Williams, Lawrence sophomore, agreed with Dailey that sexual pleasure didn't
have to be experienced through sexual intercourse. He said that backrubs were an excellent way to experience sexual pleasure.
Williams said that people needed to be aware of the forms of communication, whether by eye contact or muscle tension. He thought the greatest form of communication between two individuals interested in one another was verbal communication.
"You can't confuse verbal communication," he said.
Arvella Frazier, co-director of the Wellness Center, was not surprised at the large turnout at the presentation.
Election bill will move to Senate
By Matt Taylor
Kansan staff writer
After weeks of deliberations, Student Senate's Rights Committee last night agreed to submit a bill that would create a non-partisan elections commission in student elections.
The bill amends Article 6 of Senate's Rules and Regulations, which states election policies.
The bill will be sent to Senate with approval at a Feb. 15 meeting, said Aaron Rittmaster, chairman.
—Michael Moschini
'The task force is concerned about preventing drugs. We want to tell students not to try them and inform them on what they can do.'
—Michael Moschini
secretary of the Drug Awareness
Task Force
The commissioner would receive pay and administer election policy for the commission.
Senate's Elections Committee, which now monitors elections, would be abolished if the bill passes, Rittmaster said. The bill would go into effect July 1.
In Tuesday's committee action, the Finance Committee killed a bill that would bring the mother of the late basketball star Len Bias to campus to speak about drugs.
Support for the bill, sponsored by Senate's Drug Awareness Task Force, fell short of the three-quarters minimum vote.
Students, faculty and staff would compose the commission. It would seek to ensure fair elections, enforce and hear challenges to election rules, investigate and rule on allegations of election violations and hire a commissioner.
"The vote was totally unexpected," said Michael Moschini, secretary of the task force. "I had no idea this was going to happen."
Moschini said opponents confused drug prevention with intervention.
"The task force is concerned about preventing drugs," Moschini said. "We want to tell students not to try them and inform on what they can do."
Moschini said that representatives from the task force would try to bring the bill onto the floor at the Feb. 15 meeting but that doing so would require suspending Senate rules.
No bill that was killed in committee this session was successfully brought onto the floor, said Alan Lowden, cochairman.
In other action last night, the Cultural Affairs Committee passed a bill that would provide funds for a guest conductor for the KU Symphony Orchestra. Leon Bontemps, chairman, said Samuel Jones, professor of music at Rice University, who will likely conduct to the orchestra at its April 29 concert. He also will conduct workshops April 22-29.
The bill calls for a $230 honorarium for Jones.
Mosechini said Bias' mother probably would not come to KU if attempts to resurrect the bill failed.