Devaney:
Disgusted and disappointed
by JIM JOHNSTON
Sports Editor
State Sen. Terry Carpenter said late
Monday that Gov. J. J. Exon's veto of LB 87
was "a means to an end of driving coach
(Bob) Devaney out of the state of
Nebraska."
Devaney, speaking at his regular news
conference after football practice, had no
comment concerning his future at Nebraska.
But the Cornhusker athletic director was
quick to express his disappointment over
Exon's veto of the bill which, among other
things, would construct a new fieldhouse
at NU.
"I.m disgusted and disappointed," said
Devaney. "It's tough to be competitive when
other Big Eight schools have better facilities,
but I have no comment about my future at
this time."
Devaney charged Exon with using the
athletic department and Nebraska's No. I
ranking in football for his own political
purposes.
"It would be better if the governor didn't
go around pinning No. 1 buttons on
everybody," said Devaney in reference to
Exon's giving U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie a
No. 1 pin during his trip to Lincoln last
weekend. "But that's his own thing."
Devaney, who addressed the Legislature
during the bill's first reading, is still hopeful
that the Legislature will overide Exon's veto
Tuesday.
"I can't understand why the legislators
who voted for the bill last week would
change their opinion just because one man
(the governor) decided he was against it,"
said Devaney. "If they thought the bill was
right last week they should still think it's
right this week."
Devaney, possibly discouraged by limited
outside backing of the bill, questioned
people's interest in Nebraska's athletic
program.
"It does make me wonder just how many
people are interested in our athletic
program," said Devaney. "I'd like to have
people speak out in favor of the bill instead
of just having the smokers complaining. The
others are just taking it for granted."
According to Devaney, the present
Coliseum would be turned over to the
intramurals and men's physical education
departments, which would help solve
another desperate problem on the Lincoln
campus.
Nebraska's athletic department seeking
money from the state's taxpayers is rare.
About th only other time tax money has
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Devaney "It would be better if the governor didn't go
around pinning No. 1 buttons on everybody."
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TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1971
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
VOL. 94 NO. 104
Exon vetoes fieldllionse measure
Gov. J. J. Exon sent a last
minute veto of the cigaret tax
hike bill to the Legislature
Monday opening the way for
an override showdown
Tuesday.
Exon delivered the message
shortly after the Unicameral
had adjourned Monday
afternoon saying that passage
of the bill over his veto would
"seriously jeopardize the
prospects of holding the line
on sales and income tax rates." .
LB 87, sponsored officially '
by Sen. Roland Loedtke of
Lincoln and unofficially by
Sen. Terry Carpenter of
Scottsbluff creates an
additional five-cent tax per
pack on cigarets to fund a state
offices building and NU
field-house.
Carpenter, angry over the
veto, released a three-paragraph
statement saying he would not
be surprised if Devaney moves
into other areas in which he
would . be "more appreciated
and more respected." .
Eion's -5-pjge veto
statement said that the state
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iL :i , Mama
office building should not be
built at this time and suggested
that the NU Athletic
Department finance a portion
of the fieldhouse with athletic
revenue or other non-tax
funds.
He termed the tax bill "a
hastily conceived measure, an
unsound and unfair adventure"
in taxation and appropriation
techniques.
"Have you, as senators,
considered what this amount
of money could do in the next
five years to reduce property
tax loads by additional state
aid to education with properly
spelled out safeguards to
reduce local taxes? I think
not"
Exon reiteraled his proposal
made last week that half the
revenue be placed in the
general fund and half in a
capital construction sinking
fund. He added that
earmarking expenditures to be
"extracted from a limited
number of citizens is
unacceptable by any
standards."
Exon also denounced
''blank check authorization"
which he said would result
from passage of the bill in its
present form without limiting
the amount of money to go for
the fieldhouse and office
building.
The first $695,000 of the
new revenue would go for a
recreation building at the
Beatrice State Home; this rider
was added by Sen. Fred
Cirstens of Beatrice to the bill
on second reading.
The Beatrice appropriation,
Exon said has merit at this
time, but the other projects
would be "unproven and
non-priority needs."
Speaking to newsmen later,
Exon said he has already
explained to Devaney his
reasons for objecting to the
earmarking of tax funds.
"If I were the athletic
director, I too would be
pumping for a new
fieldhouse," Exon said."I am
not critical of Coach Devaney
but, as governor, I have to take
an overview of priorities and
needs."
The governor claimed
Saturday that any attempt to
override his veto would require
thirty-three votes, but Vincent
Brown, Legislative clerk,
confirmed Monday that only
thirty votes are required to
bury the veto.
If supporters of the bill
succeed in overriding Exon's
veto Tuesday, as some
observers are predicting, it will
be the second day in a row that
the Governor has suffered a
setback.
Monday, the Legislature
voted 26-15 to kill a bill
eliminating the sales tax on
food, one of Exon's chief
campaign promises. The vote
freed $4.8 million for possible
appropriation by the
Unicameral which Exon had
already counted in his budget
as lost revenue.
While this has no immediate
impact on the University
budget, it does, as a veteran
Legislative reporter said,
"loosen things up a bit."
Brightman:
'Indian people don't care for you'
Brightman condemns Vbjte-is-right, wtiite-ts-miht
doctrine.
by STEVE STRAS5ER
Staff Writer
"Let me tell you something, you white
people out there." Lehman Bright man said,
pointing at about 100 people in the
Nebraska Union ballroom Monday morning.
"Indian people don't particularly care for
you.
The Sioux Indian director of Berkeley's
Native American Studies program said "I
don't really hate white people, I just hate
what white people have done."
Brightman opened NIT Indian Culture
Week with an angry and emphatic
condemnation of what he called "the
white-is-right, while-is-might doctrine"
punctuated by many "colorful little
adjectives."
As he put it, "if you don't like my cuss
words that's too damned bad. They're your
words. There aren't any cuss words in Indian
languages."
BRIGHTMAN LASHED out at white
men living and dead, calling Christopher
Columbus "some damned lost honky who
thought he was in India," and sarcastically
praising John Wayne as he only man alive
who can knock three Indians off their horses
with one shot."
For the last 300 years whites "have been
trying to force Indians into the great white
melting pot," he said. "Maybe blacks wanted
in it for a while, but not any more. And
Indians never have.
"We have our own languages, culture, and
heritage," he said. "Our forefathers fought
and died here. Their blood covers every inch
of this country."
Brightman, editor of The Warpath, largest
Indian newspaper in the country, said Indian
12th graders have the lowest self-image of
any minority group in the U.S., and be
blamed this inferiority complex and a
resultant high suicide rate largely on
historians and Hollywood.
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