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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1967)
"KlVeSJ ; . WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1967 University of Nebraska VOL. 90, NO. 56 f 3 --r v. -caPr FRANCHISE-CONSCIOUS . . . students from the University and Nebraska high schools literally packed the Unicameral galleries Tuesday as legislators advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 19. Voting Age Bill Clears Second Legislature Step A bill that would constitu tionally lower the Nebraska voting age cleared its second Unicameral hurdle Tuesday, with an amendment changing the age from 18 to 19. The bill was advanced by a 36-8 vote with five legisla tors not voting. It will be re turned to the Legislative floor twice again before going to the governor's desk, hopefully by March 1, according to the bill's supporters. An amendment by Sen. Les ter Harsh to change the pro posed voting age from 18 to 20 was countered with a move by Sen. Terry Carpenter to make the age 19. Carpenter said he proposed the amendment to Marsh's amendment as a compro mise measure to get the nec essary votes for the bill. The Legislative galleries were filled with young people for the hour-long debate on the measure, LB 132. At o n e point during the debate, the spectators burst into ap plause but were quickly rep rimanded by Lt. Gov. John Everroad, the presiding offi cer. The principal opponents of LB132 were Sens. Arnold Ruhnke of Plymouth, Eric Chancellor To Expound On Issues ' A statement on some of the problems facing the Uni versity is expected to be made by Chancellor Clifford Hardin at Wednesday'3 Stu dent Senate meeting. Hardin is expected to speak on the proposed merger of the University with Omaha University, the progress of the University budget, and the possibilities of a tuition increase. The Senate meeting will be held in the Ballroom of the Nebraska Union at 4 p.m., Wednesday. "The faculty is invited to attend, since the topics which the Chancellor will be speak ing on concern the entire University community," said Roger. "I think it is important to note that the students took the initiative in arranging Hardin's appearance," he explained, "in order to pro vide a service to the entire community." The Senate will be asked to decide whether to fill the two recent vacancies on the Sen ate from Graduate College. In addition, it is expected that an ad hoc committee will be formed to Investigate the possibilities of paying the officers of ASUN for t h e i r Job. jar ri .ate-AiJ Rasmussen of Fairmont and Henry Pedersen of Omaha. Pedersen attempted to push through an amendment that would have made 19 year olds responsible for their con tracts and not to be designed as minors. Everroad ruled Pedersen's amendment was "not germane" to the dis cussion. Rasmussen suggested that the age change could be taken care of "mechanically" in the proposed state constitutional convention. He met only op position. The Unicameral's most vocal supporters of the meas ure were Sens. Eugene Ma honey, chief sponsor, George Syas and Stanley Matzke in addition to Carpenter. Sen. Edward Danner of Omaha said that it would be "rank discrimination to deny youngsters" the right to vof.e. M a h o ii e y warned of a "three year vacuum" facing Tiemann Presents Tax Proposal To Revenue Committee Hearing By Dave Buntain Junior Staff Writer The Legislative Revenue committee began hearings Wednesday on LB377, Gcv. Norbert Tiemann's proposal for a combined sales and personal income tax. The Revenue committee can either amend, kill or re fer the bill as is to the Le gislature for action. As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, no action had been taken. Tiemann and his legislat ive assistant, Robert Bar nett, discussed the philosophy and mechanics of the mea sure prior to discussion by proponents and opponents of the bill. The governor's proposal was necessitated by circum stances which left the state without a basis for taxation, he said. In 1966 Ncbroskans reject ed LB797, a bill creating a personal income tax, in a ref erendum vote. In addition, they voted out the property tax which served as the oth er basis for state taxation. Tiemann called a combina tion sales and income tax the "only practical solution" to the vacuum created by No vember's referendum. He indicated that he will probably submit a budget "in the vicinity of $K0 million", and that the Legislature must determine how to raise this sum in taxes. According to the Tiemann proposal, a 2.5 percent tax would be placed on thn sle of all tangible personal prop erty sold retail. To avoid the possibility of double taxing, certain items would be exempted from the tax, including alcoholic liq uor, cigarettes, newspapers, prescription medicines, feed, 'it. 1 PHOTO BY DOUG KEISTER 18-21 year olds. Matzke said that giving the vote to 18, 19 and 20 year olds would devel op the students responsibility and Sen. Herbert Norse of Genoa said, "these teenagers have never let me down." Most of the senators favored changing the age to 19 as a reasonable compro mise move. The Carpenter amendment was approved 27 19 with three not voting. . The bill provides that the age question appear ci the Nov. 1968 ballot as a proposed constitutional amendment. Mike Tefft, chairman of the Teenage Suffcrage Committee said "I'm sorry we didn't get this down to 18, but we're going to take it at 19 and try to get it passed." John Schrekinger, chair man of the Nebraska Com mittee on Children and Youth Committee on 18 voting, said "We've won the first battle." seed, and agricultural cases. Coupled with the sales tax, the governor has called for a "use tax" of 2 T per cent to be levied on any items of tangible property purchased outside the state for use in Nebraska. The third part of Tiemann's bill calls for the establish ment of a personal property tax, which would be assessed on a similar basis as federal income tax. Under the personal income tax provision, the Legislature would establish a graduated scale each session, depend ing upon size of the budget. LB377 provides for maximum rates, varying from 2 per cent in the lower income brackets to 6 per cent in the upper income brackets. Tiemann stressed that these were maximums that, depending on the approved budget, the Legislature could choose to set the rates con siderably below these figures. According to the measure, the sales tax would go into effect May 1, 1967, or on the date of passage, whichever is sooner. Because of admin istrative problems, the in come tax could not be imple mented before 1968. Since no funds will be available from the property tax after this year, Tiemann emphasized that a new sys tem must be affected at "the earliest possible date " Barnett added that if a new revenue act is not enacted by July 1, the state's general fund balance will "dip below zero." Discussing the philosophy behind the combination tax, Barnett said It is 8 "flex ible" tax. Hi v enues will in crease with the state's pros perity, he said, with n need Justification AWS Raised By Cheryl Tritt Senior Staff Writer Astatement answering ASUN- president, Terry Schaaf's request for a justifi cation by AWS for their "sole legislative power" in women's regulations was given by AWS Tuesday. The letter said AWS has raised questions similar to the ones posed by Schaaf and AWS Constitutional Conven tion has been proposed speci fically to answer these ques tions. No Interviews . . AWS Board To Hold General Election Set Final elections for a new AWS Board and officers have been set for March 8, accord ing to Candy Sasso, AWS Board member. This year, for the first time, a primary election will be held a week prior to the general election. The candi dates for the final election will be determined by those women receiving the highest number of votes. There must be twice as many final candidates as there are positions available in the various areas. The top three presidential candidates will be the nomi nees. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes in the general election will be come president and the re maining two will serve as vice presidents. The outgoing board will designate the areas for the vice presidents. Any full-time woman stu- Education Hearing Action Delayed Senior Staff Writer By Julie Morris Action was delayed Tues day on Legislative Resolu tion 6, dealing in part with for increased rates. The gove'nor fidded that an income tax is necessary in addition to a sales ,ax be cause a sales tax is "regres sive" it places "inordinate responsibility" on the low in come families. A graduated income tax is "progressive", Barnett add ed, since such a tax places a higher burden of tax pay ment on those who can most afford to pay. r '; ' v - .. "-, - Lit . i i vV" ... ' A NEW WAY ... to cut down on transportation costs? Perhaps. And Fanny and her relatives could cut down on the parking problem. Besides, where would a campus po liceman put the over-time parking ticket? Four major issues will be considered by the AWS con vention, according to the AWS statement. One issue the AWS conven tion will consider, the letter said, is whether the derivation of AWS authority through the Dean of Student Affairs Of fice is the most satisfactory situation. The convention will also de termine if AWS is a student organization. "Presently, AWS is a stu dent organization by virtue of dent with a 2.3 cumulative average who desires to run must file for election by 5 p.m. Monday. All applicants must submit a petition signed by 25 wom en students, an application form and two pictures of them selves. Each applicant must desig nate on her application the area she desires to repre sent. No applicant may apply for more than one area except those running for president. They may also apply to serve as representatives from one area in the event that they are not elected to the position of president or vice-president. The AWS Board will con sist of 25 members. Six wom en will represent each of the three upper classes. There will be seven living area representatives of which one represents East Campus, University tuition rates, by the Legislature's Education Committee. The committee will prob ably take a vote on the meas ure next Monday or Tuesday at their regular meeting," ac cording to Sen. Ross Rasmus sen, chief spont.r of the reso lution. Rasmussen said the com mittee delayed action on t h e matter to clear up two ques tions on the resolution. The senator said the committee would like to include some guidelines in the resolution for computing the percentage of educational costs a student would pay at a state college or university. As t h e resolution is now written, it states that students at the schools should pay "no more than one-third the cost of their education." How the colleges figure what percent age the students are paying is left up to the individuals fig Request Provided; Similar Questions its membership, but because its authority is delegated by an outside body, it is more than the ordinary student ac tivity." The statement said that at present AWS's "relation to ASUN is unclear and at pres ent, unresolved." Another major issue to be raised at the AWS convention is the determination of AWS membership and who is af fected by AWS rules. Although only women living in campus living units" are Primary: March 8 one represents off-campus, two represent sororities and three represent city campus dormitories. Voters in the election must vote for as many candidates from each area as there are positions to be filled. Thus, in the presidential primary, each woman will vote for three candidates and will vote for one in the general election. The existing AWS Board will publish a list before the primary election which will contain the names, grade point averages and past ac tivities of each girl who ap plies for a Board position. A smiliar list will be pub lished of the finalists for the various positions. No formal publicity or per sonal printed campaign ma terial will be allowed. Ver-" bal campaigning, however, is encouraged. On Resolu tion 6 uring the percentages. The basis each college uses could be different depending upon the college. The committee also would like to include some clarifica tion of the costs paid by post graduate and graduate s t u dents at the colleges, Ras mussen said. Both Rasmussen and co sponsor Sen. Richard Marvel spoke in favor of the bill. Vice Chancellor Joseph Soshnik. ASUN President Terry Schaaf. Curt Bormm and Leonard H u s s, University students, and a representa tive of the state colleges also spoke in favor of the meas ure. Only one speaker ap peared in opposition to the resolution. Rasmussen told the e i g h t member committee, headed by Sen. Lester Harsh of Bart ley, that the intent and pur pose of LR 6 is to place the re sponsibility of policy decisions PHOTO BY MIKE HAYMAN subject to its rules," the let ter said, "every undergradu ate woman enrolled in the University is a member of AWS." The letter added, while AWS has no voice in off-campus housing, hopefully the Consti tutional Convention will be able "to take a stand on off campus housing for women." Taking a stand on AWS's sole legislative authority, the letter said, regardless of the future source of AWS author ity, whether from the Ad ministration, the women stu dents, or ASUN, "AWS must be guaranteed the sole juris diction in legislating in the area of women's regulation." As long as restrictions are placed on University women, the AWS board feels the wom en "living under such condi tions are the best qualified to represent, judge, and direct the making of such restric tions," the letter said. The statement continued that "special attention to wom en's needs would be lost," if AWS were to be incorporated into the responsibilities of ASUN. If AWS "were robbed of legislative authority," the or ganization would become an "enforcement agency," the letter said, and therefore could even lose its effective ness to enforce regulations." "A successful women's gov ernmental organization, be it named AWS or something else, must have power to be effective, and power comes from legislative perogative," the statement added. (The full text of the AWS letter to ASUN will be pub lished in Thursday's Daily Ne-braskan.) on state higher education "in the Legislature where I feel it rightfully belongs." The Hooper lawmaker said the resolution would be in tended to bind, "just for this session (of the Legislature)." Id what may have been an an swer to Sen. Terry Carpen ter's earlier suggestion that a move of this type siiould come in the form of a law, Rasmus sen said a resolution would be "better than a law" because it is more flexible. The resolution Rasmussen presented to the committee was amended in several re spects from the original pre sented on the Legislative floor Jan. 20. The amendment included striking the words "research" in two sections which deal with the educational costs that should be picked up by students. The amended sec tion reads: "That resident students at state public institutions of higher education be required to finance not more than one third of all costs associated with actual academic pro grams of students at the under graduate level." The most vigorous commit tee opposition to the resolu tion came from Omaha Sen. George Syas and Sen. Wil liam Swanson of Lincoln. Syas said "in order to get me to vote for it (the resolu tion) I think I'd have to g e t Omaha University in there someplace." Syas questioned the resolution's provision that would require the state to contribute one-third of the ed ucational costs of students at community or junior colleges. The senator said the provi sion for junior colleges leaves out Omaha University entire ly. In answer to Syas' objec tions, Rasmussen a a I d he "would be willing" to strike the junior college support provision if it was necessary. Soshnik told the committee that the policy that has grown up in state education has been to keep tuition costs at higher educational institutions down. He said that the "lowest possible percentage that could be accepted as public policy should be" noted on the public record and urged passage of the resolution. :