2The Daily Tar HeelFriday, March 10, 1989
World and Nation
(uovermior proposes
By KARI BARLOW
Staff Writer
Gov. Jim Martin proposed a 1-cent
increase in state sales tax Wednesday
to fund a pay raise for teachers and
state employees.
The tax increase would generate
about $510 million annually, said Tim
Pittman, communications director
for Martin. The tax on goods would
increase to 6 cents per dollar.
"It's his feeling the state spends
millions and millions of dollars on
education annually, but we aren't
getting any results from it," Pittman
said. After looking at the lack of
resources, Martin came to the deci
sion to make an improvement in
teachers' salaries.
"He (Martin) has always said
before you try and raise taxes, you
should fund your priorities within the
budget," Pittman said.
A tax increase is a necessity, said
Rep. Jim Crawford, D-Granville,
chairman of the Education Appro
priation subcommitte.
"Nobody likes a tax increase, but
we just have a dire need to educate
our students so they can participate
in the future," Crawford said. "We
Federal workers mmay
: By SANDY WALL
' Staff Writer
' The federal government may soon
' follow the lead of private businesses
and begin assisting employees in their
efforts to stop smoking.
' A proposal from the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM)
would allow government agencies to
.-use existing funds such as
" employee health care benefits to
! pay for approved stop-smoking
''programs for their employees.
"If a federal employee wanted to
Stop smoking, then the (employee's)
agency would pay for it," said Elee
'Roeder, a spokeswoman for the
'OPM in Washington.
.' ' The OPM proposal contains sev
eral important regulations, such as
the question of which programs will
be covered and who can participate,
."Said Anice Nelson, an employee
..counseling program specialist with
' the Employee Health Services Branch
Eastern seeks
in bankruptcy court
U
From Associated Press reports
NEW YORK Eastern Airlines
filed for protection from creditors in
bankruptcy court Thursday, the sixth
day of a Machinists Strike, blaming
- pilots for a "cash crisis" that para
lyzed the nation's seventh-largest
airline.
v. The move came a day after Eastern
. insisted such a step remained a last
resort in the airline's effort to endure
the strike, which had strong support
from pilots and flight attendants and
. was costing Eastern an estimated $4
.million a day.
The filing under Chapter 1 1 in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in New York is
designed to give Eastern a reprieve
, from debts while it tries to restructure
and extricate itself from the worst
.crisis in its 60-year history.
. Eastern boss Frank Lorenzo
.jblamed "the damage that has been
, caused by the pilots' union." He and
Eastern President Phil Bakes insisted
1 1 they intend to restore the airline in
bankruptcy court, though in a smaller
form.
"We tried mightily to keep Eastern
'from bankruptcy," Bakes said at a
' hews conference. "We intend to
' 'operate our airline make no
; mistake about that."
x" Bakes said Eastern faces a "cash
crisis that can only be averted and
-stabilized by" turning to the bank
0 ruptcy court, he said.
Union leaders lashed out at
sLoreno as a "robber baron." Mach
inists called for a public boycott of
.Eastern's sister airline, Continental,
ml
"m I Read all the art rrtus in Omnibus I
u u
"Nobody likes a tax increase, but we
just have a dire need to educate our
students ..."
1 N.C. Rep. Jim Crawford,
D-Granville
must do a better job in education."
"(The tax increase is) primarily for
education, and we're all affected by
education," he said. "I don't see it as
a particular burden on the poor."
Karen Garr, president of the North
Carolina Association of Educators,
said her organization was pleased that
Martin left the Basic Education Plan
(BEP) intact. The BEP was passed
by the General Assembly in 1985 to
upgrade the quality of N.C. public
schools and to guarantee a basic
education to every child in the state.
"We are very, very pleased he had
enough courage to open the debate
on funding public schools," Garr said.
"He's no longer talking about a salary
of the OPM.
If the OPM proposal is imple-
mented, government agencies would
pay for their employees to attend one
of five pre-approved stop-smoking
programs, she said.
The Employee Health Services
Board, where the proposal origin
ated, has said the approved programs
would include those offered by the
American Cancer Society and the
American Lung Association.
Employees who want to participate
in a program would need permission
from their agency before enrolling,
Nelson said.
The proposal, which will not be
finalized until later this month, is
being circulated within government
agencies so the OPM can get input
and comments on its regulations, she
said.
The use of funds to assist
employees in their efforts to stop
smoking was originally forbidden but
and said they would oppose Eastern's
reorganization plan and any sale of
assets.
Lorenzo and Bakes pledged that
all creditors would be paid in full,
shareholders would receive "fair
value," passengers would be pro
tected, and as many employees as
possible would return to work.
Eastern had 31,200 employees before
the strike.
Only six bigger companies have
sought Chapter 11 protection, the
largest being Texaco Inc., with assets
of $35 billion.
John Peterpaul, a Machinists vice
president, said Eastern filed for
bankruptcy on payday "in a spiteful
attempt to deny Eastern workers their
last paycheck earned before the
strike." Paychecks were frozen by the
move.
Henry Duffy, president of the Air
Line Pilots Association, said he
hoped the move meant Lorenzo is
"finished" at Eastern.
The company, which is a staggering
$2.5 billion in debt, has admitted it
was taken by surprise when most of
the 3,600 Eastern pilots honored
Machinists' picket lines, forcing
Miami-based Eastern to shut down
nearly all operations Monday and lay
off 9,500 non-union employees.
Eastern, running just 4 percent of
its flights with a crew of 1,500, is
losing $4 million a day, Bakes said.
Before the 8,500 Machinists struck
Saturday in a dispute over conces
sions, losses were pegged at $1 million
daily.
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freeze or about trading good pro
grams for kids in order to fund a
salary increase for teachers."
Martin's proposal has met some
opposition in the General Assembly.
An increase in the sales tax would
be a big burden on the working man
and woman in North Carolina, said
Sen. Marshall Rauch, D-Gaston,
chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee.
The state should look at raising
taxes on cigarettes and wine as an
alternative, he said.
"Cigarette tax in North Carolina
is the lowest in the United States,"
Rauch said. "There are places to
tighten up in state government."
Legislators should not rush into
get sumo
has recently been approved in a ruling
by the comptroller general, Nelson
said.
The comptroller general cited
evidence that smoking caused serious
illnesses, and by helping federal
employees quit, the government
could save medical costs.
The new government proposal has
met with approval from traditional
stop-smoking groups.
"The American Cancer Society
supports any efforts to reduce the
number of smokers in America," said
Kelley McNeill, director of commun
ications for the society's N.C. chapter
in Raleigh.
McNeill agreed paying for stop-
kiimg
Seoate refuses Tower mioinniioatoop
From Associated Press reports
WASHINGTON The Senate on'
Thursday rejected the nomination of
John Tower as defense secretary, 53-
47, handing President Bush a major
defeat in his first high-stakes show
down with the Democrat-controlled
Congress. ' ' ,-
The White House said Bush would
act swiftly to submit a replacement
nomination to the Senate.
Tower's nomination was scuttled
by concerns about his drinking habits
coupled with senatorial unhappiness
that he left his government post as
arms negotiator and quickly began
earning hundreds of thousands of
dollars as a defense industry
consultant.
The vote was the culmination of
a tumultuous six-day Senate debate
and closely followed party lines.
Howell Heflin of Alabama, Lloyd
Bentsen of Texas and Christopher
Dodd of Connecticut were the only
Democrats to support the nomina
tion, and one Republican, Nancy
Kassebaum of Kansas, voted against.
Tower, in a statement he delivered
at the Pentagon moments after the
vote, said, "I will be recorded as the
first Cabinet nominee in the history
of the republic to be rejected in the
first 90 days of a presidency and
Undergraduate
Library
Spring Break
Schedule
Fit, March 10..8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sat., March 11 ..1-5 p.m.
Sun., March 12 CLOSED
March13-17....8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sat., March 18 1-5 p.m.
Sun., March 19 resume
regular schedule
. I
H
if?
Iff P
sales tax
any decision on the governor's
proposal, he said.
"I think we are going to try and
accomplish the same goal with
different methods," Rauch said. "If
we wait until May to make these
decisions, well have a lot more facts
to base our assumptions on. We need
to look at the revenue picture of the
state; we need to see the changes in
economic conditions.
"You don't need $500 million. The
regressive sales tax accumulates $200
million more per year than is needed
for salary increases."
The General Assembly needs to
find a way to raise only the $300
million needed to fund the pay raise,
Rauch said.
The state needs to make some
improvements in education, but an
increase in the sales tax is not the
best way to do it, said Kathy Travers,
director of the Atlantic Conference
for Research in Education. ,
"The sales tax tends to hit hard on
the low income people," Travers said.
"I think it's a definite step in the right
direction, but I hope the legislature
might find a tax that is more fair."
ClDOBCS
smoking programs would save the
government money in the long run.
"It's like you pay me now or you
pay me later," she said. Smoking
related diseases cost employers about
$26 billion a year in lost productivity,
McNeill added.
The Tobacco Institute, a lobbying
group for tobacco companies in
Washington, D.C., did not issue any
formal reaction to the OPM
proposal.
"Our feeling over the years has been
we really don't have any business
getting into someone's personal
decisions whether to stop smoking,"
said Walker Merryman, vice presi
dent of the institute.
perhaps be harshly judged.
"But I depart from this place at
peace with myself, knowing that I
have given a full measure of devotion
to my country," Tower said.
He said no other public figure "has
been subjected to such a far-reaching
and thorough investigation, nor had
his human foibles bared to such
intensive and demeaning public
scrutiny.
And yet, there is no finding that
I have ever breached established legal
and ethical standards nor been
derelict in my duty," he said.
Tower said he would return to
private life in Texas but would remain
"deeply grateful" to Bush for his
New Polish senate guaranteed
free elections under agreement
From Associated Press reports
WARSAW, Poland Govern
ment and opposition negotiators
announced agreement Thursday on
free elections to a newly created
senate, in . what could be the first
democratic national elections in the
communist bloc.
In addition to the elections to the
new senate, the sides agreed to two
stage elections to the existing Sejm,
or parliament, in which opposition
candidates would be free to run for
at least 35 percent of the seats.
Politburo member Janusz Rey
kowski said anyone who is nominated
by an existing political or social group
or who gathered 5,000 signatures
could run for the senate.
Opposition negotiators said the
number of signatures required was
still an item for discussion for a
working team from the negotiations
that have brought together Poland's
powerful independent forces, includ
ing the Solidarity trade union and
i - -- - - I
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Key figure enters guilty plea
in Pentagon purchasing trial
From Associated Press reports
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-A New
York businessman whose testi
mony is considered key to unra
veling the Pentagon purchasing
scandal pleaded guilty Thursday
to bribing a high-ranking Navy
official and channeling illegal
contributions to congressional
campaigns.
Two private consultants, James
Neal and Kenneth Brooke, also
pleaded guilty, to other charges,
in U.S. District Court.
U.S. Attorney Henry Hudson
told reporters outside the federal
courthouse the pleas were a sig
nificant development in the 2-year-old
investigation into fraud in the
Defense Department's $150-billion-a-year
procurement
system.
"The cooperation we will
receive from these three individ
uals will move this investigation
forward at a tremendous pace,"
Hudson said.
Witness's testimony questioned
WASHINGTON Oliver
North's lawyer tried to show
Thursday that a prosecution wit
ness had changed his story on a
damaging conversation in which
the witness quotes North as not
:caring about lying to Congress or
(going to jail.
"Yesterday you were putting the
words in Ollie's mouth," North
attorney Brendan Sullivan told the
witness, Carl Channell, a former
fund-raiser for the Nicaraguan
Contras. On other occasions, he
said, Channell had either left out
the statement entirely or attributed
the words to Nelson Bunker Hunt,
the other person in the
conversation.
Even U.S. District Judge Ger
hard Gesell signaled his skepti
cism, saying at one point that
Channell had offered "three ver-
support and "obliged to my old
colleagues in the Senate who rallied
to me with fervor, zeal and eloquence
in the face of staggering political
odds." He took no questions from
reporters.
The Senate rendered its verdict in
an atmosphere of unusual formality.
Vice President Dan Quayle presided
over the session, practically all
senators remained in their chairs
during the roll call and the gallery
was packed with spectators.
"We ought to hang our heads after
what weVe done to this good man,"
Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole
of Kansas said in a final defiant
Communist leaders, to reshape the
nation's economic and political
future.
In addition to a new chamber of
parliament, the two sides agreed in
principle to establish a president who
would be elected by a majority of both
chambers of parliament.
The powers of the president must
still be discussed, but in general the
idea is to combine in one person all
those powers now held by the Council
of State including appointing the
head of the army and ambassadors.
In addition, he would be given the
right to dissolve parliament and call
new elections.
There has been wide speculation
that if a presidency is established, the
post would be filled by Communist
Party First Secretary Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski.
The elections to the senate would
be held at the same time as elections
to the Sejm, said Solidarity spokes
man Janusz Onszkiewicz. The prim-
as
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News in Brief
sions already that Colonel North
said what he did relating to these
two questions."
Britain threatens deportations .
LONDON The government .
has targeted nine former Iranian
Embassy employees for deporta- ,
tion if they do not leave Britain
voluntarily within 10 days, an
immigration official said ,
Thursday.
The U.N. secretary-general,
Javier Perez de Cuellar, said he
has issued appeals to protect the
life of British author Salman 1
Rushdie, whose new novel led to ,
the Britain-Iran dispute.
A conservative Roman Catholic .
bishop in the Netherlands joined
Moslems in denouncing the book,
"The Satanic Verses," saying it
"defiled" the figure of
Mohammed.
Spain's national EFE news
agency quoted intelligence sources
as saying an Iranian commando
team recently was in that country
trying to obtain weapons, appar
ently to kill Rushdie and collect
a $5.2 million bounty offered by
Iranian clerics.
House panel OKs wage bill
WASHINGTON A House
panel on Thursday approved
legislation to gradually add $1.30
an hour to the $3.35 minimum
wage as Democratic leaders said
they're willing to compromise with
the Bush administration by adding
a reduced "training wage" for new
workers.
The move to raise the minimum
for the first time in eight years was
approved on a party-line vote by
the House labor standards sub
committee. speech of support before the roll was
called.
"America has lost a good public
servant. The president has won
because he stood by his man."
Majority Leader George .Mitchell
summed up for the opponents, saying
that Tower's experience and compe
tence on defense issues weren't at
issue. But "serious problems exist",
with conflict of interest and "char
acter integrity," he said.
He said, "I emphasize my strongly
held belief that this should not be
interpreted as a vote to harm the
president," but acknowledged that
others saw it that way.
ary election tentatively would be held
June 4 and candidates who failed to
win a 50 percent majority would run
in a runoff election June 18, he said.
Rejkowski said the proposed new
election law would be submitted to
the Sejm for approval as early as next
week. The Communist Party now has
an absolute majority in the Sejm and
any laws proposed by the party afe
assured passage. !
The senate would likely handle
economic and social issues and civil
rights, said Reykowski. But the
powers must still be negotiated by a
panel of experts appointed by each
side.
Other participants in the talks have
described the senate as a chamber that
could exercise a right of veto over
decisions of the Sejm. In such 'a
system, laws not approved by the
senate would have to go back to the
Sejm and win a two-thirds majority
to be enacted.
"There may be considerable dis
agreement and differences over the
powers of the second chamber by the
two sides," Reykowski said.
Bronislaw Geremek, leader of the
opposition team negotiating the
political issues, said the entering into
free elections poses risks for both
sides.
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