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o LXXXIXNo. 49 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, November 2, 1978 Ten Cents Fourteen Pages
Vol. XXXIX No.4
GOP
By KEITH RICHBURG
When Detroit attorney John Axe is cam-
paigning upstate in his race for University
Regetn, he finds that most people are not
even aware the job exists.
"A surprising number of people ask me
what a Regent does," Axe said, somewhat
dismayed. "They have no- idea what a
Regent does."
THE STATE elections commission hasn't
done much to clarify the position either. The
office is listed on the ballot incorrectly as
"Board of Regents," not by the correct title
of "Regents."
Axe and State Senator Gilbert Bursley
(Ann Arbor) are the Republican nominees
for the two University regent posts curren-
regent 1
tly held by Democrats Paul Brown and
James Waters.
Regents used to be elected in the spring,
along withall the state education posts, until
a 1963 constitutional convention tacked it on-
to the long November ballot. "They have
made this race totally anonymous," Axe
said. "There's nothing to focus on."
SO WHILE Axe is criss-crossing the state
trying to convince voters not to leave the
polling booths once they vote for governor
and U.S. Senate - regent is one of the last
offices on the ballot - his counterpart Bur-
sley is sitting back and hoping his name
recognition as the 18th district's state
senator for 14 years will pull him through.
pefuls d
And both men are hoping that Governor
William Milliken does well, so they can ride
in safely on his coattails.
Besides the fact that they both wore
Michigan "M" neckties to interviews at the
Daily, Axe and Bursley have different
political experiences and represent dif-
ferent brands of Republicanism. Bursley is
the veteran politico; Axe is the young
newcomer who has only touched the
periphery of party politics.
Bursley had already completed a masters
degree from Harvard Business School
before Axe was born. When Axe was a
University freshman, Bursley - then 43 -
was the American Consul in charge of the
averse
U.S. Information Agency
Cameroun and Angola.
in the Congo,
BURSLEY WAS elected to the State
House of Representatives in 1960 and reelec-
ted, in 1962. Axe graduated from Harvard
Law School in 1963.
In the state senate since 1964, Bursley
specialized in higher education and was
chairman of the Senate Education Commit-
tee for four years. He also served on the
school finance study committee.
Bursley says that his experience in the
state legislature makes him "better than
anybody around" to be a regent. In this time
of tax revolts, Bursley said, "It's crucial
that a regent have very close political ties
r..Bursley
Axe
See GOP, Page 2
..
Carter
igns bill
to raise
+ution aidr
- WASHINGTON (AP) - President
-arter signed legislation yesterday
aking more than one'million students
rom middle-income families eligible
or federal help to pay college tuition.
Carter also signed a bill authorizing
more than $50 billion to extend by five
ears the government's programs for
elementary and secondary education.
CARTER SAID the elementary and
condary education bill "opens up aid
to the most disadvantaged children."
"More than two million children will
e aided" in some of the nation's
rest areas, he said.
Health, Education and Welfare
ecretary Joseph Califano, whose
epartment will administer the
programs, told Carter the new laws
"make . you a great education
esIdent."
THE TUITION bill, passed in the
final hours of the 95th Congress, was.
n alternative to the controversial
tuition tax credit proposal that Carter
threatened to :eto. The new law will
ease th family income requirements
for grant andlan programs. .
Basic education grants, now limited
to families with annual incomes of less
than $16,000, will become available to
amilies with incomes up to $26,000,
depending on future appropriations.
Sponsors said this would make an ad-
tional 1.5 million students eligible.
Grants for students in lower-income
amilies will be increased. A student
rom a family with $14,000 income will
eligible for $1,$58 a year instead of
the present $462, for instance.
THE BILL ALSO lifts the family in-
ome requirement from a program un-
der which the federal government
assists in paying interest on guaranteed
loans for higher education. These are
now limited to families with incomes
below $25,000. Additional inducements
will be offered to lending institutions to
participate in the program. Under the
1slation extending education fun-
4jhg, state and local agencies are given
new ssistance to conduct programs for
eduationally deprived children in low-
jiome areas.
-gout 5.9 millionspupils in 90 percent
cot- The nation's school districts par-
tiaipate in these programs. More than
-billion has been set aside for the
prbgrams through 1983.
e legislation also extends a con-
troirersial program under which the
& ernment compensates school
(#itiicts for the loss of tax revenue
cpusea by large numbers of federal
employees or installations in a region.
Thursday
" Johannesburg City Council-
woman Janet Levine says
University divestiture from
South Africa would hurt the
nation's blacks. See story, Page
9.
* Yankees' star left-hander
Ron Guidry wins the Cy Young
award.See story, Page 13.
" Fierce fighting continues'
between Uganda and Tanzania
while Ugandian leader Idi Amin
claims he has annexed a 710-mile
..a«Q. U..# ....... .4....*. C
.
Carter offers
plan to stop
dollar slide:
By The Associated Press
President Carter rushed to the aid of the battered U.S. dollar
with drastic actions yesterday, including higher interest rates,
plans to borrow $30 billion in foreign money and an increase in
U.S. gold sales.
Carter said the two-year slide in the dollar, which has become
worse in the past few weeks, is unwarranted and must be stopped
because it "threatens economic progress at home and abroad
and the success of our anti-inflation program."
REACTION TO the administration measures was immediate
Doily Photo by MAUREEN O'MALLEY
CHRIS CRONE and Pam Tittle show off their new found friends, a Boston Fern and a Rubber plant, at yesterday's
Panhellenic Plant Sale in the Ballroom of the Union. The sale, proceeds of which will go to th Michigan Special Olym-
pics, continues through tomorrow.
Shoppers I
By MARY FARANSKI
What is an inexpensive investment
that is sure to grow daily and yield
lots of green for many years to come?
A plant, of course!
Plants of all sizes and species are on
sale today and tomorrow at the
Panhellenic Association's annual
plant sale in the Michigan Union
Ballroom, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The
variety of plants attracted a variety of
buyers at the opening yesterday.
SOPHOMORE Brian Ritchie was
shopping for what he hoped would be a
"unique" plant. "My room looks pret-
ty dead," he said. "I need something
to spruce it up."
Cheryl Byers, who was contem-
plating whether to buy a well-
It
eaf througi
endowed fern, had quite a different
problem, "My room already looks like
a jungle," she said.
A Venus Flytrap, which is known
for capturing and devouring flies,
managed to grab the attention of Jim
Coffield, who spent his time testing
the plant's reflexes while shoppers
perused the tables around him.
"THIS IS bizarre," he said. "Plants
are pretty neat."
Besides Venus flytraps and ferns,
the ballroom is also temporarily
housing cacti, African violets, ivy, or-
chids, and even orange trees.
The Panhellenics are hoping to sell
$45,000 worth of plants at the sale,
which began yesterday. Prices range
from 75 cents to $45 for a large cactus.
bargains
The plants are from Norton's
Greenhouse in Ypsilanti.
This year the profits from the sale
will go toward the Michigan Special
Olympics. The association expects to
make between $3,000 and $5,000. Mary
Law, a member of the Delta Delta
Delta sorority and a plant sale chair-
woman, cited an article by Joe Falls
in the Detroit Free Press last year
with giving them the idea of donating
the profits to the Olympics. "It was a
very moving article," she said.
The large, more expensive plants
seem to be the ones that are going the
fastest this year, according to Dennis
Norton, from Norton's Greenhouse.
Norton will be on hand during the sale
to answer questions about the plants.
and favorable. The dollar re-
gained some of its recent losses
against both the Japanese yen
and the German mark, and the
Dow Jones industrial average
rose 23 points in the first 90
minutes of trading on the New
York Stock Exchange.
The Federal Reserve Board's key
interest rate, the discount rate, was
raised by an almost unprecedented 1
percentage point to 9.5 per cent, a new
high that signaled yet another increase
in interest rates throughout the
economy.
Charles Hoffman, an economist with
the American Bankers Assocition, said
the increase also should "slow down the
growth of credit . . . slow down the
amount of goods that people are buying
and hopefully slow down the rate of in-
flation."
HOFFMAN SAID the boost in the
discount rate is a signal of what's in
store for other interest rates. Next, he
said, the board will probably allow an
increase in the interest rate banks
charge each other for borrowing
money. "That begins to spread
throughout the whole. . . of the money
markets."
As interest rates on other types of in-
vestments, like certificates of deposit,
rise because of the ripple effect of the
increase in the discount rate, the
amount of money available to savings
institutions will shrink.
"The home buyer now is in the
position of being out-competed for
money," said Kenneth Thygeson, the"
See CARTER, Page 8
Iran to'
reea
politie al
prisoners
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - In an ap-
parent move to curb strikes and stem
the tide of anti-government'riots,
Justice Minister Hussein Najafi an-
nounced yesterday that all political
prisoners in Iran will be freed Dec. 10.
Meanwhile, a strike by 37,000 oil
refinery workers cut Iran's huge oil ex-.
port flow by more than half even though
some employees of the National Iranian
Oil Co. began returning to their jobs.
The oil workers' demands include more
money and freedom for political
prisoners.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT that the
government would free the prisoners
came as reports poured into thecapital
of new strikes and more violent demon-
strations across the country.
Authorities said 23 anti-government
protesters were killed and at least 56 in-
jured in clashes with troops or suppor-
ters of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
in Zzarshahr, 348 miles northwest of
Tehran, and at Sannandej, 360 miles
See IRAN, Page 9
Tax proposals and you
State officials wary
By JULIE ROVNER
As election day draws ever closer, state officials are
gr6wing more concerned with the possible consequences of
the three controversial tax proposals, Tisch, Headlee, and
Voucher Plan, if they are approved by the voters.
The Tisch plan, brainchild of Shiawassee County Drain
Commissioner Robert Tisch, is loosely based on Califor-
nia's Proposition 13 and, if passed, would slash statewide
property taxes by 50 per cent.
THE HEADLEE plan would not cut taxes, but would limit
increases in state pending proportional to the increases in
statewide personal income and would require bonding
issues to be approved by the voters. The proposal would
also limit all types of tax increases, proportional to in-
flation.
The Voucher Plan would prohibit the use of property tax
revenues for school funding. Instead, the state would take
over the responsibilities for school funding by issuing a
voucher to each child of school age who could use it to at-
tend the school, public or private, of his or her choice. -
No one really knows what will happen if all three amen-
dments should pass. According to state law, if approved
and certified, the proposals would become officially part of
the constitution 45 days after the date of election.
IF, HOWEVER, the proposals were taken to court and
the court ruled that the amendments were not compatible
with each other, the one which received the most votes
would prevail, according to Howard McCowan, an election
specialist with the State Board of Elections.
"No one will say yet whether they conflict, because it's
a legal question and the courts won't touch it until they have
A2 may face cuts
By JUDY RAKOWSKY
Local government officials are not relishing the possible
aftermath of next Tuesday's vote on three state tax
proposals. But litigation may provide a much-needed delay
before they must deal with the intricate implications of the
plans that pass-if any do.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR Sylvester Murray charac-
terized his view of all three proposals in an address to the
Chamber of Commerce last week. "How many of you
believe in science fiction? That about sums up the state of
the art on the tax proposals on the November ballot." He
later pondered the task before him and said, "It's times like
these that I wonder why I'm in this business."
Mayor Louis lelcher said recently, "Tisch (Proposition
J) does everything I hate in government: it's a simplistic
solution that will in the long-run detract from the voters'
ability to govern themselves." He added that he does sup-
port the Headlee (Proposition E) amendment, and opposed
the voucher plan (Proposition H).
City Assessor Wayne Johnson and the Michigan
Assessor's Association agree with the mayor's viewpoint on
the proposals.-
CONSIDERING THE possible effects the Tisch
plan would have on Ann Arbor, Murray said he would
not predict how many people might be laid off or project
where the city will find money to compensate for property
revenue losses. However, Murray was willing to outline the
spending priorities he would impose when faced with the
cut of one-fifth of the city's operating budget of about $23
million that the Tisch plan could necessitate.
His number one priority is debt service payments, which
AATA seeks loans
from local banks
BY JEFFREY WOLFF
The Ann Arbor Transportation
Authority (AATA) resolved last night to
seek over one and a half million dollars,
in short term loans from local banks.
The loans are needed to cover deficits
for this current fiscal year until AATA
begins to receive its Federal Operating
Assistance Grants, totaling over two
million dollars, in March.
Richard Beaupre, AATA board
treasurer, said "The problem is a cash
flow problem and not a budget one"
since federal grants provide for ap-
proximately 30 per cent of AATA's
current $6,478,474 budget but do not
arrive till late in the fiscal year.
AATA controller Mary Jill Ault said
that the problem is not new; "This hap-
pens every year." Last year, similar
circumstances forced AATA to take out
approximately $900,000 in loans which
were paid back at 4.9 per cent interest.
ONLY $1.2 million will be outstanding
at any time since Federal money
arriving in March will repay the initial
$1.2 million loan before AATA seeks its
additional $325,000 in April, Beaupre
said. AATA intends to have all the loans
repaid by the end of this fiscal year in
June.
The board approved further AATA
negotiation for leasing space on the
main floor of the Benz building on Four-