Pop tax bill amendment would raise tobacco taxes
By Tam Lee
Cigar and pipe smokers may get an extra
incentive to kick the habit if an amend
ment approved Tuesday by the Nebraska
Legislature becomes law.
Lincoln Sen. Wally Barnett's amend
ment to LB 109, the so-called "pop tax"
bill, would impose a use tax equal to 15
percent of the wholesale price on all
tobacco products except cigarettes, which
already are taxed 13 cents a pack. The
amendment, adopted 28-12, was criticized
by some senators because it had not been
through public hearing.
Legislative rules require all bills to have
a public hearing, but amendments do not
require one.
Big Springs Sen. Jack Mills suggested
Barnett submit the proposal as a bill so it
could be scheduled for a public hearing.
Omaha Sen. Bernice Labedz said it was
improper to impose a tax without having a
public hearing on the subject.
Bellevue Sen. Frank Lewis, puffing on
his trademark, a big cigar, declared to the
Legislature, "I come to you with no biases
on this particular piece of legislation."
He later admitted his conflict of interest
and said he did not oppose the tax, but
thought it should get a hearing.
Lewis at first voted no on adoption of
the amendment, but when he saw Barnett
had the required number of votes said, "I
give up," and changed his vote to aye.
LB 109, introduced by the constitutional
revision and recreation committee, "was
given second round approval after the
amendment adopting the tobacco tax was
adopted.
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.'.
Photo by Ted Kirk
Bellevue Sen. Frank Lewis, with his "trademark" cigar, does not oppose an
amendment to the so-called pop tax bill which would raise tobacco taxes.
If the bill is passed, an excise tax of one
fourth cent would be collected for each
four ounces or less of soft drinks and soft
drink syrup.
All the tobacco tax revenue would be
placed in the Nebraska Capital Construc
tion Fund. Eight percent of the revenue
from the soft drink tax would be used to
create a Nebraska Outdoor Recreation De
velopment Cash Fund. The other 20 per
cent would be placed in the Nebraska
Habitat Fund.
Hearings begin
The Nebraska Legislature breaks today
for two weeks of committee hearings on
new bills.
Thursday, the Miscellaneous Subjects
Committee will hear a proposal to require
utility companies to give notice to cus
tomers before discontinuing service. LB604
will be heard at 10 a.m. in room 1019. .
The Public Works Committee will hear
a proposal to raise the speed limit from
55 mph to 60 mph. LB619 will be heard
at 10 a.m. Thursday in the East Chamber.
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Wednesday, january 18, 1978 vol. 101 no. 59 lincoln, nebraska
New center provides job training for handicapped
By Becky de la Motte
Paula Jurgensen is blind. Three months
premature at birth, she had a problem
which is known as Retrolental Fibroplasic
(RLF). Her eyes received too much oxygen
at a critical point in their development.
Though hef doctors understood what
caused the .condition, there was .nothing
they could do for her.
She had some vision until the age of
six-she could see light and dark, and some
colors "if they were right next to my
eyes." But her impairment made public
school attendance impossible.
She attended the School for the
Visually Handicapped in Nebraska City
for five years. The fact that her brothers
and sisters could live at home and lead
normal lives frustrated her.
"The weekends were hard," she re
calls. "I had to go back to school after
the weekends." Because of the pain this
caused her, she completed junior and
senior high school in Omaha public
schools.
Then she began to search for a skill that
would allow her to be self-supporting.
She tried a semester of college, but found
it intolerable. She attended a few business
schools, but couldn't seem to accomplish
anything.
"They were unrealistic. They didn't
meet my needs at all. They were very im
personal and just didn't give me the
individual attention I had to have," she
explains. ,4
- "And I couldn't -well, master my own
attitude. I didn't do things that J didn't
feel I'd be capable of; like, I didn't answer
phones or take filing procedure." And
rather than pushing her to learn, her in
structors took t for granted shr'couldn't.
Then she met Betty Wilhelm.
Betty Wilhelm is with the UNL Person
nel Office. She interviews applicants for
on-campus jobs. Wilhelm warmly refers to
a program called the Employment Deve
lopment Center u "our mission."
"After sitting in an interviewer's chair
for so long," she says, "it bothered me that
so many people couldn't compete with the
normal flow of applicants."
The Employment Development Center
was formed to solve this problem. Its
purpose is to "provide on-the-job eva
luation, experience, and training for un
employed persons who have been out of
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Photo by Bob Pearson
Paula Jurgensen is a student at the Employment Development Center.
the job market for some, time," Wilhelm
said. It is primarily designed to help the
disadvantaged or handicapped.
There are two problems: funding and
office space. The first was solved by a grant
from the Lincoln City Comprehensive
10.
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Flu spreads
across state
By Deb Shanahan
If you have a high fever, sore throat
and body aches, you probably have one
of (he two types of influenza currently
spreading through Nebraska, according
to a Lincoln physician.
Paul A. Stoesz, director of the divi
sion of disease control at the Nebraska
Department of Health, said that
although the virus appears widespread in
Nebraska, there is not an: epidemic.
. "We don't know yet if the influenza
is going to reach epidemic proportions,"
said Stoesz. "Our surveillance was inter
rupted by Christmas vacation because .
we depend on attendance records from
the schools. .
"But doctors across the state are re
porting cases and it appears to be very
widespread."
Continued on page 7
Employment and Training Act (CETA)
office. The second problem dissolved
when the UNL College of Engineering
loaned the center a four-room office area
in Nebraska Hall. The Center opened in
October of 1977.
"I went and talked to Betty Wilhelm
about this idea I had of getting a job with
the university," Jurgensen said. "She told
me about the Employment Development
Center's Work Training program, and I
thought I'd like to try it."
Continued on page 7
Bionic burglar alarm: Love Library
replaces marTwith machine trained
to snuff out tricky textbook
thieves page 6
Mac's moves in: UNL students will
be able to take their breaks
closer to home; Wendy's and
McDonald's to move near cam
pus page 10
Walker walks out: UNL women's
varsity basketball coach packs her
b3gs and goes south page 1 4