ustxtxb_obs_1984_07_13_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS and Associates 2306 Lake Austin Blvd. Austin, Texas 78703 REALTOR 4! Representing all types of properties in Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty b 477-3651 BEHIND THE TARPON INN PORT ARANSAS OPEN DAILY Life Insurance and Annuities Martin Elfant, CLU Sut;re 4223 Richmond, Suite 213, Houston, TX 77027 OF CANADA v When Mark White included in his expanded call the transfer of funds from the Public Utility Commission to the looked like OPC director Jim Boyle would be getting some of the money he needs to expand his staff to take on an expanded agenda fighting utilities on behalf of Texas consumers \(TO, met little resistance in the Senate and was geared for a swift run through the House Appropriations Committee. But the process shorted out when House Speaker Gib Lewis, instead, sent the bill to the State Affairs Committee, where it barely passed, 5-4, leaving it three short of the votes needed for a committee recommendation to the full House with just three days to go before the end of the special session. What a friend the the utilities have in Lewis. V In his June 21 press conference, Governor Mark White speculated that large growers in California were responsible for the Panetta amendment to the Simpson-Mazzoli bill. The amendment provides for the reinstitution of the bracero program in the agricultural industry with few requirements concerning the availability of a domestic work force to do the work for which these “guestworkers” are shipped in. Said White, “I don’t think we need guestworkers in Texas.” V During the state Senate debate on the composition of the State Board of Education, Sen. Buster Brown \(R-Lake of the board by a plurality. Oscar Mauzy Jesse Jackson were in agreement on such things. “You and Jesse Jackson [also] agree that black people and white people should be treated differently,” Mauzy said during the Saturday evening session in the Senate. “Only you won’t agree on how they’ll be treated.” Mauzy said that if Jackson and Brown drove around the state campaigning together, “I have a hunch. Reverend Jackson will be in the back seat and you will be in the front seat.” During the same debate, Sen. John lobby pressure for an appointed board replied: “If you want to avoid those pressures, I suggest you get into another line of work.” V The proposal to institute a corporate income tax in Texas got a smattering of votes in the special session. Sixteen House members voted to tax corporations with over $10.000 in profits, and twelve members voted to tax milliondollar corporations. Co-sponsor the tax would raise three-and-a-half billion dollars. She doesn’t buy the argument that it will drive corporations out of Texas. “Forty-six other states have it,” she said, “where they gonna run to?” V In one of the many oratorical high points of the special session, state Rep. appealed to his colleagues’ consciences not to raise taxes on cigarettes. “Think of the people who enjoy smoking,” he said. “These are people who are oftentimes poor people, with low incomes, and for many this is the only pleasure they will enjoy all day.” The House went ahead and raised the tax on cigarettes by two cents a pack. V Digging into his bag of political tricks, President Reagan recently pulled out what appeared to be a real rabbit when he used the report “A Nation at Risk” to claim that the report recommended tuition tax credits for private schools, merit pay for teachers, prayer in public schools and dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. But, according to Dr. Anne Campbell, a member of the panel responsible for the report, the rabbit turned out to be an illusion. The report made no such recommendatons. Campbell, who is also a conservative Republican, accuses Reagan of attacking public schools in order to further his own political agenda, all the while ignoring concrete panel proposals. Reagan’s claim that his administration is reforming education by focusing on violence, drop-out rates and truancy is more window-dressing. As the Oklahoma Observer put it, “The violence report released by the Reagan administration was based on shockingly out-of-date data that even Reagan’s supporters in education repudiated. The administration is actually increasing the drop-out rate due to cutbacks in programs for slow learners and poor children. The truancy ploy is the latest rabbit out of the White House hat but educators say they don’t know what it means.” Correction In its June 29, 1984 article “Congress Considers Salvador Refugee Bill,” the Observer got Rep. name wrong. complete personal and business insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY . 808-A East 46th P.O. Box 4666, Austin 78765 Ronnie Dugger: “Heard’s accounts of the Bees in hiding are the pure gold of real history.” Bryan Woolley \(Dallas Times “It ought to be right beside the Alamo books.” “The Miracle of the KILLER BEES: 12 Senators Who Changed Texas Politics” by Robert Heard Honey Hill Publishing Co. 1022 Bonham Terrace, Austin, Texas 78704 $7.95 plus $1.03 tax and shipping THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19