VOL. 100, NO. 65 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAIR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSA SAFE
WEDNESDAY NOV.29,1989
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS: 864-4810
Tax relief might hurt Margin
By Derek Schmidt Kansan staff writer
TOPERA — Proposed measures to relieve the property-tax burden caused by reaprairial could curtail a significant year of the Margin of Excellence.
Ed Rolfs, secretary of revenue, told a special legislative committee yesterday that long-term solutions to the property-tax crisis could require more money. That money would have to come from other programs the 1990 Legislature would finance, such as the Margin, Rolfs said.
The Margin is the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of their peer schools and to bring faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers.
Rolls testified for more than four hours to the study committee on reappraisal and classification, which was formed earlier this month by Gov. Mike Hayden to develop solutions to the problem of property tax shifts.
f we were to pump a lot of money into property-tax relief, it would take it out of the general fund, and programs that might have been funded before then would be hurt. —State Sen. Dan Thiessen
R-Independence
State Sen. Dan Thiessen, R-Independence and chairman of the committee, said that some immediate solution to the tax problem was necessary but that it was too early to predict whether the committee would recommend direct tax relief.
"If we were to pump a lot of money into property-tax relief, it would take it out of the general fund, and programs that might have been funded before then would be hurt," said Mr. Hargrove, who said that the Margin would be a likely victim.
The 1985 Legislature mandated the first statewide reappraisal of property in 20 years. In 1986, voters approved a constitutional amendment to classify property and tax different types at different rates.
This is the first year that taxpayers have felt the effects of the tax changes. Tax bills were delivered earlier this month, and public outcry has been substantial. Some taxpayers in Kansas City, Kan., hung stuffed replicas of Hayden and of former Gov. John Carlin from trees as a sign of protest.
On Nov. 22, Hayden extended the deadline for paying first-half property taxes from Dec. 20 to Jan. 16. He then created the study committee to recommend solutions to the Legislature, which could act immediately when the 190 session begins Jan. 8.
Several counties reportedly plan to file a lawsuit claiming that the governor lacks authority to extend a deadline that is established by statute
Yesterday, an executive branch lawyer told the committee that a lawsuit was likely.
"I'm not conceding that the act (to extending the deadline) is not legal, but I'm saying that one might argue that it's not," said Bill Waters, an attorney for the Property Valuation Division of the Department of Revenue.
State Sen. Phil Martin, D-Pittsburg, an appraiser by profession, sharply criticized Hayden's actions.
State Rep. Joan Wagnon, D-Topeka, said if people waited until after Dec. 20 to pay their taxes and the governor's extension of the tax due date were ruled illegal, many taxpayers would be delinquent.
"He (Hayden) should have been prudent enough to see that this was going to create a firestorm out there," Martin said. "I clearly think that the executive branch has stepped into the legislative branch's
Sen TAX. D. 6
Martin accused Rolfs of delib-
Nichola is Paola mayor and house mother of Phi Gamma Delta.
House mom named Paola mayor
By Melanie Matthes Kansan staff writer
By Melanie Matthes
When the house mother at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity told the fraternity members that she was soon to be appointed mayor of Paola, they all cheered.
"I said to them at dinner a couple weeks ago, I'd like for you to know that you've got a celebration in your midst as of 3 o'clock this afternoon," the house mother said. "They were all very excited."
Betty Nichols, 65, said she had served as president of the Paola City Council since April 1988 and when mayor John Taylor resigned two weeks ago, she was unofficially
appointed mayor. Her appointment will be approved next month by the council at their regular meeting.
Nichols will serve as mayor until April 1980, when a new mayor will be elected to a two-year term. She said that she did not plan on running for mayor in April and did not intend to continue to serve as council president after she finished the term as mayor.
Nichols has always been concerned that her political activity in Paola would take time from her responsibilities as house mother, said Seth Rupp, president of Phi Gamma Delta, 1540 Louisiana St.
"I told her that if she wanted to do it and thought she could budget her time, more power to her," Rupp said.
some of her responsibilities as council member overlap her responsibilities as house mother, Nichols said.
"Getting along with people and being diplomatic in setting disputes has always helped in both areas," she said.
Rupp said that Nichols' political activity exemplified how great she was as a house mother.
"She really leads by example," he said. "Her actions speak louder than words to the kind of person she is."
'She's more eligible for the job
Although Nichols said that she did not plan on running for mayor in April, Taylor said that he would encourage her to do so.
Nichols said that she drove to Paola at least twice a week and once a month for the council's regular meetings. As mayor she expects to have to spend more time in Paola but does not think it will be a problem.
than anybody," he said. "She's older than anyone on the council and she has a lot of experience. She'd be my pick."
As well as being a former house mother at the Delta Gamma sorority, 1015 Emery Road, and at the Alta Tau Omega fraternity at Kansas State University, Nichols has been a certified chiropractor and a tour guide. She also audits classes at the University of Kansas.
Application charge may deter students
Regents schools debate benefits of fee
By Doug Fishback Kansan staff writer
Admissions officials at some Board of Regents institutions are reserving judgment about a new Regents-wide application fee, but administrators at KU and other schools think the fee is reducing the number of students seeking admission for the Fall 1990 semester.
He said it was too early to determine whether the fee was having an effect on application practices.
Barbara Dawes, associate director of admissions at Kansas State University, said that the admissions staff would not begin counting the number of applications until January for new students not heard concerns about the new fee.
"We can't get a feel for what impact this might have until we complete the Fall enrollment cycle," Burris said.
"My personal feeling is that it hasn't had any effect at all," she said.
K-State admissions officials received about 12,300 applications for the Fall 1989 semester, Dawes said, and nearly 10,000 were admitted.
The Regen.s approved a $15 application fee in May for all its institutions, said Marvin Burris, Regents associate budget director. The fee will be paid by those seeking admission for Fall 1990. Previously, there was no application fee.
was no appeal. Burris said that the fee was designed to eliminate the expense of excessive paperwork caused by students who applied to every Regents school.
Lee Young, associate director of
admissions at Wichita State University, said the fee had not affected the number of applications his office had received.
"I think most people took it in stride," he said.
But the fee has reduced the number of applications at Pittsburgh State University, said Jim Parker, director of enrollment services.
"We're running about 15 percent behind the same time a year ago," he said.
By the week before Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh State had received about 350 applications for new freshmen in the fall of 1990 semester, Parker said.
Parker said that about 90 students had sent in applications without the required $15 fee. Those applications were set aside.
"They're not considered an application without that fee," he said.
Parker said the fee would have a long-term harmful effect on the number of anilicants.
But Bruce Lindvall, KU director of admissions, said he thought that the fee would decrease the number of applicants at Regents institutions.
"We're all going to see a reduced number of applications," he said. "We'll never see the flow that we've seen before."
Lindvall, who declined to discuss specific application figures, said he thought that the fee would cause a cost of about $20 million in the number of KU applications.
"But whether it's 15 percent or 25 percent, it's too early to tell," he said.
There are fears among Europeans in the East and West about the political and economic power of a reunified Germany with 80 million people.
See FEE, p. 6
The Associated Press
Kohl introduces plan for reunited Germany
BONN, West Germany — Chancellor Helmut Kohl yesterday proposed a German federation as part of a sweeping plan to reunite the two countries after four decades of post-war division.
"A unity of Germany isn't on the agenda," Krenz told West Germany's ARD-TV network in insisting on the continued existence of two "sovereign, independent German states."
East Germany has increasingly discussed the possibility of a confederation, but the Communist nation's leader, Egon Krenz, ruled out any talk of reunification.
kohl, in a speech to Parliament,
sought to allay those fears, saying:
"The Germans ... will be a dividend
for a Europe that is coming together and never again a threat."
The United States favors reunification, and State Department spokesman Margaret Tutwiler reiterated that position in Washington yesterday. The Soviet Union has said it was "dangerous and unrealistic."
Kohl said he had no timetable in mind to carry out his ideas and made it clear it could take years to form a federation. He is expected to discuss his proposals with East German leaders at a summit next month.
East German government spokesman Wolfgang Meyer said Kohl's plan in general provided "interesting starting points for negotiations."
But writer Stefan Heym and a number of other East German artists, clerics and intellectuals rejected reunification, saying they opposed their country "being pocked" by West Germany. The group said it would start a petition drive in support of its appeal.
Fired Aoun refuses to leave presidential palace in Lebanon
The Associated Press
Aunn does not recognize new President Elia Hrawl, a Marionite Catholic like himself, and has refused to leave the shell-battered presidential palace at Baadba, east of Beirut. Syria, which had 40,000 soldiers in Lebanon before the reinforcements, supports Hrawl.
BAABDA, Lebanon — The government fired Michel Aoun as army commander yesterday, and the Syrians sent more troops and tanks for a possible showdown with the stubborn Christian general who has tried to drive them out of Lebanon.
An aide to Aoum said the general was "determined not to give in. We'll fight to the end."
France, the colonial power until independence in 1943, tried to avert more bloodshed against an evil war, which has taken more than 190,000 lives.
Francois Scheer, a French envoy, arrived in Lebanon. In Paris, the Foreign Ministry said France "will not be on the side of those who would assume the responsibility of again taking up violence."
Residents of Chitoua, a Syrian-controlled town on the main Damascus-Beirut highway in the eastern Bekak Bay, said they were awaked in the night by the passage of trucks and tanks.
Lifting of Iron Curtain opens new era
About 15,000 to 16,000 soldiers in 800 trucks entered Lebanon by midday, they said. The witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they counted 120 artillery pieces, 90 Soviet-designed T-62 tanks, 40 multiple rocket launchers, two mine-clearing tanks and several fuel trucks.
Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, supports Hrabi and a Cabinet led by Prime Minister Salim Hosse, a Sunni Muslim, which seeks to implement a peace plan that Lebanese legislators worked out in negotiations at Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Before the peace plan was adopted, Aoun and Hoss had led competing Christian and Muslim governments for 14 months.
Military sources said the reinforcements fanned out along mountain ridges above the palace in Baabda and along the line between Muslim west Beirut and the Christian eastern sector.
Gorbachev is a 'communist Roosevelt' moving toward less control, professor says
By Bryan Swan Kansan staff writer
As communism is rolled back by the masses in Eastern Europe, today's generation has the privilege to witness a new era in modern life, said Svetozar Stojanovic, a visiting professor of philosophy from Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
"I personally see Gorbache as a Communist Roosevelt," he said during a speech last night at the Kansas Union. "Capitalism was in a big crisis, and the only way out was a transformation from less effective and poorly organized capitalism to well-organized capitalism, which was due to the New Deal. Gorbache has to go in the opposite direction, from more control to less."
Stojanovic, left, visits with Soviet Ivanov.
'Gorbachev talks about practice, but not philosophy. It seems necessary to me to have a real ideology.'
— Robert Ivanov visiting Soviet professor
"Today we see the alienation of the people from the ruling class," he said. "The ruling classides itself and legitimizes itself within the Communist Party, they lose that power all power is gone. This is not like the capitalists because capitalists don't have to run the state to influence it. Gorbacher speaks of a one-world economy and would like to integrate."
Stojanovic said the main factors in the changes that had taken place in Eastern Europe were the people's pressure on their governments from below, differences within the ruling class of each government and the communist system's unisolated, global environment dominated by a capitalistic system.
"Certain advisers failed even two months ago to predict these changes," he said. "They said they were out of the question. Either it is tatalitarian or not. Now you need a whole new concept."
stojanovic said that as the era of tension and polarization between Eastern and Western Europe diminished, tension would shift to a North and South conflict between the hemispheres concerning issues of ecology and nuclear proliferation.
might be of college. Robert Ivanov, a visiting professor from the Soviet Union, said people in his country were tired of the Cold War and wanted to live normal lives.
hard to feel satiated.
"Gorbachev talks about practice, but not philosophy," Ivanov said. "It seems necessary to me to have a real ideology."
Hajanovic said that Gorbachev's drive to decentralize could result in a paralysis of government similar to those in a fracturing of the Soviet Union and in Yugoslavia, where rival republics had brought stagnation to the federal government.
he said the prospects for change in other East European Communist countries, such as Romania and Albania, were small because they had effectively isolated themselves.
"Many people will want to establish capitalism. But in five to 10 years when they see the consequences, there will be a renewal of the idea of democratic socialism as a force within the system." Stojanovic said.