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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1990)
1 ^ CL. JL JL V WEATHER INDEX I 9 _ ^B _ Today, mostly sunny and warmer, south wind 15- News Digest 2 I ^Bk 1 sE^CB9 j|i ~ B 9 ^99 ■a^a^-^99 20 miles Per hour, high in the low 50s Tonight. Editorial . 4 1 Mt $Sl w M I 9 jjr * 9§ ^B^ ^^B low near 30 Saturday, continued dry and mild, Sports 5 ^jVCli l 1 5° aar- ? November 9, 1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 90 No. 53 Approved amendment could shift land taxes By James P. Webb Staff Reporter If the Nebraska Legislature ap proves changing the method of agricultural land valuation, other land owners in Nebraska could face up to S25 million in higher property taxes, a University of Ncbraska-Lin coln professor said. Roy Frederick, a professor of agri cultural economics, said the shift would represent 2 percent of the SI .2 billion collected by local governments in property taxes this year. In Tuesday’s general election, Amendment 1, which allows the Legislature to change the way agri cultural land is valued, was approved 330,326to 198,042. The system of valuation and the subsequent shift in property tax dis tribution won’t be known until the Legislature decides whether to retain the amendment, which is not self enacting, Frederick said. "Presumably the Legislature might move to an earnings basis, although we don’t know that for sure,” he said. An earnings basis would tic the tax rate to the productivity of the land. “It would be presumed that if you went to an earnings basis, that agri cultural land values would be reduced in many cases, particularly as you get close to large cities (where) the earn ings value would be less than the market value,” Frederick said. See AG on 3 Countv Drooertv tBX GVIGS Under state law, county governments may not J ,v,,w exceed the 50 cent levy limit per $100,000 value of property. Counties are shaded according to how much they are currently taxing property. c ro JC m CO 4 I >. '5 Q ■ B E CD C £ O |_Source Nebraska Association o) County Officials, Dec 1989. | Regents to consider rev ising mission statements By Sara Bauder Schott Senior Reporter The N U Board of Regents today w ill con sider revising role and mission state ments for the University of Nebraska campuses. The board will consider statements for the Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney campuses and the University of Nebraska Medical Center at a 1:30 meeting in Varner Hall. The board’s consideration of role and mis sion comes as the Nebraska Legislature is examining its role and mission statement, developed in 1977, for the university. The Legislature has hired Widmaycr and Associ ates of Chicago to re-examine the statement. Joe Rowson, director of public affairs for the university, said the board always has main tained its own role and mission statement. The board and Legislature both will have their statements done by the end of the year, he said. “If there are major differences in the state ments, they would meet and try to get the real differences worked out,’’ Rowson said. Each campus chancellor and the university president was asked to develop statements and present them to the board’s Governance and Planning Committee, Rowson said. The com miticc has reviewed the statements, he said. Regent Kermit Hansen of Elkhom had planned to bring the statement revisions to emergency status at last month’s board meeting, but scrapped those plans because the Widmaycr study had not been completed. Regents chairman Don Blank of McCook had said it would be presumptuous to act on role and mission statements before the Widmaycr study is completed and the firm makes its recommendations. In an interview Thursday, Blank said he isn’t sure if the board will act on the revisions or table them. “It will be the majority of the board’s deci sion whether to table them,” Blank said. “Some feel we should approve the statements, and some feel we should delay action until the Widmaycr study comes out.” Rowson said the Widmaycr study will be released Nov. 20. The board’s actions probably won’t have much effect on the study. Blank said. “We have to remember that the role and mission statement is a function of the Legisla ture,” Blank said. “We work with the Legisla ture to finalize it, but the final say lies with the Legislature.” Professor studies children, law JeH Willet/Daily Nebraskan ! Melton 1 By Jennifer O'Cilka Senior Reporter Serving as a camp counselor during college showed Gary Melton that he had a knack for working with children. The psychology and law professor and researcher ol children and families said his experiences at the Easier Seals camp got him interested in studying how troubled children arc treated. “1 noticed the degree of disability the children had seemed to have a lot to do with how others dealt with them,” Mellon said. The same handicap in two children would be differently disabling based on the situation those children were in, he said. “That general interest in trying to make abnormal situations more suppor tive got me interested in children’s policy more generally,” he said. One of Melton’s early projects involved designing a children’s museum for “normal chil dren” about the disabilities of others. Now, Melton studies how the legal system treats children. “The underlying concept behind that is one of making children participants in the legal process,’ he said. The goal of his work, he said, is to bring real values to the assumptions of law about child and lamily policies. “Much of the law on this has very explicit behavioral assumptions ...” about children, Mellon said. his work involves testing mose ussuininiwii> anu wuiMug with policy-makers to try to change those that are wrong. One of the basic problems in the legal system is that children often arc not taken seriously and are represented poorly or not at all in legal matters. Often the false assumptions center on adolescents, he said, because it is thought that adolescents are like young children in decision-making, and that they are unusually vulnerable to emotional trauma. „ “Both of those (assumptions) are at least overstated or wrong, he said. Children have a better capacity to understand decisions and reason than the law assumes, he said. Mellon said the most obvious place the law’s assumptions about adolescents come into play is in abortion cases. “The courts have presumed that teen-agers arc particularly inept at weighing the risks and benefits of the abortion proce dure and emotional consequences of abortion.” Melton, who has authored and co-authored many books and reports concerning children and families in law, said the problems in his area are worldwide. _ See MELTON on 3 Professors praise Congress’ refunding of art endowment By Mark Georgeff Staff Reporter__ Congress’ refunding of the National Endowment for the Arts y/ithout restricting artwork content has drawn praise from three University of Ncbraska Lincoln officials. “We arc relieved over the new decision and thought it was the appropriate action for Congress to take on the NEA program,’’said Daphne Deeds, curator and assistant director of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. Sheldon has received more than S75,0(X) since 1988 in NEA grants, she said. About $124,(XX) in NEA grants arc pending. On Oct. 24, Congress approved the measure reauthor izing the NEA budget at S174 million annually for an other three years. About SI 71 million was budgeted last year. ' • . _ _:_I KICA I LdM )V;UI, V.UII^U/33 It^UUVU ii'tu iiw * grants would go to artists whose works the courts ruled obscene or pornographic. That provision was removed. The reaulhori/alion of NEA'funding sets up review panels for awarding grants made up of lay people with more diverse backgrounds. The panels will consider general decency standards for NEA-financcd artwork. The previous congressional action needed to be re thought, Deeds said, since NEA funding has been in volved with few artistic works labeled obscene or porno graphic. “Less than 0.5 percent of all NEA applications funded have been in any way controversial,”she said. “Obscenity is a social issue which should be decided in our judicial system.” Gail Kendall, an assistant art professor, agreed. “You can t have censorship on the arts,” Kendall said. “There is no way to judge freedom ol speech or artistic views.” Ellen Baird, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and an associate professor of art history, said it was important that the non-restrictive NEA reaulhori/alion was passed. “Issues like these are a public concern and a necessary part of our democratic society,” she said. NEA’s reaulhori/alion measure is a strong indication that society values the arts highly, she said.