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Wednesday, november4, 1981
lincotn, nebraska vol. 107 no. 51
Copyright Daily Nebraskan 1981
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Roskens: Budget cut would hurt
Photo by Dave Bentz
Ronald Roskens, NU president, testifies Tuesday at
an appropriations committee meeting of the Legis
lature. Councilman predicts
wheel tax increase,
stricter enforcement
By Eric Peterson
Lincoln City Council member Mike Steinman discussed
proposed wheel tax changes, the Northeast Radial and stu
dent involvement in Lincoln politics at an informational
breakfast Nov. 3. The breakfast was sponsored by ASUN's
Government Liaison Committee and the College of Bus
iness Administration Advisory Board.
Steinman is a UNL associate professor of political sci
ence. He said the proposed increase of the wheel tax from $8
to $12 and its extension to students who drive to work
was originally the idea of City Council members Eric
Youngberg and BuT Danley.
"The concern is that we'll have less money for road
improvements in the future," he said. Few people
opposed the changes when the members proposed them,
he added.
"It was mainly a question of who was using the roads.
It wasn't meant to single out any group."
ASUN Senate President Rick Mockler said some peo
ple felt the present tax wasn't being enforced, and asked if
the proposed changes would strengthen enforcement.
Sticker attracts tickets
Steinman said the sticker the wheel taxpayer will have
to put in the left rear car window will aid enforcement.
"When a police officer sees a car without a sticker in a
particular lot for a number of weeks, the conclusions are
pretty obvious," he said.
Steinman said he expects some changes in the current
wheel tax.
"I think it will pass, frankly," he said.
However, the specific details of the ordinance may be
affected by testimony at a public hearing on the wheel tax
proposals at 1:30 pjn. Nov. 9 at the County-City Build
ing, Steinman said.
Past student involvement in the now-defunct Northeast
Radial proposal was appropriate, Steinman said.
"In considering the university situation, I think the
16th and 17th street area is something we have to be care
ful of," he said.
Balance problems with needs
The city is interested in balancing transportation prob
lems with university needs, but the radial plan was not an
appropriate solution, he said.
'The radial plan was voted down all over town," he
said. "Only about five precincts voted in favor of it."
Developers who build houses on the edge of town drew up
the plan to make suburban areas more accessible, he said.
Alternatives to the Northeast Radial will have to be
carefully considered, he said.
"I think we want to think a little bit more about the
nature of the problem and not build a 'Son of Radial -like
a lot of people, are apprehensive of. The Northeast
Radial was 1950s planning. It's a different era now."
Alternatives to automobile traffic should be encourag
ed, he said!
Continued on Page 6
By Kathy Stokebrand
A 3 percent reduction of all state agency operating
budgets .vouid be especially painful to the university be
cause it would come late in the fiscal year and the univer
sity is a "people-intensive organization," NU President
Ronald Roskens testified before the Nebraska Legis
lature's Appropriations Committee Tuesday morning.
The Legislature, meeting in a special session called by
Gov. Charles Thone, has been asked to trim about $25
million from state appropriations for fiscal year 1981-82.
Absorbing 50 percent
The university is asked to absorb nearly 50 percent of
the total reductions in all state agency operating budgets,
Roskens said. However, the university uses only about 20
percent of the state general funds appropriated to non
capital items, he said.
The university would respond to a $4.3 million cut by
delaying or not filling faculty and staff vacancies, Roskens
said. Non-personnel operating expenses, such as instruct
ional materials, would be reduced, too.
Money that may be saved through energy -saving efforts
or mild weather this winter would not be used to promote
further energy conservation on campus, Roskens said.
Building repair and maintenance also will be delayed, he
said. Any savings from less energy use and deferred build
ing maintenance would be used to finance deficits in other
programs, he said.
Although the university has some non-budgeted addit
ional income because enrollment increased 2.5 percent
this fall, the increased revenues from tuition will be put
back into academic services to compensate for the extra
students, Roskens said. The tuition from the additional
students totals $1 .7 million, he said.
Nearly 82 percent of the university budget - except
that in the revolving fund and that for the University
Hospital at the NU Medical Center in Omaha pays wages
and benefits, Roskens said.
"At this late stage (in the fiscal year), it would be diffi
cult to do anything else but spread the misery equally,"
Roskens said. However, the university can't spread cuts
evenly because so much of its budget pays wages and
benefits, he said.
The campus chancellors already have been asked to re
duce full-time equivalent employees by 2 percent during
fiscal year 1981-82, Roskens said. Ideally, these reduct
ions would have been made in staff positions first, and the
money saved would have been used to increase other salar
ies, he said.
Restrict admissions
If the $4.3 million cut is passed, Roskens said, he anti-
Third school joins
cipiates more admission restrictions for colleges such as
engineering and technology, business administration and
possibly agriculture. Students will have more difficulty
getting into classes. In the current semester, 1,200 stu
dents were unable to get some classes they wanted, he
said.
The university was revitalized by the 13 percent in
crease in state money the Legislature appropriated for it
in the last legislative session, Roskens said. But the pro
posed reduction would make the university lose the
ground it had gained when compared with colleges
comparable in size, he said. This is the first year since
1977 that the percentage increase in appropriations was
more than the inflation rate, Roskens said in a letter to
Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly, chairman of the com
mittee. Also testifying for the university were ASUN President
Rick Mockler and Robert Narveson, an English professor
and president of the UNL chapter of the American
Association of University professors.
The impact of budget reductions may not be overcome
for years, Mockler said. Some expenditures, such as
central construction, can be delayed for a year but others
can't, he said.
The "human element" suffers most from budget re
ductions, Mockler said. Classes become so large that the
quality of teacher-student interaction worsens and the
quality of education suffers, he said.
Narveson said the system designed to handle unexpect
ed shortfalls like the budget deficit is being circumvented.
The State Board of Equalization should raise taxes rather
than force the Legislature to cut programs worked out
through the regular legislative process, he said.
Prioritize budget
Some priorities need to be set in the legislative process
to determine what should be reduced when a situation
such as the budget deficit occurs, he said. Operating
budgets should have higher priority than capital construct
ion, he said.
"There are other options than changing the direction
established at the beginning of the year," Narveson said.
Faculty member shortages are an unfortunate reality at
UNL, Narveson said. Forty sections of English classes for
second semester are filled but have no teachers, he said.
Decreasing the amount of money for library acquisit
ions can be more costly in the long run. The cost of a
book increases if it isn't bought when it comes on the
market, he said. If travel money, which allows instructors
to deliver papers on their studies, is cut, the reputation of
the instructors and the university could suffer, he said.
SSA ratified on Omaha campus
By Ward W. Triplett III
Students at UNO voted overwhelmingly last Thursday
to join Peru State College and UNL in the newly-formed
State Student Association.
UNO Student Resident and Regent Florene Langford
said the 467-148 vote should help unify UNO, UNL and
state colleges.
"The more schools we have with us, the stronger our
base will be," Langford said.
"I'm going along with the old saying that strength
comes in numbers," she said.
The SSA, a state wide lobbying group, consisted of only
Peru State and UNL before the UNO vote. By joining the
association, student fees at UNO will increase by 50 cents
a semester.
Getting UNO to join was a major step for the SSA,
according to one of UNL's SSA organizers, Deb Chapelle.
"It would have been quite a blow if they hadn't Coin
ed)," Chapelle said. "But I don't think that would have
been the end of it. I think we would have regrouped,
found out what went wrong, and tried it again."
Langford said the organizers of the SSA push at UNO
never considered losing the election.
"We didn't look at it from that perspective," Langford
said. "I thought that the attitude prevalent on most
college campuses nowadays would push through anything
that would further the student voice."
That attitude, Langford said, is an awareness that cuts
in student financial aids and other student-related items
would make things tougher. It is time for students to
begin working together throughout the state, she said.
"Our major concern was that of the margin of
victory," Langford said. "We wanted to be sure it was an
ove whelming win."
UNL's top two SSA representatives, ASUN Senate
President Rick Mockler and Government Liaison Com
mittee chairperson Nette Nelson, were both in Kearney
Tuesday to talk to Kearney State student leaders and
representatives about the SSA.
"All state-funded universities are eligible to be in the
SSA," Chapelle said.
"But I don't think it will be a follow-the-leader type of
thing," she said. "Nebraska state colleges are fairly di
verse, and I don't think one will join just because another
did."
Langford, who was elected to a second term as UNO
student regent in the same election, said UNO will prob
ably begin to take full part in the SSA in the fall of 1982.
"In the meantime well be laying the groundwork for
it, like electing officials," Langford said. "We'll also be
keeping abreast of any issues that come up on the UNL or
any state college campus."
With the exception of Chadron State, all of the other
state colleges have shown a positive interest in the SSA,
Langford said.
"I can't see anything but a positive attitude coming
from, the other schools," she said. "At UNO, we're all very
happy, and pleased to be a part of the SSA."
New Debate: The Nebraska Legislature Public Health and
Welfare Committee discusses proposed changes in the
state Aid to Dependent Children laws Page 7
The Horror Lives On: A review of Halloween II, sequel to
the popular success that helped spur a wave of slasher
movies Page 8
Fantastic Finish: Columnist Tad Stryker says this may be
the year Nebraska "pulls ah Oklahoma". .... Page 10
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