The,,M Michigan Diy.
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, July 29, 1981
Ten Cents
Twelve Pages
Reagan tax
plan faces
House battle
FromAPand UPI
WASHINGTON - The Republican-
controlled Senate, bogged down in
amendments last night, all but aban-
doned plans to pass a tax cut bill in time
to provide President Reagan momen-
tum for what he termed the "nip-and-
tuck" showdown in the House.
Republican Leader Howard Baker
said it is likely the Senate version will
not be completed until sometime today.
That still might allow the Senate time to
vote its virtually certain endorsement
of the Reagan package before the
House decides between the president's
bill and a rival Democratic plan, but
probably not soon enough to affect the
outcome.
DEMOCRATIC leaders were op-
timistic about winning the House con-
frontation. Speaker Thomas O'Neill-
predicted that each of the 191
Republicans and 14 to 24 Democrats
would, support the president's plan.
"This is the hardest bil the leadership
has ever gone through," he added.
Of. the 26 members of the Conser-
vative Democratic Forum, 10 were
firmly supporting Reagan's plan, 10
were backing the Democratic bill, and
six were undecided, said Rep. G.V.
"Sonny" Montgomery (D-Miss.) a
member of the forum.
The president would have to hold all
191 Republicans in line plus win over 27
Democrats to get his tax cut plan ap-
proved by the House.
MONTGOMERY, who supports the
president's tax cut, said Reagan
"would have to go outside the forum" to
pick up enough votes to win.
The Democratic plan calls for a 21-
month, 15 percent tax cut that
Democrats contend is targeted to
people making from $15,000 to $50,000.
It is triggered to continue for a third
year, but only if the economy is as
strong as the administration predicts it
will be in 1983.
Reagan and Democratic leaders who
appeared on national television Mon-
day night to argue the merits of their
competing tax cut plans, made phone
calls to conservative Democrats and
met personally with the so-called
"Boll weevils" yesterday to seek their
votes.
Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.),
chairman of the tax-writing Ways and
Means Committee, visited the offices of
about 10 wavering southern Democrats
to urge them to vote for the party's bill.
BUT HE HAD to wait a few minutes
outside the office of Rep. Earl Hutto (D-
Fla.), who was talking on the phone
with the president and presumably
being urged to vote for Reagan's tax
cut.
House Speaker O'Neill predicted a
narrow victory over Reagan on the tax
cut bill, while Treasury Secretary
Donald Regan predicted a narrow vic-
tory for the president.
"I would say it's very close," Regan
said. "We think we've narrowed the
gap. We're probably about even and we
think we'll surge ahead at the final
bell."
O'Neill said the "boll weevils" were
"holding pretty good," but big business
was putting pressure on some
moderates. He said he still believed
Democrats would win in the House
today, although "it's going to be close."
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROM
Parking Problem
The Flint Journal newspaper has plenty of overflow parking space for
visitors and employees, but it may prove difficult to park in the lot painted
on the side of the building.
PIRdGIMs co sumer
guide to A2 grocery
stores released
By JENNIFER MILLER
Daily staff writer
A survey released yesterday of Ann
Arbor food stores shows - as might be
expected - that the chain grocery
stores are substantially cheaper than
the convenience stores closer to cam-
pus.
For students on a tight budget, then,
the place to shop is the Farmer Jack's
on Stadium Blvd., which the Public In-
terest Research Group in Michigan
survey found to be at least 13 percent
'less expensive than the smaller food
stores dotted around campus.
THE SURVEY also revealed that
Campus Corners is 12 percent more ex-
pensive than the two most reasonably
priced stores on campus: Food Mart
and Village Corners on S. University.
"Campus Corners is incredibly
higher priced," said David Wiesman, a
PIRGIM member who conducted the
survey last May. "All they're doing is
just taking the students who don't want
to walk," he said.
Strickland's on Geddes Rd. is the
most expensive store, Wiesman said.
And in light of its location, he claimed,
"There's no way they should be that
high."
WIESMAN SAID Campus Corners'
location does not justify its high prices.
"They should be more in the range of
five percent higher" than the grocery
stores, he said, not 12 percent. PIRGIM
members said they hope the survey will
induce local stores to lower their prices.
Although the chain grocery stores are
the best bet for the budget-conscious,
there is a catch: transportation. But the
student-without a car is not necessarily
stuck with the high-priced campus
stores.
There are bus lines that run to Far-
See PIRGIM, Page 3
Meanwhile, in Dearborn
and Flint . -
While the University community in Ann Arbor has been wrapped
up in debate over the "redirection" of the University toward a
"smaller but better" institution, how have the University's branch
campuses in Dearborn and Flint dealt with the unexpected shor-
tfalls in state appropriations? Daily staff writer Mark Gindin
traveled to the University's other campuses to find out. His three-
part news analysis appears on pages 6 and 7.