Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1981-11-24

              STATE HISTORICAL .'. . CIST7 SZ
HITT & LC'tfRY HT . ' '' '
COLUMBIA. UO. 65201
7lili oar N'o. ftl (; HMI Morning! ltTiua. Novc- mlx- r 24. Ml 2NtIm. i.- h- l I'iio 2.: Mif. " " Reagan gets his way on budget
WASHINGTON ( UPI) - President Rea-gan,
wielding the veto for the first time,
Monday blocked what he called a " budget- buster- "
emergency money bill and won con-gressional
approval of a stopgap measure
delaying the spending battle for nearly a
month.
Reagan signed the revised $ 400- billi- on
stopgap spending program into law less than
12 hours after vetoing a $ 427.9- billio- n con-gressional
compromise worked out over the
weekend.
The president also made the dramatic ges-ture
of beginning to shut down the govern-ment
on grounds there was no money for
anything but essential services a move
that threw the bureaucracy into confusion.
The impasse arose because Congress has
yet to approve any of the major appropria-tions
to keep the government running
through this fiscal year.
Reagan won a key victory in the long- ru- n
ning battle of the budget by persuading both
the House and Senate to continue govern-ment
funding at existing levels through Dec.
15, instead of Feb. 3 as House Democrats had
sought as an alternative to the vetoed mea-sure,
which would have run through July 15.
Several members of Congress said approv-al
of the three- wee- k stopgap was as much a
sign of Congress' desire to go home for the
Thanksgiving holiday as it was a major win
for Reagan.
But in wielding his veto against the
" continuing resolution," Reagan raised the
stakes in the spending stuggle. Announcing
his veto in a televised appearance Monday
morning, the president declared " these so- call- ed
stopgap ( resolutions) are budget- busters- ."
Reagan signed the law just after 5: 30 p. m.
GST and promptly began his Thanksgiving
holiday. He had delayed his scheduled Sun-day
departure for his California ranch to
challenge Congress in what he described as a
battle over " fiscal sanity."
Speaking to reporters as he left the White
House, Reagan made clear what was al-ready
known that the budget conflict was
only taking a holiday break.
" We must go back and do the work all over
again," he said, adding he was glad the holi-day
would not be disrupted for everyone.
" We are going to try to negotiate a ( final)
bill I can sign."
The scaled- dow- n continuing resolution
headed for Reagan's desk in late afternoon,
with defecting House Democrats giving the
president the one thing he held out for cur-tailed
spending authority only until Dec. 15.
On a vote of 221- 17- 6, the House where all
money bills must begin agreed to the De-cember
extension, the longest the president
would accept. Forty- thre- e Democrats sided
with Reagan on the date. No Republican
strayed from the president's fold.
The final House vote to send the bill to the
Senate was 367- 2- 6. ( The Missouri delegation
voted along party lines, except for Democrat
Ike Skelton, who sided with the president and
voted for the resolution. )
The accepted the resolution without
change on a vote of 88-- 1. Sen. Alan Cranston,
D- Cal- if., cast the lone vote against the mea-sure.
The new resolution which replaces an
emergency measure passed at the start of
the new fiscal year Oct. 1 sets the stage
for another crisis confrontation next month
unless Congress and Reagan settle on formal
appropriations laws.
Democratic defectors gave Reagan the
clout he needed to win the crucial House test
a vote to limit the stopgap bill to only
three weeks, rather than the three months
House leaders had proposed.
The leadership had sidestepped meeting
Reagan's veto head- o- n, avoiding a vote to
override it, and proposed instead the $ 400- billi- on
measure that was well below the re-ductions
the president sought.
However, the Democrats tried to make the
new version effective until Feb. 3 But Rea-gan
was adamant in not allowing Congress to
postpone resolution of the budget conflict
that long.
The emergency bill, designed to end the
fiscal crisis that began at 11: 01 p. m. CST Fri-day
when much of the government technical-ly
ran out of money, would allow federal de-partments
to reverse the " shutdown"
procedures that began Monday morning
Officials said about 400,000 government
employees out of a total federal payroll of
more than 4 million faced immediate unpaid
furloughs because of the budget impasse
About 75 percent of Uncle Sam's workers
were in no danger of layoff, however the
( See LAWMAKERS, P. 8A)
Anticipation
Oh, that's going to tickle. John Schuppan, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Dan Schuppan, 1213 Bradshaw Ave., has his bangs trimmed by
In town
today
9: 30 a. m. County Court
meets, court chambers, fifth
floor, County- Cit- y Building.
7: 30 p. m. " Getting Ready for
Cross- Countr- y Skiing," dis-cussion
with Fred Spnngsteel
and Marty Kardinal, Student
Center, 100 Hitt St , free and
open to the public.
7: 30 p. m. " The Third World
and the Crisis of Manage-ment,"
speech by Paul Wal-lace,
professor of political sci-ence,
free and open to the
public.
Index Business 6A
Classified 4- 5- B
Comics.....'. 6B
Opinion .... 4A
People.,., 5A
Sports..... 1- 2- B I
Weather 2A J
t
avid Wright
barber Raymond Sapp of Dutch's Barber and Styling, 1103 N
Providence Road.
JJO- Slffll-t
I Soviets ' kritik' American best seller
By Serge Schmemann
New York Times
MOSCOW What would a Soviet
publisher do with a novel that starts
off with disfigured corpses- i- n Cen-tral
Park, continues with dark in-trigues
involving city cops, FBI
agents, Russian detectives and Hol-lywood
starlets, and winds up with
everyone getting killed in a Moscow
suburb and the recovery of Coca- Co- la
concealed in Greek amphorae
( ancient jars) by the director of a
Soviet soda- po- p bottling plant?
Kirill Semn, writing recently in
Literatumaya Gazeta, the journal of
the Soviet Union of Writers, vows
that in the unlikely event that such
" rubbish" is ever written, " workers
at any of our publishing houses
would shove the author out by the
scruff of his neck, even at the risk of
subsequent explanations to the po-lice."
But the self- sam- e plot, Senin re-ports
with a tone of incredulity, but
with American and Soviet charac-ters
and locations reversed, has
made Martin Cruz Smith's " Gorky
Park" one . of the best- selli- ng novels
of 1981.
Senin's bitterly sarcastic review is
the first extensive Soviet examina-tion
of " Gorky Park," a mystery
novel about a Moscow detective
whose investigation of a bizarre
murder leads to an international in-trigue
involving the KGB, the FBI,
the New York City police, sable
smuggling and a host of killings The
book has been praised by some
American critics for the pace of its
action and for its effort to recreate
the atmosphere of Moscow life.
" Gorky Park" has not been trans-lated
into Russian, and not. many So-viet
citizens would have access to
the American edition. Literatumaya
Gazeta's attack, however, appears
intended less as a forewarning to po-tential
readers than as a retort to a
work perceived as a deliberate as-sault
on the Soviet Union. A book
that runs counter to national policy
is virtually unthinkable in the Soviet
Union, and many Soviet citizens as-sume
some form of similar control is
universal.
The real reason for the popularity
of " Gorky Park," Senin contends, is
not to be found in reviews, but " in
the logic of the American political
reality of recent tunes." The clea-rest
evidence in the Soviet review-er's
mind seems to be the . identity of
the novel's publisher, Random
House.
The chairman of Random House,
Robert L. Bernstein, is an outspoken
( See REVIEWER, P. 8A)
Local workers'
day uncertain
By Anne Voegtlm
Missourian staff writer
Monday was a day of rumor, spec-ulation,
confusion and finally relief
for Columbia federal employees
whose jobs drifted in limbo as Con-gress
and President Reagan jaw-boned
their way to a budget exten-sion
compromise
All but " essential" federal pro-grams
began Monday without oper-ating
money after Reagan vetoed a
continuing resolution passed by Con-gress.
In Columbia, workers at Tru-man
Veterans Hospital, the Division
of Social Security, the Postal Service
and other agencies considered essen-tial
by Reagan conducted business
as usual.
But the local General Services Ad--"
ministration planned to shift to a
skeleton crew today . At the Farmers
Home Administration state head-quarters
in Columbia, only seven of
31 employees were told to report to
work today. The Department of Ag-riculture's
Statistical Reporting
Service closed at noon Monday, and
Agricultural Stabilization and Con-servation
Service closed at 1 p m
While agencies received tele-grams,
teletype messages and phone
calls advising them how to deal with
a suspended budget. Congress and
the president worked their way to-ward
compromise.
Pat Berry, acting field office man-ager
for GSA in Columbia, said after
learning of the compromise. ' I
heard it on the news I'll have to lis-ten
again at 10 to see if that's what
he said We were told that if he ( the
president) signed it, we could go to
work."'
While she remembers other times
when Congress flirted with the fund-ing
deadline, this was different
' This is probably the first time a
president has said' he'll close down
the government," Mrs Berry ob- serv- ea.
George Thomas, an administra-tive
officer with FHA, expects agen-cy
employ ees to be on the job today .
" There's a general feeling that
we'll be back to work." he said after
hearing about the compromise
" We're fairly optimistic. We'll just
be waiting for the offlcial word "
Thomas said he, too, had been
through the continuing- resolutio- n
suspense before.
" But never to this degree," he
said ' Never before has anyone been
put on furlough. It affects people's
jobs and the paychecks they get. It
certainly could have a financial im-pact."
Shutdown
Woman's left singing
the wedding bell blues
Chicago Sun- Tim- es
CHICAGO Alicia Carbone just
wants to get to the church on time.
Unfortunately, the church is in Bil-bao,
Spain, and Miss Carbone's jour-ney
of love was blocked temporarily
by President- - Reagan's shutdown of
" non- essentia- l" government serv-ices.
" How can he call my wedding non-essential7"
Miss Carbone said.
" Carmelo will never believe me.
He'll think I have cold feet."
Carmelo Laborda, a chemist, is
Carbone's fiance and the wedding is
set for Thursday.
But Miss Carbone and a dozen oth-er
would- b- e travelers waiting out-side
the locked doors of the U. S.
passport office Monday morning
were out of luck at least for the
day.
The passport office was one of a
scattering of government agencies
closed here because of uncertainty
over federal funding.
Indignation was the common
theme among those waiting outside
the passport office, where a sign on
the locked door said, " Closed until
further notice."
Miss Carbone, 28, a medical tech-nician
from Akron, Ohio, and a na-tive
of Uruguay, said she became a
U. S. citizen just last Friday after liv-ing
in this country for 12 years
Although she plans to live in Spain
after her marriage. Miss Carbone
said she wanted the citizenship pa-pers
in case she ever wanted to re-turn
to the United States to live.
" But now I don't think I want to,"
she said.
The budget compromise agreed to
late Monday just may change her
mind providing another unforseen
turn of events does not keep her
from reaching Spain in time.
Gray sees reasons to raise city sales tax
ByJeanDubail
Missourian staff writer
City Manager Richard Gray thinks
a one- half- ce- nt increase in the city
sales tax might keep Columbia's
capital improvements program
healthy and at the same time allow a
rollback in property taxes.
Speaking Monday to about 250 peo-ple
at a Boone County Bank " Lunch
and Leam" program, Gray said the
higher sales tax would bring an addi-tional
$ 2.7 million into the city trea-sury
yearly. He said the increase
could allow the city to roll back prop-erty
taxes and support a $ 10.6 mil-lion
bond issue to maintain the mo-mentum
of the capital
improvements program.
Beyond the tax income needed to
service an estimated annual bond
debt of $ 1.2 million, Gray said, prop-erty
taxes could be lowered to 43
cents from 73 cents per $ 100 assessed
valuation.
Money not used for one of these
purposes would go into the general
operating budget.
Despite its " excellent" financial
situation, Gray said, the city has
reached the limit of its ability to pay
for capital improvements. Federal
and state grants, which until now
have paid for the bulk of capital pro-jects,
are being curtailed. The city
staff estimates that even if current
grant levels were maintained
which Gray said would be an opti-mistic
assumption the city would
still be $ 9 million to $ 11 million short
of projected capital needs for fiscal
years 1982 through 1986.
Gray's " shopping list" for projects
the bonds would help finance includ-es:
$ 5.7 million for street im-provements.
To this would be added
$ 2.3 million in special assessments to
owners of abutting property .
-'-- 1
- $ 2.5 million for parks and recre-ation,
including $ 1.5 milhon for a
community sw lmming pool.
$ 750,000 for runway im-provements
at Columbia Regional
Airport. To this would be added $ 6.7
million in grants from the Federal
Aviation Administration.
$ 700,000 for bridge im-provements.
- $ 500,000 for new tornado warn-ing
and other emergency commu-nications
equipment.
- $ 420,000 for public- safet- y pro-jects,
including a fire substation in
the southern part of the city.
Gray said all the projects might
not be feasible without new money
for the capital improvements.
" The luxury of pay- as- you-- go fi-nancing
is at an end," Gray said.
' What we need to do in this commu-nity
is look to other financing tech-niques."
He suggested issuing $ 10.6 million
in tax- exemp- t, 25- ye- ar general obli-gation
bonds. Raising revenue
through a bond issue has several ad-vantages
over paying for im-provements
out of general revenue
as funds became available. Gray
said.
He said the bonds would allow the
city to attack its capital im-provements
problems before they
become critical, while paying off the
work in dollars made cheaper by in-flation.
Additionally, the facilities
would be paid for as they were used,
and citizens would be able to vote
separately on each proposed project.
Gray said the city easily can af-ford
the additional debt. Its out-standing
general- obhgatio- n debt is
$ 700,000, a fraction of the $ 37.3 mil-lion
allowable under state law. ( A
city may incur debt worth up to one- fift- h
of its total assessed valuation.
Columbia's is about $ 190 million. )
The tax limiting Hancock Amend- -
- - J
ment would require Columbia voters
to approve or deny the sales tax in-crease.
Gray suggested that a refer-endum
could be held next y ear. pos-sibly
m April.
" Harry Truman used to say, " The
buck stops here,' " Gray said after
the meeting. " In this case it stops at
the polls. That's what the Hancock
Amendment is all about. "
He said the Apnl ballot also might
include proposed capital projects.
In response to a question from the
audience, Gray warned that if the
bond issue were approved but the
tax increase defeated, money to pay
off the bonds would have to come
from higher property taxes. He said
later such circumstances would be
unlikely, since approval of the bond
issue requires a two- thir- ds majority,
while the sales- ta- x increase requires
a simple majority.
Gray said he will present his plan
to the council at its Dec 5 meeting.