Legality of abortion statute may be decided by voters!
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By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
Voters would get the freedom to
choose how Nebraska’s abortion stat
ute would be worded if a resolution
introduced in the Legislature Wednes
day is passed.
LR15, intro
duced by Sen.
Jerome Warner
of Waverly,
would place the
abortion issue on
the November
1992 Nebraska
ballot, giving citizens the choice tc
decide on its legality.
“It’s the kind of decision, that seems
to me, on which the citizens would
want to make the final decision,”
Warner said.
Although neither side of the abor
tion issue probably will lend support
to the resolution, Warner said, it could
gain approval if the Nebraska Legis
lature gets “bogged down” with abor
tion discussions.
Warner said he didn’t introduce
the resolution last year because he
“thought discussion was necessary.”
Opponents to the resolution might
call it a way to “duck the issue,” he
* said, but he simply wanted to give the
citizens a choice.
He said opponents also might say
the resolution should wait until after
there is a final decision from the
Supreme Court on the abortion issue.
“If Roe vs. Wade is reversed, it
could go a couple of ways,” he said.
Abortion could be abolished, or
the Supreme Court may leave the
decision up to the states, Warner said.
If the decision is left up to the
states, Wamer said, a state vote wou Id
give an answer for Nebraska.
The issue would be placed fairly
before the public, Warner said, be
cause Nebraska citizens would have
the opportunity to decide on two
questions.
“I would be opposed to doing ei
ther one alone,” Warner said.
The first option would “provide
that no law shall interfere with the
right of a woman to choose or refuse
to terminate her pregnancy” during
the first three months.
The second option would “provide
that the planned termination of the
pregnancy of any woman shall be
unlawful except to preserve the life or
health of the woman or to increase the
probability of the live birth of a fe
tus.”
Another bill introduced Wednes®
day by Sen. David Landis of Lincoln®
would place the Roe vs. Wade abor®
tion decision into state law.
Under LB640, the pregnant woman
would have the choice to have an
abortion during the first three months
of pregnancy. Terms such as “unborn
child” and “unborn human life” in
previous statutes would be redefined
as “fetus.”
Landis said he doesn’t know how
the bill will be received by the Legis
lature, but he said “the judicial com
mittee traditionally has been unsym-H
pathetic to the choice position.”
NU, Nebraska colleges compete
for piece of cigarette tax pie
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
A bill introduced Wednesday by state Sen.
Gerald Conway of Wayne shows that compet
ing interests exist for funds from a cigarette
tax, said Lee Rupp, NU vice president for
uni relations.
would give money raised by a ciga
rette tax in future years to capital construction
projects of the Nebraska State Colleges.
Another bill introduced Wednesday, LB647,
would set the cigarette tax money aside for
scholarships at private Nebraska postsecon
dary institutions.
One bili introduced last week would re
earmark the money for capital construction
projects at the University of Nebraska. Another
bill would finance NU scholarships and cancer
research.
Rupp said he didn’t blame other schools for
pursuing monies that previously had gone to
NU.
He said it was a case in which school offi
cials said, “I may not get a big piece from the
general fund pie, so I’ll try to get a smaller
piece from the cigarette tax pie.”
Under the bill Conway introduced Wednes
day, from 1991-93 $490,100 would be taken
from the State Building Fund for project plan
ning at Wayne State College and Chadron
State College.
From 1994-95 through 2007-08, $361,222
per year- would go to the State College Build
ings Renovation and Land Acquisition Fund.
From 1996-97 through 2015-16, $ 1,857,213
per year would go to the State College Facili
ties Improvement Fund.
Money from both funds would go to im
provements and additions at Chadron State
College, Peru State College and Wayne State
College.
LB647, introduced by John Lindsay of
Omaha, would create the Postsecondary Edu
cation Award Program Act to provide scholar
ships for students at private schools.
it was meant to provide equality between
public and private higher education funding,
the bill says.
Not enough choices for public higher edu
cation exist for Nebraska students, according
to the bill. It also states that Nebraska residents
who want to go to private colleges or universi
ties don’t receive as much government fund
ing.
“Nebraska has become a net exporter of
First-time college students because of inade
quate Financial incentives” for students want
ing to attend private colleges or universities,
the bill states.
The money to Finance the scholarships would
be received from 1 1/2 cents per pack of the
state cigarette tax beginning July ’, 1994.
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‘ Andrews hopeful for ‘usual’ search
From Staff Reports
Departing UNMC Chancellor Dr. Char
les Andrews said he hopes the search for his
replacement is “held in the usual manner,”
unlike the NU presidential search.
Andrews sent a letter to University of
Nebraska President Martin Massengale on
Tuesday stating he will resign June 30.
He said Wednesday that he hopes the
search for the University of Nebraska Medi
cal Center chancellor will follow usual
procedures.
When asked to comment about the search
for NU president, he said, “It wasn’t held in
the usual manner.”
“A search such as we do in academia is i
done for two reasons,” Andrews said. “One.
it gets the best list of candidates possible*
and two, the fact that those people have
gone through the search empowers them to
be a leader.”
Andrews said he chose to wait to an
nounce his resignation until the search for
the NU president was completed.
“There’s no way you could replace the I
(UNMC) chancellor until they knew who
they were going to be working for,” he said.
Amdrews declined to comment about
statements he made to The Omaha World
Herald in Wednesday’s paper that Massen
gale should not be NU president.
New waste plan less costly!
By Lisa Donovan
Senior Reporter
Developing a statewide solid waste plan for
Nebraska just got less expensive.
The Nebraska Department of Environmental
Control and a regional consulting firm struck a
deal that would cost a fraction of the allotted
$500,000 for the development of the plan.
During Gov. Ben Nelson’s press conference
Wednesday at the State Capitol, state Sen.
Spence Morrissey of Tecumseh announced that
the environmental control department signed a
$334,000contract with Kansas City-based SCS
Engineers to develop a statewide comprehen
sive solid waste management plan.
“We didn’t cheap out on the plan,” said
Morrissey, vice chairman of the Legislature’s
Natural Resources Committee. “We went
through intensive negotiations with the depart
ment, the governor’s office and a consultant to
make sure that everything that the Legislature
intended to be in the plan was included in the
plan.”
The selection of an engineering firm to
consult on setting up the plan means partial
enactment of LB 163, a recycling law passed by I
the Legislature last spring.
Under the provisions of the law, the state I
would pay $500,000 for two years on the plan. I
Morrissey said that how the leftover $ 166,000 ■
will be spent hasn’t been discussed, but he saidM
he speculates it will be put toward unexpected*
problems.
“I would hope that it would be held back iiC
case other things are needed in the plan as wmf
go through the process,” he said.
The completion date of the plan was July 9,
but Morrissey said he introduced LB325 last
week to extend the completion date to Dec. 15.
Morrissey said he wanted the extension to
carefully analyze all the legislation being pre
sented on solid waste management and to for
mulate a comprehensive plan to present to the
Legislature next session.
Morrissey said he is looking forward to
starting on the plan.
‘‘It’s been a long road. It took a little longer
than we expected, but now we’re ready. I think
the consultant is ready to hit the ground run
ning.”
Bill would ban sales of Styrofoam I
From Staff Reports
Selling certain forms of Styrofoam would
become a crime if a bill introduced Wednesday
in the Nebraska Legislature passes muster with
senators.
Sen. Elroy Hefner of Coleridge inuoduced
the bill, which would make the sale of Styro
foam an offense punishable by three months’
imprisonment and a $500 fine.
The bill would punish the selling of food or
beverages enclosed in Styrofoam containers
unless the container is biodegradable, recy
clable and composed of at least 50 percent
starch.
The bill also proposes that Styrofoam food
or beverage containers themselves not be sold
if any part of the containers violates the same
standards.
The bill, which would make the offenses
Class 111 misdemeanors, would become law on
Jan. 1,1993, if passed.
uovemmentally funded loans!
a possibility, director says I
By Alan Phelps
Staff Reporter
A proposal to use government funds rather
than bank money for student loans could be
feasible, one university official said.
John Beacon, director of the Office of Schol
arships and Financial Aid at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said that although details of
the proposal to use government funds haven’t
been released, he would favor it with one
reservation.
“Current lending is very localized, so if a
student has a problem or needs human inter
vention, it is right here,” he said. “If control
were centralized in Washington, I would be
worried about the speed of service."
The proposal being considered by the Bush
Administration would attempt to make the
college loan process easier for students and
reduce costs by cutting banks out of the equa
tion and using government money as capital.
In a student loan system without banks, the
government would need to put up approxiffi
mately $ 12 billion, which would be loaned ou™
and administrated by colleges and universities.
Such a proposal could save the millions of
dollars the government pays in interest subsi
dies to banks each year.
Beacon said he is hesitant to believe a lot of
money would be saved because the govern
ment would have to increase personnel in
Washington to handle such a “monumental”
change.
Charles B. Saunders Jr., senior vice presi
dent of the American Council on Education,
said the proposal was difficult to comment on
because “we don’t have anything specific yet.”
The idea is being “kicked around” in Wash
ington, Saunders said, and may be included in
the administration’s proposal for reauthorizing
the Higher Education Act.
“I think there’s some pluses about the ap
proach, but they should be carefully thought
through. We don’t want to collapse existing
programs,” he said.
