Page2-Wednesday, September 12, 1979-The Michigan Daily
Bullard pushes rent deposit bill

New tax proposal
lauded by Uliman

By WILLIAM THOMPSON
Although University students are
familiar with Ann Arbor's inflated
housing rents, Michigan tenants are
being fleeced by another rental fee, ac-
cording to State Rep. Perry Bullard (D-
Ann Arbor) - security deposits.

Bullard has proposed a bill which
would require landlords to pay interest
to tenants on security deposits. The Ann
- Arbor Democrat claimed tenants lose
buying power if a landlord takes a fee
when a lease begins and holds it until
the lease expire.
"DAMAGE DEPOSITS are not rent
payments," said Bullard. "They
remain the property of the tenant. The
value of this property, including in-
terpst, should be returned to the tenant
when the tenant moves.''
Under the plan, landlords would still
be able to withhold repayment of
deposits as a charge for damages. The
remainder wouldbe returned to tenants
together with interest payments mat-
ching standard savings accounts.
"The principletaddition made by this
bill is the interest on deposits," Bullard

loin the
Busines
Staff

said. "Tenants would earn the passbook
rate of interest."
"THE MOST important thing studen-
ts can do (to help the bill get passed) is
a kind of reverse lobbying," Bullard
said. "They can write to their parents'
hometown legislators."
While Bullard said he views tenant
students as "a natural network" for
working in support of the bill, he war-
ned that landlords are organized in op-
position.
"Essentially, anybody in apartment
ownership is opposed to the bill," said
Bullard, "and they are becoming better
organized." He said real estate lobbies
would succeed in defeating the bill
unless legislators received pressure
from tenants.
The bill, according to Bullard, has
been referred to the House Consumers'
Committee which will take it up OcT
tober 2 and should come to the floor
later that month.

WASHINGTON (AP)-A new tax,
called a value added tax, could be in
place within two years to raise up to
$150 billion as a partial substitute for
other taxes, the chairman of the House
Ways and Means Committee said
yesterday.
Rep. Al Ullman (D-Ore.) said the
value added tax, called VAT, could help
solve the problem of financing the
nation's Social Security retirement
system. However, he stressed that VAT
would not increase the overall tax bur-
den for Americans.
"WE DON'T want one dollar of new
taxes for the American people under
today's conditions," Ullman said. He
spoke at a seminar on VAT sponsored
by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
here.
Money raised through VAT would be

PROJECT OUTREACH'
Psychology 201
Experiential Learning In:

Bullard
.. challenges security deposits

NO AGREEMENT ON WAGE DEMANDS:
UAW outlines strike strategy

used to offset cuts in other types of
taxes, such as Social Security. For
example, while VAT would be paid by
people who buy. products, Social
Security tax is paid by workers and
their employers.
VAT is a tax on the value that
producers add to goods, and is paid at
various stages of manufacturing;
However, the total tax is ultimately
paid by the consumer at the time of
purchase, similar to a sales tax.
WHILE ' ULLMAN said he would
discourage providing exemptions from
the VAT, he said it may be possible to
justify excluding food purchases from'
the tax.
Ullman objected to te description of
VAT as a sales tax. One objection to
VAT comes from states which now rely
on sales taxes as a major source of
revenue and fear the VAT would make
state sales taxes inoperable.
Ullman said the Ways and Meant
Committee will hold hearings on the
proposed tax in October. While he said
it's unlikely the tax could be approved
for 1980, it is quite possible it could be id
place by 1981.-.
HE SAID A major reason for moving
ahead quickly with a value added tax is
the need to provide new financing foi
the Social Security system. Present
financing through payroll taxes is "a
major political embarrassment" and
also is a drag on the overall economy.
he said.
It is "inevitable" that a VAT tax take
up part of the burden for Social
Security, he said.
VAT is in operation. in various form$
in a number of European countries.
Ullman said that in the United States
the value added tax would have to bq
part of an overall package of tai
changes. "The VAT on its own would go
nowhere," he said.
MSU study
says PBB
hazard may

Child Care
Hospitals

Mental Health
Handicaps


Aging Personal Growth an,
other Community Services
If Interested: Come To-
OUTREACH MASS MEETING
WED. SEPT. 12
7 PM-HILL AUDITORIUM

d

DETROIT (UPI) - The United Auto
Workers union, which has outlined a
selective strike strategy against
General Motors Corp., said yesterday it
is making good progress toward a con-
tract settlement.
The union warned, however, that
there is still no agreement on major
money demands.
A final intense effort to reach a con-
tract settlement was anticipated as a
midnight Friday strike deadline
loomed closer.
IF THERE is no agreement, the UAW
said it will call a selective walkout by
95,000 GM employees at, 46 assembly
plants and parts warehouses around the
nation.
UAW Vice President Irving

Bluestone said there has been some
success in bargaining subcommittee
meetings which have worked to resolve
dozens of key issues.
"There is movementin practically all
of the subcommittees, both on the part
of the company and the union, so that
the differences are narrowing down,"
Bluestone said.
"BUT THERE has been no response
on the major economic issues as yet,"
he said.
UAW President Douglas Fraser said
GM bargainers now have control of the
pace of the talks and the union can do
nothing but wait for responses to key
demands including wages, pensions,
paid time off and dozens more dealing
with daily contract operations.

"I'm not concerned we'll run out of
time," Fraser said. "If we keep
progressing as we have in the last
couple of days, we'll be ready to tackle
the big issues."
GM negotiators declined to brief
reporters on the progress of the talks.

The Corps of Engineers dredges
about 240 million cubic yards of
sediment from the Mississippi River
each yar. This is enough to cover
Delaware with a layer more than an in-
ch thick, according to National
Geographic.

Questions: Call 764-9179
or come to 554 Thompson St.

MENEM

. e

be greater
for humans

11


. . . ii r

0

DETROIT (AP)-Foods contami-
nated by the fire retardant PBB may be
more toxic to humans than the origina
chemical that farm animals ate in their
feed, according to a study published
yesterday.
The Michigan State University study;
using minks as subjects, attempted to
simulate the manner in which up to nine
million Michigan residents became
contaminated' by at least some of the
synthetic retardant.
AFTER FEEDING the minks meat
from PBB-poisoned cows and chickens,
researchers discovered that tho
metabolic processes of the con
taminated animals made
PBB-polybrominated biphenyl-nore
toxic when the minks, themselves, were
later eaten by other animals.
"But it's difficult to extrapolate and
say what this study means to humans,"
warned Dr. Robert Ringer, co-author of
the study.
The study was financed by a grant
from Michigan Farm Bureau Serr
vices, Inc., which .in May 1973
mistakenly distributed PBB-
contaminated feed to farmers
throughout Michigan.
SEVERAL THOUSAND pounds of the
chemical were accidentally added to
livestock feed.
Studies have estimated that just
about all Michigan residents have some
PBB in their blood and tissue.
In the university experiment, report
ted in yesterday's Detroit News, minks
eating contaminated meat displayed
more severe signs of PBB poisoning
than minks consuming pure PBB.
SYMPTOMS AMONG groups of
minks were similar, however, and in-
cluded drastic weight loss, emaciation,
food rejection, growth retardation,
reproductive malperformance, and
other ailments.
Ringer and his co-researcher,
Richard Aulerich,.reported that minks,
fed diets of as little as 6.25 parts per
million of the chemical, died within ten
months. Diets containing 2.5 parts per
million were enough to affect the size,
weight, and survival of offspring, the
scientists said.
PBB levels higher than 6.25 parts per
million have been discovered in foods in
the human food chain, but the amount
of individual exposure to PBB is not
known.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
(USPS 344-900)
Volume LXXXX, No.6
Wednesday, September 12, 1979
is edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan. Published
daily Tuesdai~v through giindiv imornt,

r

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