ustxtxb_obs_1978_10_20_50_00024-00000_000.pdf

FARM INCOME is the SAME in 1977-78 as it was in 1974 while the price we ALL pay is inflated by 33% UP OVER 200% ON SOME FARM ITEMS WM0 LMOB TO CHAN.. THAT TO KAMP 10/1011VMOOY MATINS Texas cr-A FarmersL AMA Union m. 800 LAKE AIR DR. WACO, TEXAS 76710 817 772-7220 THE COS PRICE Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701 Dia \(“Wile Blue dotters respond The Mod-Pros’ blue dots at the Democratic state convention \(Obs., were not a response to the Mod-Cons’ green ones. It was the other way around. Liberals have been using blue dots ever since Billie Carr organized the liberal caucus of the Democratic National Committee. This letter, however, is primarily to repudiate the Observer’s slander of Father Leon Flusche, who gave the invocation at the state convention. His dot was blue! Margaret Carter Fort Worth Unfair assessments? Your account of the special session was interesting \(Obs., I object strenuously to your having used the vote on Rep. Ron Waters’s substitute to the McLeod amendment to prohibit a state income tax \(your House vote No. bers’ views on that subject. It would have been more to the point to have used the vote to table the McLeod amendment, 25 to 114, with 11 members registering “present, not voting.” I was one of the 25 who voted to table, and resent having my viewpoint misrepresented. Also, the explanation of the motion to suspend the five-day notice rule to allow the constitutional amendments commitam a member of that committee which had met for three days preceding the special session. The suspension was requested solely to get answers from state “expert” witnesses who had been recalcitrant the week before, and it was fully explained that the public hearing would not commence until the following Monday. Certainly, the Observer is free to “agree” or “disagree,” but I would have expected a more realistic measure of assessment. \(And fairer: why wasn’t the Senate vote on final adoption used? Or, the Senate vote on SB 4, the bill to pro1 do agree with you that the special session was unnecessary, since all of the good provisionstruth-in-taxation, im proved homestead exemptions and a school-tax freeze for the elderly \(plus the exemption for disabled persons, which been accomplished in the regular session with a real leader in the governor’s office. Mary Jane Bode State Representative Austin course, but we stick by our choice of the Waters substitute as the key vote on the state income tax subject, since it offered the clearest chance to be recorded on whether corporate income ought ever to suspending the five-day notice rule, we rechecked our sources after receiving your letter and came up with the same finding: the general understanding among members on the floor was that it was a ramrod job. You and the other committee members may have been convinced that the suspension was a mere technicality, but that’s not the way it was perceived on the floor, nor did Von Dohlen’s explanation of the move give any such assurances. Maybe we’re just too cynical about Billy Clayton’s intencolleagues across the Capitol, we did include a Senate vote on corporate farmSenate vote on final passage of the “tax relief amendment because it was not the key cliff-hanger that it was on the House side. Eds. Regards I am touched by the kind comment Lawrence Walsh had about me in his temporary farewell to Texas. Newspaperman, combat cameraman in Vietnam, coalminer, mountain climber, hobo, Red Cross worker in Africa, good fellowhe touched our lives. I am an expert on Irish Catholics. There are only two kinds: the ones who go to Fordham and become FBI agents, and the ones who are just a little bit batty, love liberty, and have hell in their necks. Lawrence Walsh didn’t go to Fordham and he ain’t no FBI agent. Maury Maverick Jr. San Antonio IF YOU ARE an occasional reader and would like to receive The Texas Observer regularlyor if you are a subscriber and would like to have a free sample copy or a one-year gift subscription sent to a friend here’s the order form: SEND THE OBSERVER TO name address city state zip this subscription is for myself gift subscriptionsend card in my name sample copy onlyyou may use my name $14 enclosed for a one-year subscription bill me for $14 MY NAME & ADDRESS THE TEXAS OBSERVER 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701 24 OCTOBER 6, 1978