ustxtxb_obs_1976_07_16_50_00012-00000_000.pdf

GMr .A.4 At 12 The Texas Observer MARTIN ELFANT SUN LIFE OF CANADA LIFE HEALTH DENTAL 600 JEFFERSON SUITE 430 HOUSTON, TEXAS La Fonda de ta Noche Southwestern Cuisine Liberal. Food Conservative Prices 2405 Nueces *V, 474-7562 watch subsequent issues for .. . BILLIE CARR REPORTS Paid Pol. Adv. by Billie Carr Expense Fund 2418 Travis, Houston, Texas. Bob and Sara Roebuck Anchor National Financial Services 1524 E. Anderson Lane, Austin bonds stocks insurance mutual funds optional retirement program we print with the union 15 Also: Multi-copy service Lecture notes Collegiate Advertising 901 W. 24th St., Austin 477-3641 Call Today! sion of highway funds to the DPS. Another revenue source “supported but not emphasized” by the TGR/TA is a state sales tax on auto parts with the revenue earmarked for highway construction. The motor fuel tax is constitutionally dedicated-75 percent to highways and 25 percent to the available school fund. It might take lobbying by the Good Lord himself to get Texas voters to change the formula, especially at a time when legislators are beginning to accept the idea that the state should take on a greater share of the cost of public education. Still, the roads lobby is going to give it a try. As one observer put it, “Our students might be illiterate, but they’re going to travel to school on some damn fine roads.” Participants in one panel discussion predicted that if the highway funding crisis is not resolved, ‘Texas will have no funds to finance independent state highway construction projects by 1981. By 1982, the panel members said, the state would have insufficient funds to match new federal grants, and by 1985, it won’t have the money to match old federal grants. The TGR/TA members took time out from their deliberations on the future of the state highway system long enough to pass a resolution opposing proposed amendments to the federal Clean Air Act which are designed to forestall further deterioration of air quality in areas already considered polluted. These amendments, the resolution states, “would severely restrict economic growth in Texas…. We are opposed to this unreasonable and unjustified effort of the By Steve Wisch Fort Worth Good things just seem to last longer in Tarrant County. Like the Fat Stock Show, the Fort Worth Press, and more than a few of its public officials, things die more slowly here. The brouhaha over who will become the first black to represent Tarrant County in the Legislature is no exception. Yes, even though the May primary and June run-off have come and gone, even though the Democratic nominee in District 32-H will have no Republican opponent come November, there are still no safe bets on which of two candidates will break the color barrier. Will it be Bobby Webber? He appeared to have won the run-off by 61 votes, despite the fact that a Tarrant County grand jury indicted him a week before the election for federal bureaucracy to usurp the prerogatives which belong to state and local government and to the individual citizen.” “That damn EPA,” muttered one member before a vote on the resolution was called. “It’s just taking away the freedom of America.” “And that’s for damn sure,” another member concurred. “Hear, hear,” added a third. The Good Roads members were not impressed with a proposal by Federal Highway Administrator Norbert T. Tiemann. He called for the creation of a federal Surface Transportation Administration funded by excise taxes of $3 and $4 per barrel, respectively, on domestic and imported crude oil. Tiemann, a former governor of Nebraska, said his administration is considering a surface transport agency to oversee “at least partial unification” of highway, transit, rail, struction. Through this agency, the federal government would attempt to fund different forms of transportation according to overall need and efficiency, he said. Accordingly, the federal highway trust fund would be dissolved. The TGR/TA members responded to Tiemann’s proposal by approving a resolution which supported the federal highway trust fund and opposed using any of its funds to finance other modes of transportation. As one Good Roads man explained, “We consider our problem here in Texas serious, but we don’t think it’s bad enough yet for the federal government to come in and start meddling around. After all, it’s still our state and our roads.” 111 falsely posing as an incumbent. Or will it be Leonard Briscoe? A former Fort Worth city councilman, he attended the 1972 Republican National Convention as an alternate and then filed as a Democrat this time. Briscoe is generally conceded to be the black that Fort Worth establishment types would most like to see represent the district. On July 1, Dist. Judge Charles J. Murray, in response to a lawsuit brought by Briscoe, declared that 114 of the absentee ballots were “void and invalid.” Unfortunately for Webber, 107 of the void votes had been marked for him. The votes in question belonged to residents of nursing homes owned by Webber. \(His family also runs a funeral were illegible. , z The absentee ballots, ruled Murray, didn’t meet the strict exactitude of the state’s election cod4, The code provides Tarrant County politics Briscoe v. Webber