ustxtxb_obs_1976_01_16_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

Cis ,p ,-, 7, 4rogeegeopoc.. Political Intelligence Charles Schnabel, veteran secretary of the Texas Senate, has been indicted on two counts of theft and one of official misconduct. The theft charges relate to incidents in 1971. Schnabel had the name of Joe Lundell, an Austin parking lot owner, put on the Senate payroll, drew two checks worth $771, and turned them over to Lundell allegedly to pay off a private obligation. Schnabel also had Phil Landrum, a camera dealer, put on the Senate payroll and then turned over the $385 paycheck to Landrum to pay a personal debt. The official misconduct charge stems from Schnabel’s use of Frank Smith, a Senate print shop employee, to work on Schnabel’s ranch while Smith was being paid by the state. Schnabel’s lawyers are Charles Bur ton and Roy Minton of Austin. According to Minton and Burton, Schnabel used the phony paychecks to pay off Senate debts in what amounted to a merely technically incorrect accounting method. The debt to Lundell was supposedly for parking spaces for Senate secretaries while the debt to Landrum was supposedly for camera equipment for Senate photographers. On Jan. 5, the Texas Senate decided by an 18-13 vote to keep Schnabel on as Senate secretary pending his trial. However, Schnabel can no longer hire, fire or spend state money without the consent of a committee chairman. Atty. Gen. John Hill announced he was joining the investigation of Schnabel’s office and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby announced that he approved of Hill’s move. Dj vu There will be a $250-a-ticket fun draiser for Dolph and Janey Briscoe at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas Jan. 12. The proceeds are to pay off Briscoe’s “remaining campaign deficits,” according to Jess Hay, the governor’s Dallas money man. The Dallas Times Herald went to considerable trouble to try to find out exactly what Briscoe’s campaign deficit was, but neither Hay nor anyone else contacted by the Herald could come up with a figure. “It is possible the money will go directly to Briscoe to repay the governor for personal 8 The Texas Observer 44114I `loans’ he made to his own campaigns going back to 1968,” Ron Calhoun reported in the Herald. Briscoe could owe himself as much as a million dollars, Calhoun concluded. The theme of the Fairmont affair will be “An Evening of Affirmation.” In another story, the Times Herald re ported that most of the $405,000 raised at Briscoe’s controversial 1973 dinner in Austin, the dinner that prompted Sissy Farenthold to file suit, has finally been turned over to Briscoe to pay off old campaign debts. Feminist readers may be interested to know that Texas House Speaker Billy Clayton has named a new Subcommittee on Status of Women. The all male group includes Reps. Michael Ezzell, Felix McDonald, and Bob Vale. The Texas Manufactures Association held a press conference and released a study commissioned by the Illinois Manufacturers Association that concludes that Texas has the best “business climate” in the nation. Illinois didn’t do anything with the study because it turned out that Illinois doesn’t have all that great a business climate. Texas got good grades for such things as proximity to markets, transportation, and natural resources. TMA President Bill Gray used the study as an opportunity to dump on proposals to institute a corporate profits tax in Texas. When questioned by the press, however, he admitted that the Illinois study didn’t bother to mention Texas’ lack of a corporate income tax. The Texas AFL-CIO is proposing that Texas’ next big tax be a corporate profits tax. In response to Gray’s press conference, AFL-CIO President Harry Hubbard wrote Gray a letter. It said in part: “Your proclamation that Texas is No. 1 in ‘business climate’ is the best argument imaginable for a state corporate profits tax. Because of the good ‘business climate’ this is the perfect time for the Legislature to require our state’s corporate citizens and their stockholders to pay their fair share of the cost of state government.” Hubbard went on to point out that al though the state has the No. 1 business climate, it has more people living below the poverty level than any other state; it is No. 50 in expenditures for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded; and it is No. 32 in per capita income. “It would appear that all the fruits of this ‘business climate’ do not accrue to all of the people of Texas,” Hubbard said. Or even the biennium James McCrory of The San Antonio Express-News has given S.A. Rep. G. J. Sutton the paper’s “Politician of the Year” award for browbeating the state into buying the Perry Shankle Building, a derelict foundry only two blocks from Sutton’s own place of business, a mortuary. The Legislature appropriated $750,000 for the complex of buildings, but no funds for its renovation or maintenance. Social note: the lead debutante repre senting the United States at the International Debutante Ball in New York City Dec. 30 was Cele Briscoe, the governor’s younger daughter. Her escort was a New Yorker who goes to Princeton. Janey Briscoe was honorary co-chairman of the ball. The governor himself surfaced re cently to offer some original thoughts on education. He says education means the ability to get a job. He said Texas colleges and universities are providing only “socalled higher education” because some of their graduates can’t get jobs after they get out. On the other hand, those who graduate from Texas State Technical Institute “have jobs waiting for them upon graduation.” It’s hard to dispute the so-called governor. voted with the majority for the Tunney amendment denying further financial assistance to Angola. An aide to Bentsen told Capitol Hill News Service that the senator “wants to hear the administration’s case before committing funds.” John Tower \(Rvoting to continue funneling money to antiCommunist forces in Angola. Over in the House, Rep. Charlie Wilson International Relations Committee, said he thinks the United States should “do everything we can” to counterbalance Soviet efforts in Angolashort of direct military