ewd - journal
y/J/ot^i (Icrtxj&wz
PRESS
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER - association
ASSOCIATION
Published L>?) Thursday ?( Raeford. N.C. 28376
119 W. U?ood A??nue
Subscription Rales In Advance
Per Year? $8.00 6 Months? $4.25 3 Months? $2. 25
LOU IS H. KOGLLMAN, JR. . . Publisher
PAUL DICKSON Editor
HENRY L. BLUE Production Supervisor
BILL LINDAU Associate Editor
MRS. PAUL DICKSON Societv Editor
SAM C. MORRIS Contributing Editor
Second Class Postage at Raeford, N.C.
(USPS 388-260)
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1982
J
Change tax system
The Hoke County commissioners heard protests last week against
the increase in property value set by the eight-year countywide
property re-evaluation required by state law. Though the tax rate
probably will be lower than the 1981-82 rate of SI. 01 per $100
evaluation on real property (land and buildings), most property
owners will pay more then they did last year. (The rate will be 72
cents as proposed, or lower, and possibly higher, but certainly not
nearly as high as the old rate.)
The opposition was expressed, at a public hearing, and the
opposition and explanations of the tax system occupied all but a few
minutes of the approximately 75 minutes the hearing took.
In short, it was another demonstration that taxpayers not enjoying
substantial exemptions, the commissioners, and the county
institutions are in a bind. The taxpayers are beset by the rising costs
of ordinary living as well as doing business, and by federal and state,
as well as county taxes. The county departments, which include the
school system, are beset by the same increasing costs of operating.
The departments need more money just to maintain their present
level of services. The commissioners have to set a tax rate high
enough to meet the increasingly costlier needs of the county's people
and yet low enough to prevent as little additional hardship on the
property owners as possible.
In the taxing system, of course, the tax on real property is the
main source of income to pay the operating expenses of any county.
The personal-property tax also provides income, but less than the
real estate tax.
Each county also is operating under the thumb of state law
principally, and federal law. Consequently within the tax system are
exceptions which operate to keep a county from getting more
revenue from its real-property tax. its main source of income.
For example, mobile homes are not classified as real property.
They are classified as "personal property," for the reason that they
can be moved, making them in the law's viewpoint like a motor
vehicle rather than a house. The owner consequently pays less than
he would on a permanently fixed home or other building.
For another example, military people living in Hoke County are
exempt from paying personal-property taxes, which means that if
they rent, rather than own. their homes they pay none of the main
sources of county revenue.
Also the way The System works, industry will pay less this year
after re-evaluation than last year, while most farm and home owners
will pay more.
Other examples of income-cutting forces could be described.
The chairman of the county commissioners. John Balfour, pointed
this out, the latter at the public hearing, and the two other examples
at the joint meeting of the county school board and county
commissioners the following night.
The county commissioners, in Hoke and elsewhere, are the targets
of the complaints and criticism that follows every eight-year
re-evaluation.
But the real target should be the taxing system itself, and the
General Assembly is the only power that can provide any substantial
relief.
In view of these years of inflation, the tax laws should be changed
to at least spread the load of taxpaying from the farm and home
owner in the middle-income class to the people and organizations
which are better equipped to pay more.
This is a very painful process, and the legislators will get bitter
fights.
But it must be done, for the sake of the school systems and the
other service agencies of the counties.
--BL
Anti-nuke paradox?
From The News-Argus, Golds bo ro
A paradox of the anti-nuclear power movement is that many 01 its
participants are members of the academic community.
Yet. engineers at nuclear power facilities contend that opposition
to nuclear power all too frequently is based on lack of information.
One would think that college students and professors,
particularly, would be inquisitive enough to examine the facts
concerning nuclear power production and bright enough to absorb
these facts.
Too many, unfortunately, equate, a nuclear power plant with a
mushroom shaped cloud. They conjure up fears of a plant exploding
at worst or emitting radioactive particles in the air and water at best.
There is no similarity between a nuclear bomb and a nuclear
power plant. Had nuclear fission been used to produce electricity
before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, we probably
would have little of the concern over safety we witness today.
But because of the chronological order of their development, the
spectre of the mushroom cloud hangs over nuclear plants in the
minds of many people.
Our worst nuclear accident in more than 600 "reactor years" of
operations was at Three Mile Island.
Despite some mechanical and human failings - from which much
has been learned ? no one was hurt. The extraordinary safety
precautions built into such plants served us well and have been
improved upon.
To this day, no member of the public has been killed as a result of
nuclear plant operations.
But how about radioactivity and its impact on those living near
nuclear plants?
A person living near a nuclear power plant can expect to absorb an
extra .3 millirems of radiation in a year.
Don't just sit there, help me answer the phones'
If that sounds frightening, don't scamper off yet. Wherever you go
you are probably going to absorb 150 millirems of radiation. You get
it from the sun. from the ground, from the building you live or work
in, from your color television set.
In fact, you'll get some radiation from a wood stove or from a
coal-fired furnace.
In order to receive the minimum amount of radiation that could
cause symptoms of illness, you would have to absorb 666.666 times
the dosage you would experience as a result of living near a nuclear
plant.
All factors considered, nuclear power is the cleanest and safest
source of energy we can abundantly produce. It also is. by far. the
cheapest. Carolina Power and Light Co. customers would have paid
$700 million more for electricity in recent years had it not been for
savings experienced with nuclear plants.
As we look at mounting costs of electricity and its impact on every
family and business budget, we can get a better perspective. Per unit
fuel cost for producing electricity by coal is almost four times greater
than producing it by nuclear energy. The customer, of course, must
pay the difference.
The paradox of having so much of the opposition to nuclear power
coming from the academic community is more of an indictment of
the emotionalism and motives of those opponents than it is of
nuclear plants.
The fact that no new nuclear plants have been started in six years,
cites, to some degree, the effectiveness of the anti-nuke movement. It
also illustrates the foolhardiness of a nation that shackles. its people
with burdensome costs and foreign fuel dependency in order to
placate a vocal, well orchestrated and often misguided minority.
It's a Small orld
B\ Bill Lindau
There's some advice in the Bible
that says, though maybe not exactly
like this. "Cast your bread upon
the waters, and it shall be returned
a hundred fold."
Well. I've had that experience in
a small way. in the past few
months.
I've been casting sunflower seeds
on the grass in various places.
Squirrels and birds (and even a
dog) have been eating the stuff up.
But that's not the point.
The critters didn't find all of the
seeds.
So come sometime during the
year's warm and sometimes wet
weather I'll have a permanent crop
of sun flowers scattered around my
yard. Also, the Town of Southern
Pines will have permanent crop of
sunflowers along the curb in front
of the house, (unless the tow n street
forces remove them).
And the birds and squirrells can
feed themselves for a while every
year.
* * *
I asked a veterinarian the other
day for tips for "curing" the dogs of
chasing cars.
He admitted it's hard to do. Even
when a dog is hit by a car he is
chasing, it won't necessarily cure
him. One of the patients suffered a
broken leg that way. But not long
after the splint came off. he was
back to his old "hobby." chasing
cars. Sometimes getting hit dis
courages a dog from car-chasing.
The doctor (Russell Tate) did
say, however, that dousing the dog
with water while he is following
your car could work. He said that
means really soaking the pooch.
Some bike riders and joggers
carry bottles of water with squirting
attachments, and they give a
chasing dog a few squirts, which in
all but the most stubborn of
chasing-type dogs, will work. But a
few squirts from one rider of jogger
won't guarantee curing a dog of
chasing all riders or joggers. Mail
men in the larger cities carry a can
of a stinging liquid, like the police
Mace, which is discouraging for a
suspicious dog. But other letter
carriers are allowed to not deliver
mail to houses with a hostile -
barking dogs on the premises, even
though the dogs don't actually bite.
Usually, the dog-wary mailmen
leaves the letters and packages at
neighbors rather than returning
them to the post office.
One of our acquaintances used to
drive his motorcycle to work, about
15 miles from home, and back
every day. Along the road lived a
large dog. who also was rather fast.
So every morning starting at the
dog house, our hero found this
menacing pooch bounding right
behind him. practically drooling on
his taillight. for a mile or two,
threatening to grab a wheel in his
mouth.
Someone suggested the rider get
Mace and give the dog a squirt, and
this he did.
"Well, he chased me again this
morning," the rider related, "so 1
gave him a shot of Mace.
"Sure it worked. He stopped
right there. He sneezed, and shook
his head.
"But when he started chasing me
again."
There's also a theory that dogs
chase cars because they are fasci
nated by spinning wheels.
A long time ago 1 read in a
magazine about one way to stop a
dog from chasing cars. Get a short,
hard stick, tie one end of a string
around the middle and the other
end to the dog's collar so the stick
hangs about even with the dog's
knees (if that's what you call them).
The result is when the dog starts
running after a car, the stick will
tap him on the knees, stinging him.
Of course, one defect in that
system is it would cause the dog to
stop running for any reason, since
he won't know that he gets tapped
with the stick only when he chases
cars, only that he gets stung
whenever he runs. Well, there's just
no perfect system -- except keep
him on a leash whenever he ts out of
your yard. That will save the
car-chaser's (and motorcycle ?
chaser's) life, as well as prevent
unnecessary worry for a driver.
CLIFF BLUE . . .
People & Issues
RUSSIAN CHALLENGE! ...
On Tuesday, June 15. Soviet
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
told the disarmament conference
at the United Nations in New York
that Moscow would never be the
first to launch a nuclear strike.
White House officials are said to
have shrugged it off.
We think that President Reagan
should accept the Russian
challenge if the challenge is made
by Soviet President Brezhnev to
make it firm between the two na
tions.
Along with the agreement, we
feel the U.S. should challenge the
Russians to open their arsenals for
free and full inspection of their
arsenals with no strings tied, and
that the United States do the same.
What's good for the goose
should be good for the gander!
We certainly don't think it too
much to agree to, as we suspect the
Russians know our secrets as well
as we know theirs!
HOLL1NGS FOR PRESI
DENT?... We have been watching
the South Carolina U.S. Senator
rather closely during the past
several months since he came up
with a tax proposal, following the
President's poor recommendations
on the matter. I forget in detail
how his tax proposal was laid out,
but it sounds quite reasonable.
Some changes could have been
made, but it had a reasonable ap
proach to fiscal affairs.
* Hollings has been up in New
Hampshire and our guess is that
he, like several others, will "feel
the call to run." Senator Hollings
is much better known than was
Jimmy Carter when he started out.
EDWIN PATE. ..The sudden
passing of Edwin Pate of Laurin
burg removes a valuable citizen at
the age of 84. It was the pleasure of
the writer to serve six terms in the
General Assembly with Senator
Pate.
An editorial in the Laurinburg
Exchange gives a revealing account
of the late senator. It follows:
THE FIRST CHOICE: When
Edwin Pate died Monday,
Scotland County lost a successful
businessman and a prominent
citizen. It also lost a good friend.
The following story, told by a
close friend of Edwin Pate's, il
lustrates that point better than any
laudatory remarks.
After the death of U.S. Senator
Willis Smith, N.C. Gov. William
Umstead was faced with the ?
responsibility of appointing some
one to fill the unexpired term. A
group of the governor's closest
friends gathered in Durham to
discuss who should be recommend
ed as a replacement.
After some discussion, the com
mittee agreed to recommend Ed
win Pate of Laurinburg. Gov.
Umstead approved of the choice *
and gave the nominating commit- "
tee permission to contact Pate with
the good news.
Pate is reputed to have thanked
the contracting committee
members for the honor, then
politely declined the nomination.
"But North Carolina needs you
in Washington," the committee
member said.
"If they really need me," Pate
replied, "they need me more right
here in North Carolina." 4
His reply says much about the
value he placed on his ties on
Scotland County and his business
and civic activities here. Personal
recognition was a secondary con
sideration.
Who did Gov. Umstead
nominate?
His final selection was Sam J.
Ervin, Jr.
FOUR-YEAR TERMS ... g
Regarding the "four year terms" ?
for state legislators, we have never
heard anyone defending the four
year terms.
Well, we guess their names are
on the House and Senate roll calls,
having the proposal submitted in
the primary in June, rather than
the regular election in November,
tells that they hoped to get it
adopted in a quiet manner.
Here is one thing that we predict
about the four-year term: "Should 4
the Amendment pass, from the
election forward, government will
grow faster, and taxes will be
higher!
PRIMARY. ..With the N.C.
Primary being on Tuesday, June
29, this year, this will be the last
issue for comments before voting
time as in most newspapers.
We have five proposed Amend
ments to the N.C. Constitution. 4
Some are not. too easily
understood. On voting on a con
stitutional amendment, if a person
doesn't fully understand it, we sug
gest you vote against it, for, when
it becomes a part of the Constitu
tion it's much harder to repeal
than a mere legislative act
Letter To The
Tribute to Local Dog Warden
Editor, The News-Journal
We recently had an episode at
our house which required the
services of Mr. Hales, Hoke County
dog warden. The primary motive
for relating this incident is to bring
recognition to Mr. Hales and his
commendable attitude toward his
position.
"Buddy." our family dog, had
always been a loyal, loving and
obedient pet. However, his instinc
tive taste for poultry began to grow
until finally the lust overcame him
and our neighbors suffered a tragic
loss in their hen house. There was
no explanation Buddy could have
offered. He was caught red-handed
and stood as guilty as if he had
feathers hanging from his mouth.
After the third offense, we said,
"that's it, we'll call the pound."
We just couldn't have a chicken
eater around. Mr. Hales responded
promptly the next morning. His
positive assurance that he could
find Buddy a good home comforted
us, as we watched Buddy roll out of
our lives in the back of Mr. Hales's
little red truck. That first night
Buddy was gone, was the emptiest,
darkest night we had had lately and
the second, and third nights grew
progressively worse. Each member
of our family was feeling the same,
but no one wanted to express it.
A phone call to Mr. Hales on the
fourth day revealed bad news. Our
Editor
beloved, gentle, harmless Buddy ?
had become vicious and would not
cooperate with Mr. Hales. Needless
to say our local dog warden had his
hands full. He told us he could not
get near Buddy and could not give
him to new owners until he was sure
of the safety factor. His exposure to
a hazardous dog did not seem to
daunt his determination to con
tinue to work with the dog, hoping
to eventually present a "reformed" a
Buddy to the new owners. His ?
patience was as evident as the bite
marks and scratches on his arms
from previous "clients."
Finally, we felt as a family, that
Buddy was too much a part of us.
Mr. Hales, being the patient man
that he is, offered to return Buddy
to us. This man's gentle and
patient ways were quite unex
pected. Having moved to the
Raeford area from a larger city, we ^
are more accustomed to a short- W
tempered and impatient service
than this man offered. He could
have said "Look lady, I came to
your house once and picked this
mutt up and nearly lost my arms
doing so, and put up with him for
four miserable days. Now if you
want him, you come and get him.''
But instead, when 1 thanked him
for putting up with Buddy and with ^
Buddy's family, who changed their ?
minds, he replied in a gentle
manner, "Well, that's my job."
Hats off to you, Mr. Hales.
Nancy Wells
This Is The Law
WAGE EARNER PLANS
People usually think bankruptcy
requires the debtor to lose his
property-or most of it. However,
that is not always the case.
A certain kind of bankruptcy,
called a "wage earner plan", is
designed to allow a person to pay
his debts out of his income and
keep his property.
Typically, a wage earner plan
provides that the debtor will make
payments over a three-year period,
although the Bankruptcy Court
may permit up to five years.
The debtor must have a regular {
income, out of which he will pay a
specified amount through the court
for the benefit of his creditors. The
court will not require him to pay
more of his income than he can
reasonably afford.
A person feeling overwhelmed
with debts may find it helpful to
investigate the relief available
through a wage earner plan.
AtotH 70 ptrfitnt . of tht pcopU in Amar
lea rtad a mwapipir at laatt orici i day.