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February 27, 1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. ?
Bill to tax drugs advanced by Legislature
By Emily Rosenbaum
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature on
Monday advanced a bill that
would require anyone in pos
session of marijuana or a controlled
substance to pay a tax on those illegal
drugs.
LB260, introduced by Sen. Gerald
Conway of Wayne, would establish a
tax of SI00 for each ounce of mari
juana and $150 for each gram of a
controlled substance, to be paid to the
Department of Revenue. The depart
ment would issue a certificate to dealers
verifying that the tax was paid.
The bill would apply to “deal
ers,” meaning anyone who manufac
tures, produces, ships, transports or
imports into Nebraska, or in any manner
acquires or possesses 6 or more ounces
of marijuana, 7 or more grams of any
controlled substance sold by weight,
or 10 or more dosage units of any
controlled substance not sold by weight.
Under the bill, which advanced to
a second round
of debate by a
27 to 3 vole,
dealers would
have to go to the
Department of
Revenue to pay
taxes on their
drugs. If police
later arrested a
dealer and dis
covered he or she
didn *t pay the taxes, the dealer would
have to pay the tax and a fine equal to
the amount of the tax in addition to
facing criminal penalties, the bill states.
Under the bill, facts contained in
the tax report required by the bill
could not be released by the Depart
ment of Revenue.
That is to ensure that Fifth Amend
ment protection against self-incrimi
nation is maintained and the bill re
tains its constitutionality, said Sen.
Tim Hall of Omaha.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha
said the bill is “affirmative encour
agement to sell more drugs.”
By raising drug dealers’ cost of
doing business, he said, the Legisla
ture would be encouraging them to
sell more drugs.
“This bill, in my opinion, is not
going to make any difference in the
amount of drugs being sold,” he said.
“It casts an aura of legitimacy on the
sale of drugs.”
The bill’s attempt is to take away
“some of the ill-gotten gain,” Hall
said.
‘‘I don’t want to leave the impres
sion that this is a godsend regarding
the drug war,” he said.
Conway said the main thrust of the
bill would be to “extract some of the
economic gains” that are made ille
gally.
Sen. Don Wescly of Lincoln said
the bill represents a “bizarre twist of
fate.’ ’ He said it sends a message that
the Legislature is going to “sic the
IRS on drug dealers.”
He said it would resemble the case
of gangster AI Capone, who engaged
in numerous illegal activities and was
eventually prosecuted for federal tax
evasion.
Conway said similar legislation
has been enacted in 17 states and that
Minnesota’s model has been studied
by the Revenue Committee. Minne
sota’s Department of Revenue has
been able to collect a tax on illegal
drugs that * ‘ far exceeded ’ ’ the cost of
maintaining the program, he said.
An amendment by Conway to
change the tax to 50 percent of the
street value of the marijuana or con
trolled substance failed. Under the
amendment, dealers arrested for pos
sessing marijuana or a controlled
substance who had not paid the lax
would have to pay a fine equal to 25
percent of the street value added to
the original lax.
Fifty percent of the tax would go to
See TAX on 3
March held for environmental justice
James P. Webb
Staff Reporter
University of Nebraska students and
other protesters helped carry a na
tionwide message to government
leaders Monday to protect remaining native
virgin forests owned by the government
The protesters marched from Broyhill
Fountain to the offices of U.S. Sens. James
Exon and Bob Kerrey in the Federal Build
ing They then marched to Gov. Kay Orr’s
reception room and Attorney General Robert
Spire's office at the State Capitol
' The Nebraska Much for Environmental
Justice, organised by Ecology Now in cob- g
junction with student protests in 50 states,
v called lor support of the Forestry Protection
Act of 1990 and for increased paper recy
cling in Nebraska.
Tne act, which has not been introduced
in Congress, would halt commercial har
vesting in national forests, ten exports on
raw wood, retain and restore forests and
provide alternatives for workers in the for
estry industry.
J Burger, project coordinator tor ecol
ogy Now, said exploitation of 1,000-year
old forests owned by the U.S. Forest Serv ice
is destroying complex ecosystems. That
destruction contributes to depletion of the
ozone layer and displaces native animals, he
said.
Dave Regan of Ecology now said Con
gress subsidizes commercial harvesting by
appropriating money to the Forest Service,
allowing it to sell trees for less than their
value and to construct roads in national
forests, giving access to limber.
“We do have a right and a duly to get
Congress io adopt better policy on our fed
eral lands," Regan said.
“We’re directing our attention to the
Forest Service because that’s where we can
have the greatest effect," he said.
As national forests are slowly converted
into tree farms, their "biological blueprint
is lost forever," he said.
Protesters said they want Spire to inves
tigate the city of Lincoln’s purchase of land
in Cooper Park at Sixth and D streets.
Protesters also said they support Orr s
executive order in October requiring suite
government to use recycled paper whenever
possible.
napaamiq 11 IBM 11 III III INI III I _
Joe Heinzle/Daily Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln junior Steve Arnold, 20, makes a state
ment Monday outside the Nebraska Union. Arnold was participating in
the Nebraska March for Environmental Justice.
LB799 advanced
Monday, proposes
harsher penalties
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter ,
The Nebraska Legislature on Monday ad
vanced to a second round of debate a bill
to stiffen penalties for driving under the
influence of alcohol or drugs.
LB799, sponsored by state Sen. Emil Beyer
of Gretna, would include drugs in the driving
undcr-the-influence laws and would authorize
the Department of Motor V ehicles to automati
cally revoke drivers’ licenses 30 days after
arrest
Officers could arrest those who refuse to
submit to breath, blood or urine tests for
alcohol, and those who do not pass those tests.
Officers would impound the drivers’ licenses
and issue 30-day temporary licenses.
Officers then would report to the director of
the Dcpartmentof Motor Vehicles within seven
days, and revocations would become auto
matic 30 days after arrests unless petitions for
hearings were filed.
Petitions would have to be filed within 10
days, and the hearings would be within 20 days
after that.
Within seven days of hearings, the director
of motor vehicles would decide if licenses
should be revoked.
Licenses would be revoked for one year for
the first offense, three years on second offense
and five years for third and later offenses.
Beyer said the bill would provide a “swift
and sure” suspension of driving privileges,
which would deter drunk drivers.
But Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha said the bill
would be a “serious policy change’ ’ in moving
the driving-while-intoxicaicd procedure out of
the courts and making it an administrative pro
cedure.
Hall said drivers facing license revocation
“should have the opportunity to go to court,”
and the bill would pul them at the mercy of the
director of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Sen. Rex Haberman of Imperial said sena
tors should look at the issue from the point of
view of the victims, not the drunk drivers.
. “Consider the parents who have had mem
bers of their family killed by drunk drivers,”
Haberman said. “You can’t bring a life back.
“If the legislation passes and it saves one
life — just one — it’s well worth it. We need
stricter laws. We need them to be enforced and
if they’re going to be enforced faster and quicker
in the Departmentof Motor Vehicles, so be it.”
Sen. LaVon Crosby of Lincoln also said
legislators arc spending loo much time defend
ing drunk drivers and not their victims.
“We work too hard at protecting the people
who are breaking the law,” Crosby said.
Sen. Howard Lamb of Ansclmo said, “We
could nit-pick this to death, but the basic down
to-earth fact is, ‘Do you want to reduce drunk
driving?”’
Sen. John Lindsay of Omaha said the bill’s
automatic revocation provision would be
“crumbling” the principle that people are
innocent until proven guilty.
Beyer said the bill provides a lough ap
proach, but “drunk driving is a serious crime.”
The bill now faces a second round of consid
eration, select file, with several senators plan
ning to propose amendments.
Community leaders denouce hate groups
By David Burchell
Staff Reporter
C coalition of community leaders de
nounced the Ku Klux Klan and other
hale groups Monday during a press
conference on the east steps of the County-City
Building, 555 S. 10th St.
About 85 people gathered for the press
conference to hear speakers call the Klan a
racist organization that does not belong in
Lincoln.
The Rev. Norman Leach of the Lincoln
Interfaith Council said those who attended and
spoke al t* '■ conference were responding to
recent advertisements for new Klan members
in local newspapers.
Leach said the purpose of the conference
was to demonstrate that the community thinks
the KKK is “abhorrent.*’
A petition denouncing the Klan was circu
lated. Leach said the coalition had gathered
more than 500 signatures before the press
conference.
The Rev. Michcal Combs, a representative
of the National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, said the Klan "has
been a foe of freedom and democracy since it
was founded in the 1860s.”
John Taylor, representing the Coalition for
Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights, said the same
haired that causes discrimination against racial
and religious groups is behind homophobia
against gays and lesbians.
Donna Polk, director of the counseling center
at the Multi-Cultural Awareness Center in
Lincoln, said this was the most serious issue
she had been involved with in recent years. She
said the names of petition signers would not be
released to the public to protect signers from
possible retribution.
