ustxtxb_obs_1965_05_14_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

chologically it works real well.” He said a boy has stolen $100 worth of cigarettes and they didn’t fire him, but are letting him work it out. “I do think it’s a wonderful thing to prevent dishonesty,” he said. Closing, sponsor Price said that a person who refused to take the test “as a matter of fact might not get the job,” but, “Frankly I think those are issues that are not involved in this.” The bill was expected to be approved by the favorable House subcommittee to Cory of Victoria referred it. R.D. Austin Governor Connally’s thinking these days is a matter of unusual interest. He is riding very high in Texas politics; although he is beset by severe criticism from teachers, he has been getting what he wants out of the legislature, including four-year terms for governors effective with the 1966 elections. The man he elevated from next to nowhere in Texas politics to state Democratic chairman, Marvin Watson of Lone Star Steel Co., is now one of the President’s closest advisers, and Connally continues to have the President’s ear; in effect the governor has won his point against the $1.25 minimum wage in the Neighborhood Youth Corps, as Washington is granting many exceptions to it. The governor’s press conference last week was acutely interesting, therefore, in several respects. He was quite relaxed, amiable, and confident; chatty with the reporters. He had no announcements and was open to questions, and as he said at one point, he was just “free-wheeling it,” avoiding chugholes pausing, as a driver who is sure of himself. Very skillfully on a number of subjects he conveyed what he wanted to convey without actually saying it. For instance, he did not say he would not call a special session”I’m not saying that categorically,” he saidbut he did stress that only he could call one and “The only thing I know of that we have to do is pass the appropriations bill. There are alternative means of re-districting.” That left the teachers’ pay raise unmistakably optional, as far as he is concerned; it meant he was threatening to let the courts re-district if the legislature doesn’t before adjournment this month. On the other hand, he said, if the legislature insists on spending too much, “we might well have to consider” reimposing the franchise surtax on corporations that has expired or increasing the gas production tax “back up from seven to nine cents” per thousand cubic feet. Was the governor advocating these new taxes on business? “I am not now recommending them. I am not saying I will recommend them.” He was saying, though, that he does not want substantial new moneys to come from 6 The Texas Observer 1New York Times Magazine, Jan. 24, 1965. 2The American Federationist, Nov. 1964. 3The Naked Society, by Vance Packard, David McKay Co., Inc.. New York, 1964, pp. 56. 114. 4The American Federationist, op. cit. 5Houston Chronicle, May 19. 1963, and Nov. 20, 1964. 6See, for instance the Dallas Morning News of May 8, 1964, in which Andrew L. Smith, vice-president of Truth Verification, Inc., was quoted, “Under the right conditions we can verify if a person is telling the truth. But we can’t determine whether he’s lying.” 7Houston Chronicle, Nov. 29, 1964. 8The New York Times Magazine, Jan. 24, 1065. 9The New Ybrk Times, June 18, 1964. loReport, Committee on Government Operations, U.S. House of Representatives, Government Printing Of f i c e, Washington, March 22, 1965. See also, for details, Hearings before a Sub-committee of this committee, four volumes, G.P.O., 1964. the sales tax this session. “I’m unalterably opposed to raising the sales tax over 2% this session,” he said. What about salestaxing groceries, which are now exempt? “I’m against that, too. Drugs, too. I’m opposed to drugs, groceries, or going above 2%.” Presumably the clause, “this session,” was meant to apply to these three positions. Furthermore, he indicated, he’s probably opposed to the pending bill to exempt telephone companies from the gross receipts taxes they pay and replacing the lost. revenue by sales-taxing telephone bills. “What you’re doing is, you’re shifting the taxes from the corporation, the producers, and putting them on the telephone users,” he said, sounding quite like a liberal on the point. In what way, he was asked, was this different from what he approved two years ago, sales-taxing work clothes while reducing taxes on the sulphur companies? The reason for that, he said, was competitive changes in the sulphur industry: “This was not a move to help any company.” The governor apparently wanted to persuade the appropriations conferencees to reduce the amount of spending they had reportedly agreed on, yet he never said this was his purpose. He just said that he had heard rumors that appropriations as approved at that point were “millions and millions” above available general revenue; that this general revenue had increased $200 million, about 50%, over that available two years ago ; and that the spending bill’s being so large was therefore “incredible” and “unbelievable to me.” He thought, if the conferees couldn’t do better than that, the House-Senate conference committee should be limited in the future to adjusting differences between the two chambers and deprived of their present power \(they just write what they want, without being bound by the limits set by was not recommending the legislature change its rules. Yet, was the idea in the background. THUS THE GOVERNOR raised the prospect of new business taxes and of reducing the power of the Team in the legislature over the appropriations bill unless spending the legislators had agreed upon for state services was cut back. Beyond that, he reminded the reporters that he had line-item vetoed $12 million from last session’s spending bill. He would fight for more spending for literacy education, public school teachers’ salaries, junior colleges, technical education, and college salaries, he said in this context, his veto in 1963. One of the most revelatory moments came when the governor was asked how he felt about the bill, passed by the Senate but not, at that point, by the House, to authorize him to appoint one out-of-state person to each governing board of Texas higher educational institutions. He thought it was excellent, he said. Asked for examples of the kind of people he would appoint from out-of-state, \(“Dwight Eisenhower?” asked somebodybut he did not top of his head: Robert Anderson, Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Treasury and presently head of a presidential commission to select the site for a new Atlantic-Pacific canal. C. R. Smith, “who,” the governor said, “built the American Airlineshe’s chairman of the board of American Airlines.” Tex Thornton, chairman of the board of Lytton Industries. Dell Brackett, “chairman of the Board of Humble Oil Co. and a graduate of Texas A&M.” These four, he said, were “examples of the type of individuals . . from which we could draw.” \(Frank Erwin, vice-chairman of the University of Texas board of regents and the governor’s Democratic national committeeman from Texas, was in attendance at this The four-year term for statewide officials came up. Did he have any thought of taking advantage of it, himself? He grinned broadly. “I am extremely strong for a four-year term for statewide officials,” he said. “It has no application to me, really, it’s not a personal feeling in that sense, but I am very strong for it.” He had changed his position since 1962, had he not? “Yes, I’d say I have,” he said. “I think I would have changed anyway, but I think conditions have changed substantially.” When he first began running he thought the primary would be the end of it, but he had to run eleven months, he said. He was terribly rushed planning the inaugural and preparing the legislative program from November to January, he recalled. Since then, he said, there have been “very substantial” changes in the governor’s office, namely, the new federal programs requiring state planning, coordination, and administration. He spoke of the poverty program, the higher education facilities act, the elementary education act, and “many others.” “It is going to become increasingly difficult to administer the affairs of this office,” he said. If medicare passes it will affect the Kerr-Mills state program, and Congress is considering legislation on pollution control and is deep into mental health and retardation. Four-year terms will be necessary “if you expect to have The Governor’s Mood