Thursday. June 5, 1975

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Seven


{ Jul awnv ,une 5.19TH MC GN ALPgSv

Budget
(Continued from Page 1)
(market value $40,000), approv-
al of Proposal A would trans-
late into a $30 tax hike per
year. The board has promised
to collect only .918 mill during
the first year the 1.5 mill hike is
levied - if the voters approve
the proposition.
But with all the numbers and
statistics, the candidates sim-
ply do not see the millage ques-
tions the same way. Four hope-
fuls oppose Proposition A. One
is campaigning against all three
proposals.
B O A R D incumbent Cecil
Warner, who is seeking his third
three-year term, says he is
spending more time as the head
of the school district's millage
drive than he is on his own
campaign. Without the millage
hike, says Warner, "we can't of-
fer the same program next year
as we are this year."
Warner says the loss in state
aid and new government-man-
dated programs have forced
the need for a tax hike. Costs
for textbooks and supplies,
which Michigan schools must
buy for their students, have also
put a strain on the budget, ac-
cording to Warner.
Board President Clarence
Dukes, running for re-election,
also favors all three millage
proposals. "We're tmt as af-
fluent as people might think,"
he says. Dukes contends the in-
crease in the tax base hasn't
overtaken the inflationary trend.
ATTACKING allthree
millage requests, Human Rights
Party Candidate Shelley Et-
tinger says "We're against the
property tax system. We be-

controversy divides candidates

lieve it's an inequitable way to
finance anything, including the
public school system."
"The way to insure that our
schools are run properly and
that the proper programs are
funded is not by taxing our-
selves to death," Ettinger says.
"It's b or-aniced public pres-
sire, it's by the community
-ilit'n']v der-ndin that the
thin'ec that are in the voing
nrnne '" fr+-ct ar f'nled."
Jerome Epstein, who has been
inaoiring into possible sources
of grants and fimds that can be
obtained for children with learn-
in disabilities. sinnorts Propo-
sitions A. B and C.
"I F Y O U have a $30,000
house, what they're asking for
with the 1.5 millage increase is
equivalent to going out and hav-
ing dinner at a nice restaurant
once a year, about 25 bucks,"
he says. "I don't think that's
too much to pay for the chil-
dren, for their ed- tion."
Epstein says if the community
isn't convinced the tax hike is
necessary, "then we've got to
start cutting back, and some
things will be pre-empted." He
adds, "Well, people will ask
'what's going to go first?' God,
I don't want anything to go! I
want to have music, and I want
to have art -- I think the ex-
tracurricular programs and the
enrichment programs are the
most important things."
A N O T H E R candidate
supporting all three millage
proposals, Charles Moody, Sr.,
says he thinks "the school sys-
tem ought to be willing to pay

the price to get the best peo-
ple regardless of what the job
(is)." Moody says "one can-
not expect the staff to be mir-
acle workers when you con-
tinue to lose revenue and in-
flation is continuing."
But Moody adds that the ad-
ministration must strive to de-
velop a sound fiscal program.
D. Stephen McCargar, a city
bas driver, is campaigning on a
platform emphasizing greater
equity in the salaries of admin-
istrators and other school sys-
tem workers. He is calling for
a two-year freeze on all admin-
istration salaries over $25,000.
McCARGAR sees several oth-
er areas in the school budget
he thinks are wasteful. "I think
the school board should stop
letting consulting contracts as
thev did for janitorial services
and bus services to the tune of
1150.000." he says.
"I think money for travel and
exoense accounts for various
school nersonnel should be elim-
nated." McCargar adds. "If we
are indeed in an economic
crunch. I don't think we should
really have to send our people
outside of this community,
which has some of the best edu-
cational minds in the country,
to discover new program direc-
tions and that kind of thing."
Like McCargar, Maxine Hen-
son is opposed to the millage in-
crease request. "I don't feel
this is a time to increase
taxes," she says. "I think it's
time to stop and re-evaluate."
HENSON, a real estate sales-

woman, says she notices many
people moving out of their
homes in Ann Arbor because
they cannot afford the proper-
ty taxes. But she adds, "I
don't think we should cut the
budget by cutting teacher's sal-
aries." Henson feels a reduc-
tion in field trips for students
would help save money.
George Wright has also come
out against Proposal A. "It ap-
pears to me," Wright says,
"that we have a rather top-
heavy school administration. I'd
like to see more emphasis on
the classroom. I would like to
see teachers paid adequately
for what they're doing."
Wright says he is looking for
areas "at which may be we
can do some belt-tightening (so
we) can expand those areas that
are really directly educational."
C A N D I D A T E Bernice
Sobin feels voters turn down
the millage requests because
they are the only area of taxa-
tion under their direct control.
"To deprive the children from
the standards that they're ac-
costomed to" she says, is
wrong.
John Heald is backing the
millage hike proposal, but ac-
knowledges that "there are a
lot of people out there, the min-
ute you say you're for the mill-
age,why, you've just lost a
vote."
Heald explains his support of
the tax hike with an analogy:
"If you've got a growing teen-
age son and each week you ask
him to get into pants one size
smaller than the preceeding

week, no matter how baggy the
pants were to begin with, he's
going to have serious trouble
before very long. In this case,
the pants are the available reve-
nue."
H E A L D says he assumes
there is some waste in the
sc h o o I district's current
$28 million budget.
Proposal A, according to lit-
erature distributed by the Board
of Education, is needed to cov-
er the costs of state-mandated
programs in snecial education,
unemployment compensation
and the Occupational Health
and Safety Act, as well as the
federally-mandated Title IX
gidelines for girls' sports
esnity.
The literature also points out
the cost of salary increases for
all employes ($931,448) and "re-
suired sten increases for eligi-
ble employes" ($558,867).
THE FTI',TTRE that few of the
millae-hackers cite, however,
and which is not mentioned in
the board's litarature. is the av-
erage salary for teachers in the
Ann Arbor school district.
In 1974-75. that figure was
516,646.
ffaw----
-_ f





A
r
.3
OWN
........... .... .....
.............. ...........
.......... ..............
.. . .............. .............. .
................ .............. .
er, 0, -

w°

A 11

1
'

0 +f r
_ F
i.lsarilatE ' ND
je
E c

---________ with o remate stop/stort bstton. Other
features on this fine machine make it a
S PEaRSCiOPE ____ useful tool as well as being fsn.
SONYTC-66 --_----___ Q uarry's req. $109.95 $
PORTABLESALE PRICED at
CASSETTE-CORDER SRechar.eable battery Dck for the TC-90A
Treat yourself to a full array c; Regular price $t14.95
outstandin features ad save -- l SALE PRICED $11.95 SAVE $3.00
bundle at the some time. The ...
TC-66 is a popular model
at regular prices and now
you get $15.00 off.
ALE PRICED at j SONY BRAND CASSETTE TAPES
... ,.+ ' $09.95 C-45 ....... Quarry's regular 99c. ..... SALE 88c
C-60 ... Quarry's regular $1.07. .. SALE 95c
->.> SAVE $15.00 C-90 .sarnis regular $1.79 SALE $1.60
t C-120....... Quarry as regular $218$ SALE $256
SONY REEL-TO-REEL TAPE
PR-150-1800
4uorry's regular $3.99
SALE $3.59
SALE PRICES IN THIS AD
GOOD ONLY THRU JUNE 14th
S. STATE AT NORTH UNIVERSITY Open daily & Sat. 9-6 761-2011
PLYMOUTH ROAD MALL AT NIXON Open daily 10-8, Sat. 10-6 761-8690