lLX I ArborMci- rdaJl 30 1
vol LXXXI, No. 57-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, July 30, 1971
Ten Cents
Twelve, Pages
Cityhi
By JONATHAN MILLER
tally News Analysis
LANSING - The city of Ann Arbor suf-
fered a major financial blow yesterday
with the passage in the Senate of the high-
er education appropriations bill.
No money was allocated in the appro-
priations for the continued subsidy by the
University for city provided police and
fire protection, a subsidy which has been
running at over $1 million per year.
Though the city and University lobby-
ists in the Capitol will strive to have at
least part of the subsidy added to the bill
when it reaches the floor of the House, the
most they can now hope for would be in
the range of $250,000, experts think.
Any increase in the University's general
rrt by '
fund budget is unlikely to exceed a half
million dollars, these experts say, and that
would probably be halved when the bill
went into conference.
The city's main hope yesterday was the
amendment offered by Senator Gilbert
Bursley (R-Ann Arbor), designed to re-
tain at least part of the subsidy for the
time being, with a gradual phasing out
of the payments over the next five years.
Sen. Bursley's plan, to allocate $500,000
this year, with subsequent reductions of
$100,000 per year, ending with an eventual
cutting off of payments entirely by 1976,
was soundly defeated when powerful Sen-
ate Appropriations Committee Chairman
Charles Zollar (R-Benton Harbor) told his
colleagues that the payments were unfair
unding
to the Michigan cities not receiving sub-
sidies from schools located within their
city limits.
For every one of the state supported
universities to pay such subsidies to their
respective local police and fire depart-
ments would cost the state $19 million a
year, Zollar told the Senate.
Despite the apparent rationale of Zol-
lar's arguments, city and University of-
ficials are unhappy.
"When you are operating a budget of
about $9 million a year-much of which is
for police and fire protection-the loss of
such a substantial amount of money all at
once is difficult. We had hoped that the
payments could have been reduced gradu-
See CITY, Page 10 Rob
bill
Senate
to 'U'
By JONATHAN MILLET
Special To The Daily
LANSING - The Unix
sity's general fund allo
tion passed its Se n
hurdle yesterday and he
ed for the House, as
upper chamber added
million to the Govern
recommended $307 mil
higher education approp
tions bill,
The Senate alloted thet
versity a total of $77.74 mil
up from the governor's rec
mended $76.31 million and
year's $73.50 million.
Deleted from the approp
tions was the $1.1 million
gives approval
appropriations,
R sidy the University has paid to ly be halved, however, when the
the city for police and fire pro- bill went into a House-Senate
ver- tection. conference.
ca- University President Robben The appropriation passed the
.ate Fleming, in an interview last Senate by a vote of 25-6.
'ad- night, said that though the gen- Among the opponents were
eral budget situation is still Sen. Gilbert Bursley (R-Ann
the "very tight," it was "a brighter Arbor), the Senate Democratic
$5 picture today than it was a little floor 1 e a d e r, Sen. Coleman
or's while ago when we didn't know Young (D-Detroit) and Sen.
lion about the tax bill and only had Jack Faxon (D-Detroit).
the governor's recommendation Sen. Bursley told the Senate
rla- to go on." he had voted against the bill
"We still have hopes for more because it contained no subsidy
Uni- in the House," he added how- to the city of Ann Arbor for
lion, ever. police and fire protection af-
om- It is thought that the House forded by the city to the Uni-
last will pass the bill, with a slight versity.
increase in funding for the Uni- Bursley's amendment, aimed
iria- versity. at maintaining the subsidy for
sub- Any such hike would probab- See SENATE, Page 10
SCHOOL FUNDING:
State measure aimed at ending
property tax, lifting income tax
Special to The Daily
LANSING - The House yester-
day voted to submit to voters this
November a constitutional
amendment designed to shift
school financing from property
taxes to income taxes.
The Senate, however, imme-
diately committeed the resolution
to what many observers feel to be
slow asphyixation in Sen. Robert
Richardson's (Saginaw) Judici-
ary Committee.
It had been thought the reso-
lution would be sent to the more
receptive Taxation Committee of
Sen. Harry DeMaso (R-Battle
Creek).
The measure, "House Joint
Resolution GG," passed by a 75-
31 vote after heated debate.
The bill would limit local mill-
Fighting pollution
A young man has his car undergo a free pollution test yesterday
in a program sponsored by the. Atlantic-Richfield Company, while
University smokestacks belch smoke in the background.
CITE 1817 TREATY
Indians threaten 'U' with suit
By JIM IRWIN
If the University Regents do not meet
requests to change the University's policies
towards the American Indian, the Great
Lakes Indian Youth Alliance may file suit
this fall against the University end the state.
According to Paul Johnson, associate di-
rector of the Alliance, which has about 300
members of all ages, the group has sent the
proposals to each Regent and several Uni-
versity and state officials calling for im-
proved educational opportunities for Ameri-
can Indians.
Johnson, now a grad student in the School
of Social Work, says the group has received
legal advice that the 1817 Treaty of Fort
Meigs, in which the Chippewa, Pottawato-
mie and Ottawa tribes ceded the land to the
"corporation of the college at Detroit,"
could serve as a basis for suing the Univer-
sity and the state for "at least a million
dollars,"
Johnson says that the suit, which would
be filed in the fall-if satisfactory changes
from present policies are not made, seeks
payment of $1 per acre, plus three per cent
compounded interest on the 1,920 acres.
Interest would be sought back to 1826,
when the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty.
The Alliance, however, is not interested
in land or cash, but nationwide recruitment
and greater scholarship opportunities for
American Indians, he says,
The treaty says that the three tribes, "be-
lieving they may wish some of their chil-
dren hereafter educated," granted the land
in 1817 "to the corporation of the college at
Detroit, for the use of said college, to be
retained or sold, as the . . . corporation
may judge expedient."
According to the Alliance, "the eventual
sale of the land . was the main source of
See INDIANS, Page 10
age assessments to 26 mills -
half the present state-wide aver-
age - repeal the constitutional
prohibitions against graduated in-
come tax and establish a ceiling
of 2.5 per cent on a proposed
value added tax.
The value added tax would be
imposed on businesses as a sub-
stitute for the business property
tax.
The loss of the estimated $600
million in individual property
taxes and $518 million in business
property taxes would also he off-
set, if the measure becomes part
of the constitution, by a sharp in-
crease in state income taxes.
Regardless, the state income
tax will jump to 3.9 per cent Sun-
day from its present level of 2.6
per cent astaeconsequence of the
passage of the tax bill passed by
the Senate Wednesday.
When Governor William Milli-
ken first proposed a shift away
from property taxes for schools,
he estimated that it would take
a 2.3 per cent hike in the state
flat-rate income tax to make up
for the loss of revenue.
With legislative adoption of a
3.9 per cent personal income tax
rate, a hike offsetting the proper-
ty tax loss would raise the rate
to 6.2 per cent. Or, if voters ap-
proved the amendment, the Leg-
islature could set a graduated in-
come tax schedule.
Rep. George Montgomery (D-
Detroit) said in support of the
proposal, "It will not be a great
improvement," but education
millage "is about to run off the
cliff."
Paul Johnson