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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1990)
• | EKSsnHMHHHnnMni m a * I / I Correction: In ThursdayToailyNebraskan^a^lInchard^nounderoftoGcampus m^ma I Jr Ml M I ■ m/ Ichapter of ,he National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was reported to gcfHft -y- ""TpBl w gK I have said that four marijuana seeds would be enough protein for a person for one day. 5 Wm J H I The quote was misattributed to Clinchard. The Daily Nebraskan regrets the error 1 H B „ WEATHER INDEX H mn Wm Bi^^iB 8 Today, mostly sunny but cooler, northwest wind News Digest 2 iSkjf 8 RP B BMRl 8 8 10-15 miles per hour, high 55 60 Tonight, mostly Editorial 4 mm. R IW 8 J§r R RT^R^. Mw^Wb 8 8 clear and colder, low in the upper 20s Thursday, sP°r,s 0 ^g| ^ JBp^ ^ 8 partly sunny, high near 60. Arts*Entertainment.10 October 24, 1990_ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 90 No. 41 Butch Ireland Dally Nebraskan Gov. Kay Orr listens as Ben Nelson makes his closing comments during the gubernatorial debate Tuesday night in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Orr, Nelson dodge spending lid By Michael Ho Staff Reporter Ben Nelson and Gov. Kay On sparred Tuesday night over lotteries, the non-partisan Legislature and LB 1059, but both were reluctant to meet the 2 per cent lid head-on. At a gubernatorial debate in the Bob Devancy Sports Center, both candidates were asked what serv ices they would cut if Measure 405, the lid amendment, were to pass. The proposed 2 percent lid, which will go before the voters Nov. 6, would limit state and local govern ment spending increases to 2 per cent each year. On said she would rely on leg islative ovenides to keep neces sary services going, while Nelson said he would appoint department auditors to keep state spending under control. Neither named specific programs that might be cut. The candidates split on a ballot issue to repeal LB 1059, which raised state sales and income taxes to increase state support for public education. A referendum to repeal the law will be considered on the November ballot. On supported repeal, while Nelson asked Nebraskans to give the law a chance. “Rather than put our school system in jeopardy,” Nelson said, “let’s keep the bill on the books and let the Legislature fix it.” He charged that Orr “never spent any time working with the com mission” that drafted the bill. Orr responded that she had worked with the Legislature and the commission, but that her sug gestions were ignored. She said LB 1059 was “a wcll mtended bill” but it didn't accom plish either of its goals: to protect Nebraska’s school-financing sys tem from a court challenge and to equalize taxes. Nelson warned that properly taxes will go up if LB 1059 is re pealed. On the question of a statewide lottery, both candidates maintained their previously stated positions, with Nelson in favor and Orr op posed. “I see no reason to addict state government to gambling,” Orr said, calling a lottery an “easy, quick fix solution” with bad consequences for Nebraska families. Nelson countered that every dollar earned in Nebraska lotteries is a dollar that slays in Nebraska. “The people of the state of Nebraska want a.state lottery,” he said. “1 know that millions of dol lars every year go out to neighbor ing states. I. unlike my opponent, don’t have blinders on.” This statement prompted one of many outbursts of cheering, clap ping and booing from the partisan crowd of about 1,000. Orr said Nebraskans should glance across the Missouri River before embracing an Iowa-style lottery. “What arc they looking at now?” she asked. “They ’re looking at wide open gambling, riverboat gam bling.” The candidates disagreed again when responding to recent criti cism of Nebraska’s legislative system by state Sen. Frank Korshoj of Herman. The Legislature has only one branch, and its senators appear on the ballot without party affiliations. Nelson called the Nebraska Legislature a “streamlined, cost effective” body whose organiza tion should not be changed. “The cost of representative government in Nebraska is well within our budget,” Nelson said. Orr called for the return of the partisan ballot, lamenting the cur rent Legislature which, she said, is made of “49 individuals whose coalitions change on different is sues.” The two-party system, she said, is what made the nation’s democ racy strong. Panelists discuss lid’s consequences By Alan Phelps Staff Reporter The proposed 2 percent spend ing lid would strike at the heart of the university — its faculty, a UNL political science professor said Tuesday night. Robert Micwald was one of five speakers at a forum on Initiative 405. The proposed 2 percent lid amend ment, which will go before voters Nov. 6, would limit spending increases for state and local governments to 2 percent each year. Miewald, speaking to about 50 people in Love Library Auditorium, said, “If the lid passes, the best and the brightest (UNL faculty members) would bail out. Those who arc mobile and have job offers from across the country would leave.” A university that only could offer salary increases several points below the inflauon rate would be hard-pressed to find good replacements, he said. The last time the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln experienced a budget squeeze, some faculty mem bers were convinced to stay because of assurances that things would get better, Micwald said. “With a lid, we wouldn’t be able to do that,” he said. And, if the amendment is retroac tive, the university could be forced to cut $24 million to $69 million from this year’s budget, Miewald said. “Even the low figua' is rather grim,” Micwald said. “I suspect they will have to identify whole programs to eliminate. “For the money, this college pro vides a good education. I’m not sure that will be the case in the future,” he said. Phil Schoo, superintendent of Lincoln public schools, expressed many of the same concerns about elementary and secondary education. Placing a 2 percent lid on a grow - ing school district would be “counter productive,” Schoo said. “We’re talking about a district which had 8(X) more students this year.” he said. “We’re talking about a district where textbook costs go up 10 to 20 percent a year, where paper goes up 5 percent a year, and where diesel fuel for our buses just went up 78 percent.” Schoo also censured the vague language of the proposed amendment. The effects of the lid under its present language arc not clear, he said. Schoo predicted that the amend ment would have to be sent to the courts to decide its exact meaning. Tim Erickson, a research analyst for Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha, agreed, saying, “There are more questions than answers when you look at the initiative. The court would be the only place we could go to get the answers we would need. “To give you an idea of the poor wording of the initiative, it tries to amend a part of the constitution that doesn't even exist," Erickson said. Sen. La Von Crosby of Lincoln said the biggest flaw of the initiative was that it sought to change the constitution itself and that anti-tax activist Ed Jaksha and other lid supporters were misguided. “The man docsn l understand how our economy works,” she said. “Put ting a percentage into the constitution is dangerous .... It would be very inflexible.” Questioning the need for a lid, Crosby said, “Most of the people in Nebraska government are conserva tives, not wild-eyed liberals. “In Nebraska, we don’t throw money around easily,” she said. Crosby said imporvani services, including police and fire departments, would be affected if the amendment passed. “A lot of programs we think arc very important will be jeopardized,” she said. Mayor Bill Harris of Lincoln agreed that programs would have to be cut if the amendment passed because the lid doesn’t allow for inflauon or growth. Both inflation, currently at 4.8 percent, and the growing need for government services would outpace the 2 percent increase allowed by the lid year after year, Harris said. “The lid won’t work in the long run. It's designed to work against itself,” he said. “Any city that has a growth factor is going to have a problem with the lid,” Harris said, Rather than a lid, Hams said, people should refuse to vote for legislators who overspend. “The best lid is the people’s voice at the polls,” he said. Woods: Sides poised to dismantle apartheid By James P. Webb Staff Reporter Economic sanctions against South Africa should be pressed further, formerly banned journalist and anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods said Tuesday night. Woods delivered the keynote address be fore 400 people in the Nebraska Union Ball room on divestment of South Africa as part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Apart heid Awareness Week. After being exiled for 12 years. Woods recently returned from a six-week to visit his homeland. There, he fcid, he observed a sur prisingly peaceful and accelerating process to negouatc a democratic constitution which would — * * . restore rights to more than 30 million blacks in South Africa. When he (led the country in December 1977, the state of racial affairs seemed to be on a collision course, he said.In contrast, today both sides seem to be committed to forming a new constitution that would dismantle apart heid, he said. “1 would tell you, that within 18 months to two years, we will have a democratic constitution that looks very much like yours,” Woods said. Confidence and expectation of reform is the prevailing mood among blacks, while whites, who seem to be slightly stunned by advances in equal access to facilities, arc generally suppor tive of the changes, he said. “ITiat doesn’t mean they like the rules any I would tell you, that within 18 months to two years, we will have a democratic contitution that looks very much like yours. Woods journalist/activist -tt ~ more lhan they used to, but now they accept the fact, whereas they didn’t 12 years ago. That’s the difference,” he said. But Woods urged “not to jump the gun” by restoring economic activity because the suc cess of negotiations between the African Na tional Congress and the South African govern ment depends on continued economic sanc tions. Further, he scoffed at arguments for invest ment and called for universities to completely divest of multinational corporations investing iri South Africa. Woods said Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC, wanted the world to know that the cam paign for economic sanctions won’t end until the victims of oppression, not businessmen, say they should end. At that time, steps will be taken to allow for foreign investment to help rebuild the econ omy, he said. When that happens, the state must work to cope with huge population growth. In 10 years, South Africa will have more lhan 60 million people and need to create more lhan 350,000 jobs, Woods said. Therefore, the See WOODS on 6 Journalist Donald Woods speaks about South African apartheid and divestment in the Nebraska Union Ballroom.
