Page 10-Saturday, June 12, 1982-The Michigan Daily
A TAX BY ANY OTHER NAME
'Non-taxes' help to fill coffers
From The Associated Press owners for specific improvements like
State and local governments are paving. Unlike taxes, many of these
learning that a tax by any other name items do not require voter approval.
may smell sweeter to the public. The Tax Foundation Inc., a non-
Steadily growing voter opposition to profit, non-partisan research group in
increased taxes, particularly property Washington, D.C., says a study of the
levies, has caused officials to turn to Census Bureau figures shows that state
something called "non-tax revenues" and local governments raised 34 cents
to fill public treasuries. in non-tax revenues for every tax dollar
THE CENSUS Bureau, which collects collected in fiscal 1980. Ten years ago,
the tax statistics, describes non-tax only 25 cents in non-tax revenues was
revenues as "charges and raised for every tax dollar collected.
miscellaneous general revenues." That Non-tax revenues topped property-
includes interest collections, hospital tax collections in 1980 for the first time
and educational charges, user fees for in history, the foundation said. Non-tax
things like park services, and special revenues provided $75.8 billion for the
assessments collected from property state and local governmefits while
property taxes accounted for just under
$70 billion.
ARTHUR Burditt, a Tax Foundation
researcher, admitted that many of the
non-tax items might seem like taxes to
a layman. The difference, he said, is a
technical one.
Burditt said there are several
reasons for the increase in non-tax
revenues. Soaring interest rates mean
interest collections are up,
automatically, he said. And, on a more
conscious level, "extreme resistance to
property taxes" has forced governmen-
ts to look elsewhere for money.
THE TAX Foundation 'study showed
that state and local non-tax revenues
rose about 11/2 times as fast as tax
revenues during the 1970s, rising 243
percent during the decade.
Burditt said there seems to be little
public opposition to non-tax revenue
charges so far because of the "direct tie
between what you get and what you
pay.
The survey respondents were given a
list of money-raising possibilities and
asked: "Suppose your local gover-
nment must raise more revenue, which
of these do you think would be the best
way to do it?" More than half-55 per-
cent-picked "charges for specific ser-
vices."
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A
Detroit gunman firebombs
office; 1 dead, 38 injured
(Continued f-om Page 1)'
said Homicide Inspector Gilbert Hill.
HARRINGTON was taken in custody,
along with his brother, Gerald, who was
later released.
"The brother was only trying to stop
him and almost lost his life in the at-
tempt," Hill said. "A private in-
vestigator saw him (Gerald) with a
shotgun he'd taken from his brother
and thought he did the shooting." Hill
said the private investigator shot at
Gerald Harrington six times and
missed.
Police helicopters rescued some
people who fled to the roof of the 26-
story Buhl Building in downtown
Detroit.
EVENTUALLY, the gunman was
overcome by smoke from the fire and
was captured by police.
Eyewitnesses said the gunman
opened fire after his lawyer, Edward
Bell, refused to give hima $2,500 in-
surance check that was overdue in the
mail. Bell was shot in the side.
Doug Wartell, 27, a lawyer whose of-
fice is down the hall from Bell's repor-
ted seeing the gunman's clothes on fire.
"THEN I HEAR screaming, then
there was another shotand my door ...
was filled with buckshot," Wartell said.
"I dove under my desk and I heard him
come into my office. He was swearing
up and down about something but I
don't think the dude knew I was in
there. Then I heard another shot and I
dashed out the door."
An unidentified worker in the
building said there were 15 to 20 gun-
shots. Police officer Kenneth Ballenger
said the 12-gauge shotgun was cut off
less than an inch from the trigger.
WHILE THE shooting was under
way, a firebomb was tossed in a library
next to Bell's office, officer Kyron
Bradstrom said.
The gunman then took three of the
people he had wounded as hostages and
barricaded himself in Bell's offices,
said Thomas Hogue, an officer in
Detroit Police Technical Services Sec-
tion.
In all, 34 people - including 12
policement and two firemen - were
treated for injuries suffered in the fire
or in falls, said Dr. Ronald Krome,
chief of emergency medicine at Detroit
Receiving.
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Israeli-PLO battles rage
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(Continued from Page l)
to blend in with the Lebanese
population.
"If the Palestinians are here, the
Israelis will come here," argued a fran-
tic merchant who was standing with a
shotgun outside his children's clothing
store in the Hamra district, west
Beirut's retail center.
RESIDENTS huddled without elec-
tricity in their homes and sometimes
without running water, moving about
their darkened buildings with the aid of
flashlights and talking over candlelight
about the possibility Israel would in-
vade the city.
"Not Beirut, they couldn't," said one
Playgirl ends
(Continued from Page 3)
"I DON'T see anything wrong with
it," said Mike Calhoun, a local resident.
"I wouldn't do it for free. I would have
done it for $100," he added.
Senior engineering student Karen
Agard said she wasn't aware of the
magazine's visit, but that she would
buy the fall issues.
"If they want to do it, I think it's fun,"
she aid. "I just hope I don't know him
woman, worried at the thought of the
Israelis battling in the streets against
the guerrillas.
"Why did they shell us today? What
are they trying to say to us?" she asked.
BEIRUT residents are getting most
of their information from the many
radio statins that are run by Beirut's
rival political parties, and conflicting
new reports add to the general uncer-
tainty.
Just before sundown, an explosion
tore through an apartment building in
the Manara district near the Saudi
Arabian and Australian embassies.
Radio quoted local residents as saying
10 people died.
'U' manhunt
(one of the models) when the magazine
comes out.
THERE WAS mixed reaction,
however, concerning the issue of
nudity.
"I think that's not right at all," said
Barb Allen, an Ann Arbor resident. "I
don't believe people should expose their
bodies like that. It's for a different at-
mosphere other than the public eye."
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