ustxtxb_obs_1987_03_20_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

Pho to by Te rry Fitz Pa tr ic k or saved up income. Now, as to what a corporation will do when a corporate income tax is imposed, the efficient ones will not pass it on, because they will want to hold their market shares. Now in some industries I would even suspect that the introduction of a corporate profits tax would be welcome by the ones who have the larger market shares it would shake out the weak ones. And my feeling is, and I think this can be supported, that the tax least likely to be passed on to the consumer would be a corporate profits tax and of course Amarillo, Hereford THE SCENE WAS Hereford’s community center. About 800 angry residents had gathered for a briefing on plans to test Deaf Smith County for America’s first high-level nuclear waste dump. The tension built as the room filled with people. Almost everyone wore stickers saying, “Don’t Waste Texas.” Reporters and photographers were busy working the floor. “You need a shotgun instead of that,” one farmer said to me, pointing at my camera. “That won’t stop ’em,” he said. “A shotgun will.” And so went the reception for scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy. February town-hall briefings in Amarillo, Hereford and Vega quickly turned into confrontations between federal officials and frustrated crowds. An effigy of a DOE bureaucrat swung from a tree outside the Hereford community center as audience member Ralph Diller spoke his mind. “I think the people here would like to climb right in your face and tell you what they think of you and do what is happening outside, the effigy hanging in a tree,” Diller told DOE project manager Jeff Neff. Deaf Smith County is one of three sites scheduled for dumpsite testing over the next five to seven years. The DOE plans to spend about $1 billion and employ about 1000 workers to test the region’s bedrock and study how an underground repository would affect the area. Terry FitzPatrick, a television reporter in Amarillo, is a regular Observer contributor. a personal income tax can not be passed on to anybody. But again, in conclusion, all taxes are income taxes and we ought to be saying that. Glickman: Well I think in the end that’s right. Ultimately it’s individuals who pay taxes. I think that if we’re going to diversify the economy away from oil, away from agriculture, and we need to do that desperately, we’re going to need to make some very serious major investments in this state in our people, in our young people. I’m not talking There’s no question that the project has affected local attitudes. “They’ve given people an opportunity to vent their anger, but it’s not going to change their tactics or opinion,” said George Drain of the Nuclear Waste Task Force opposition group. “I think it serves to indicate to people just how insensitive they [DOE] are, coming in here and saying, ‘We’re your neighbors and we’re your friendly government, we’re here to help you.’ People just take it for so much, it’s so much bull.” The DOE held quiet sessions with a dozen local governmental commissions and chambers of commerce. There is significant support in business circles for the dumpsite testing \(TO, the large public meetings set the tone for the week. DOE hung in effigy in Hereford high-tech, I’m talking the three R’s and trade schools and junior colleges. And if we’re going to diversify we need to make these various investments and we need to do them by raising more money and by raising it fairly . Because then people understand that they’re going to get something back from what they’re paying. If you raise it unfairly, then they are going to revolt as they do from time to time in localities as we said earlier. Simpson: Give us four years and put it to the people. I think we can win it.O “Contrary to what people might think,” said DOE spokeswoman Linda McClain, “we’re not surprised and we’re not disturbed by the reaction. We have not been down in the area doing meetings and talking with people for a long time so there’s certainly been a buildup of tension. The organization involved in expressing that anger and emotion was somewhat of a surprise.” The DOE tried to meet with local landowners, but most walked out of the meeting when they could not get a list of the land needed for dumpsite testing. Farmers then began talk of an economic i.catT D 1311″. statC \\ ,1.1 EA 6R JUti r a n “Uiri tik1141111 boycott of businesses that support dumpsite testing. The Nuclear Waste Task Force raised $25,000 while the DOE was in town, and national antinuclear organizers came to help unify the various opposition groups under one nationwide umbrella. “Be on notice,” warned Maine resident Bonnie Titcom of Citizens Against Nuclear Trash. “If and when you attempt to drive your first shovel into the ground in Texas or Nevada or Washington or Maine or New Hampshire or anywhere in this country, we’ll be there. For the risk and the negligence you represent is a threat to this entire nation.” The crowd of 350 inside Vega’s livestock arena roared, as the DOE’s Jeff Neff looked on. “Go to hell,” one farmer added in a loud voice. “In the old days, with the cowboys in this country, when somebody came in and wanted to tear up their land they either got hung up or buried beneath of it,” another upset farmer then said. “We may have to go back to the old philosophy.” One reason that this recent string of meetings touched an emotional nerve in the Panhandle is the growing rift between rural and urban business interests here. The DOE Gets an Earful By Terry FitzPatrick THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15