'f 1| W f CORRECTION
atlWm r'ESB B Jr tiTm Sr J| To/ acgEj In a story about the International Students Organization's banquet (Nov. 15),
Ek " n jjjj w ■* J gE Riaz Bhat was misquoted. He is from the Indian part of Kashmir
|\ 1i _
'-'jggk ■ IWL_Mi fl| IBB Mf JH —^ — jw —I « Iffi Wednesday, mostly sunny by afternoon high 35
W m m ■ 40withNWw.ndsat25-30mphdiminishingto10. News p.ges! 2
1® m ■ JT 3 m M H^Bk a 1 ! m 20 mph bV afternoon Wednesday night, dear *
■Mu ^5 ::SL WkxiAm L W H* JR fiL andcoldlowaroundao Thursday, sunny, not as A[£ & Entertainment 9
^ Bmi cold, high in the low to mid 40s Classified 11
November 16,1988 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 57
I Legislators defeat income tax resolution
By Amy Edwards
Senior Editor
Nebraska legislators debated the
effect of the domino theory
Tuesday, during the fourth day
of the 90th Legislature’s first special
session.
Discussion ended in a 12-28 defeat
of Legislative Resolution 2, intro
duced by Sens. James McFarland of
Lincoln, Stan Schellpeper of Stanton
and Merton Dierks of Ewing.
LR2 states that the Legislature
should amend the state income tax
system to restore fairness and equity
in the system, especially for middle
income Nebraskans, and to remedy
the effects of tax increases caused by
LB773.
McFarland said passing the resol u
tion would help the Legislature look
at the tax increase problems in sec
tions rather than in one package.
“Look at it like a siring of domi
noes, and if one domino falls the rest
will topple.” McFarland said of the
problems caused by LB773.
McFarland said LB773 created tax
increases for middle-class Nebras
kans while giving tax breaks to corpo
rations and the upper class.
LB773 was designed to free Ne
braska from the federal tax system,
making an independent system that
would not be affected by federal
changes. Doug Parrott, Gov. Kay
Orr’s communications director, said
LB773 readjusted the tax system to
make it more fair and equitable for all
Nebraskans.
McFarland cited statistics from the
Legislative Fiscal Office, which
showed that people in an income
range of $ 10,000 to $20,000 had a tax
increase of 20.98 percent while
people in the $100,000 to $500,000
range had a decrease of 10.25 percent.
McFarland asked senators to sign a
letter to pull the legislative body into
special session to debate the issue.
McFarland said passing the resolu
tion did not mean that senators must
go into special session to debate the
issue, but that they would adopt nec
essary legislation in the next session.
McFarland said the next session could
mean the regular session in January.
But waiting for the regular session
to act on the tax increases would mean
that Nebraskans have to wait another
year for tax breaks, he said.
“If we do not act now in this year to
change the tax rate then we take the
injustice into 1989. If wc wait... we
will not see that change in April 1989,
we will have to wait until April 1990
. . . that is just too long t& wait,”
See TAXES on 3
iMKu election win
shocks unprepared
UNL sophomore
By Pattie Greene
Staff Reporter
Although she doesn’t know what the job
entails, a University of Nebraska-Lin
coln student said she is glad she was
elected Nov. 8 as board member of the Lower
Platte South Natural Resource District.
Ann Mihulka, a 19-year-old sophomore
sociology major, said she is not familiar with
what the board does, although she does know
they “work on certain projects.”
“I do know that their main goal is to protect,
conserve and maintain natural resources,” she
said.
Doug Davis, a technician for the NRD, said
the district has seven objectives. The primary
objectives are soil conservation, Hood control,
wildlife habitat and recreation areas, he said.
He said they do many projects in and around
Lincoln.
Mihulka said she has read some old pam
phlets in a library about how the board is set up
and said she also has asked her father, who
works for the Ncbiaska Game and Parks
Commission.
According to Mihulka, as a board member
she will attend meetings once a month, starting
in January, and will “sit on the board, which is
almost like a city council, and talk about plans
. and stuff."
Mihulka said the board has a convention for
newly elected members in December.
“They’ll tell us there what we’ll do," she
said.
She said “no one knows what the NRD does
or what it is" and that “the people who run for
the office don't know much about it until they
get in it."
Davis said “about half or a good percentage"
of NRD directors have a “vague backgroundor
knowledge of what we do." He said that once
the directors are elected, “it’s the first time
they’ve been in the door."
Mihulka will be in office for four years and
plans to vote along with the rest of the board
members.
“I want to do the same things they do, I
guess," she said.
Mihulka decided to run for office when a
neighbor asked her father to run for the office.
He couldn’t because he works for the Game and
Parks Commission, she said.
“They needed someone to run from our
district," she said. So, she said, she decided to
run for office.
“I thought it’d be neat to run," she said. “1
didn’t expect to win."
H^pEr Jk . lrv '
es
s spray tree “» on O Street Monday night to
rapfeifl by stprHn rnd sparrows. Bob Weyhrlch,
wsaEphs^ssa ssixstx
> but wMchto not harmful to humans. Because thacny had
■ »wWj^?eWsC5®li .4MRMms w
Anti-abortion group
provides network
By Eve Nations
Staff Reporter
Students For Life, a University of Ne
braska- Lincoln student organization,
sponsored a program Tuesday night to
help educate students about the issue of abor
tion.
Nelvia Agnew, president of the organiza
tion and a graduate student at UNL, said her
main concern was to eliminate the misconcep
tions that many students have about abortions.
“I am very concerned with women and men
that don’t know the facts,” she said. “I want
them to know that our group exists and that we
arc here to educate and to supply a support
network”
After showing a graphic video entitled
“Eclipse of Reason,” which showed an abor
tion being performed, Agnew answered ques
tions. Many of the questions dealt with die
effects of abortions performed after the third
month of a woman ’s pregnancy. This was the
main focus of the video.
Agnew said that many complications can
occur among women who have second- or
third-trimester abortions.
“Out of all the abortions that are performed,
roughly 7,500 have serious complications,”
Agnew said. “Such complications can be major
hemorrhaging, sterility, deaths due to scarring,
hysterectomies and uterus damage.”
Julie Lostroh, a member of Nebraska Legis
lature for Life, said the state has limited power
concerning abortions. The state can not outlaw
people from having abortions, she said.
But, she added that certain amendments
“prevent funding for abortions unless the
mother’s life is in danger.”
Lostroh said that approximately 10 to 20
doctors perform abortions in Nebraska.
Agnew said the organization has “been
around for a while but just became active again
last year.”
She said the group is planning future pro
grams, similar to the one Tuesday, to inform
students about abortions.
“We participated in the Walk for Life and
we set up booths around campus to inform
people what our goals are,” she said.
“Our main objec tives arc to provide support
groups and to provide other loving alternatives
to abortion,” she said. “There are about 6,(K)0
abortions performed eac h year in Nebraska and
a lot of women aren’t educated about these
abortions.”
Students for Life has a membership of about
25 people, Agnew said. They are also con
nected with Right to Life and Nebraskan Col
legians for Life.
New system loads problems on office
By Jerry Guenther
Jxiter headaches on campus
linue for some university
cials because of problems
implementing a new integrated ac
' counting system, said Merle Schaal,
, director of university accounting.
Schaal said the new computer
system, which was developed by
Management Systems of America,
has been in use since July 1.
“It’s a very complicated system,"
Schaal said.
Some of the problems liave come
about because the new system was
oesigned for private industry, not a
public institution, Schaal said.
As a result, Schaal said, some ot
the programs have been rewritten to
make the system adaptable.
“It's a combination of learning the
system and rewriting many of the
programs to fit into the state,” Schaal
said.
Alan Seagren, vice president for
administration, said the general
ledger portion of the system cost
iT
approximately $130,000. Seagren
did not have exact figures on the
entire cost of the system at press time.
The decision was made by central
administration to switch systems
because of many problems w ith the
old system, Schaal said.
Schaal said that the old system was
outdated.
“It took a lot of programming to
keep it running and (central admini
stration) felt that as far as the pro
grammers were concerned, the new
system would be easier to maintain."
Schaal also said that many of llic
problems with the new system were
expected before it was pul into use.
‘‘We went into it realizing it was
going to take a long time,” Schaal
said. ‘ You just don’t put up anything
as massive as this without expecting
some problems.”
One of the problems occurred
when the new system was first imple
mented, Schaal said. For the first six
weeks, the department fell behind
because accounts payable had to be
processed on the old system and the
new system, he said.
“We knew we would gel behind,
and it ran true to our understanding,"
Schaal said. “But we arc caught back
up.”
Another reason there have been
problems with the new system,
Schaal said, is because the main
frame computer has been running at
near full capacity.
“The system has to do so much
night processing,” Schaal said. ‘‘Until
(it is done), we cannot start processing
the next day’s business.”