The Daily Tar HeelFriday, September 15, 19893
City and State
Transportation Advisory
By JESSICA LANNING
Assistant City Editor
The elimination of the Transporta
tion Advisory Board's (TAB) plan for
improved traffic circulation in Carrboro
was not the only casualty from Tuesday
night's public hearing about the plan.
Steve Oglesbee, two-year chairman
of the TAB, resigned Thursday, saying
that the Carrboro Board of Aldermen's
decision to table the plan was the straw
that broke the camel's back.
"What threw me over the line was
the decision that they (the aldermen)
UoSo House blocks vote oun bill to
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Jesse Helms
v
o
Senate passes bil
to end smoking on
all domestic flights
By GLENN O'NEAL
Staff Writer
An amendment that prohibits smok
ing on all domestic flights in the United
States was approved Thursday by the
U.S. Senate despite objections from
N.C. senators Jesse Helms and Terry
Sanford.
Along with the smoking restrictions,
the amendment would mandate a $ 1 ,000
fine for smoking on airline flights and
a $2,000 fine for destroying a smoke
detector on an airplane, said Jim
Townsend, press spokesman for Sen.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., sponsor of
the amendment.
At about 1 1 a.m. Thursday , the Senate
passed 77-21 a motion of cloture,
limiting debate on the amendment to 30
hours, Townsend said. Later that after
;noon the Senate passed the amend
ment. The date for a final vote on the
entire bill has not been set.
"We definitely have the votes to win
final passage," he said.
"(Lautenberg) proposed this legisla
tion because medical evidence has
indicated clearly that second-hand
passive smoke is very much as danger
' ous, particularly in confined areas, as
' direct smoking. The senator feels this
'. comes down to a question of individual
rights of passengers."
. The senator believes the rights of
people who do not smoke must be
. protected because they do not make a
choice to breathe, whereas smokers
. make the choice to smoke, Townsend
:-said.
Sen. Sanford, D-N.C, is opposed to
the amendment for a couple of reasons,
said Rafe Greenlee, spokesman for the
senator.
: N.C. farmers will be directly affected
as smoking bans are increased, he said.
" Congress commissioned the Depart
ment of Transportation for a study on
airline smoking which is expected in
made," Oglesbee said. "I was extremely
disappointed with the Board of Alder
men as a whole."
The plan, which proposed to allevi
ate the traffic congestion in Carrboro
by creating a one-way loop with Weaver
and Main streets, widening Merritt Mill
Road and adding road extensions to
Lloyd, Carr and Parker streets and
Brewer Lane, was opposed by about 50
residents and business people who
spoke at the hearing.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the
aldermen decided to eliminate major
By CRYSTAL BERNSTEIN
Staff Writer
A vote on an amendment that would
prohibit the National Endowment of
the Arts (NEA) from funding objec
tionable art was blocked Wednesday in
the U.S. House of Representatives.
The amendment to the Interior
Appropriations Bill was proposed July
26 by N.C- Sen. Jesse Helms. It would
forbid funding for obscene or indecent
material; material that defames objects
or beliefs of a religion or non-religion;
and material that defames a person or
group on the basis of race, creed, sex,
handicap, age or national origin, said
Virginia Falck, NEA public affairs
specialist.
The bill, which also provides fund
ing for park service, education and the
humanities, provides about $171 mil
lion for the NEA for the 1990 fiscal
year.
March 1990, said Greenlee. The study
cost the taxpayers $750,000, he said.
The senator would like to see the study
and wait for conclusive evidence be
fore a measure is passed, he said.
The amendment was added in the
Senate Appropriations Committee a
procedure Sanford objected to, Green
lee said. The group that usually has
jurisdiction over such matters is the
Committee of Commerce, Science and
Transportation, chaired by Sen. Ernest
Hollings, D-S.C, who is sympathetic
to tobacco interests, he said.
It is a lot easier for Lautenberg to get
legislation in the Appropriations Com
mittee than to go through the Commit
tee of Commerce, he said.
Lautenberg is chairman of the Trans
portation Appropriations Subcommit
tee which has jurisdiction over funding
for aviation, said Townsend. "Clearly,
the issue is germane to transportation.
Public outcry has been such that we
wanted to move quickly on it."
Helms has always supported the
tobacco farmer in North Carolina, said
Bob Caudle, staff assistant to Helms in
the Raleigh office. He will always
support tobacco interests as long as it is
a legal product, he said.
The press spokesman for Helms in
his Washington office could not be
reached for comment.
"(The amendment) seems to be a
move on behalf of government to engi
neer people away from the use of to
bacco," said J.T. Bunn of the Leaf
Tobacco Exporters Association. "Here
again, the government is looking into
the lives of people and deciding what is
good for them."
The amendment further reduces the
places where people can smoke, he
said. "There is a definite correlation
between the amount of smoking and
opportunities to smoke."
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parts of the plan and then tabled the
plan.
Oglesbee said he made the same
presentation to the aldermen in Decem
ber 1988 and that the aldermen were
receptive and enthusiastic about the
plan.
"They gave in to political pressure. I
think they politically wimped out.
They've done a disservice to the town."
The residents spoke about very spe
cific problems that could have been
worked out to preserve the ideas and
objectives of the plan, Oglesbee said.
Arguments for the anti-obscenity
amendment have been fueled by sev
eral examples of NEA-supported art.
The Southeastern Center for Contem
porary Art (SCCA) in Winston-Salem,
which received a $70,000 grant from
the endowment, recently awarded
photographer Andres Serrano (along
with nine other artists) $15,000 for his
contribution to art. One of the pieces
Serrano submitted ("Piss Christ") was
a photograph of a crucifix submerged
in urine, Falck said.
The amendment's supporters also
object to the Gay Sunshine Press, said
David Eisner, a press secretary for Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. The peri
odical has received $40,000 from the
NEA and contains graphic drawings of
bestiality and homosexual orgies and
pictures depicting the Statue of Liberty
as a transvestite, Eisner said. Rohra
bacher is one of the amendment's
Zebulon
By WENDY BOUNDS
Staff Writer
The Raleigh owner of a Class AA
minor-league baseball team in Co
lumbus, Ga., said Tuesday he had
been given permission to move the
team to Zebulon.
Steve Bryant, President of Pro
Sports Franchises Inc., has been the
owner of the Columbus Mudcats, an
affiliate of the Houston Astros, for
about a year. He has been attempt
ing to establish a Wake County team
for two-and-a-half years.
But a new 35-mile rule adopted
by professional baseball officials
have brought his efforts to a stand
still. "Our location in Zebulon is 38
miles from the nearest minor league
team and is the absolute closest spot
available near Raleigh that we can
put a new team," Bryant said.
The 35-mile rule prohibits any
minor league team to be placed
within 35 miles of another. The
requirement of a 10-mile distance
between teams was recently changed
in response to lobbyist efforts led by
Durham Bulls owner, Miles Wolff.
Republicans
From Associated Press reports
WASHINGTON The government
would come out ahead if it repealed or
relaxed a law that reduces the Social
Security benefits of senior citizens who
earn more than a limited amount of
outside income, a group of House
Republicans said Thursday.
GOP critics of Social Security's
earnings test released a private study
concluding that at least 700,000 retir
ees would rejoin the labor market if the
law were scrapped. The new workers
would generate more in income and
payroll taxes than the government
would pay out in increased Social
Security benefits.
"The retirement earnings limit is a
cruel penalty imposed on elderly work
ers," said Aldona Robbins, a former
Treasury Department economist who
Board chairman
The plan was a long-range set of ideas
to implement over the next two dec
ades, presented so residents would not
be "shocked" when the ideas became a
reality.
The aldermen should have listened
to the residents and assured them atten
tion would be given to sensitive areas,
but should not have tabled the whole
plan, he said. "To scrap an entire plan
because of those who spoke about
specific aspects is irresponsible for an
elected official."
The TAB worked on the plan for two
strongest supporters in the House.
The amendment, which passed the
Senate, is now being discussed in a
ponference between both houses of
Congress. The House voted 264-153 to
drop the amendment but also voted
410-3 to have those participating in the
conference address the amendment's
concerns.
As it is now worded, the amendment
is impossible to abide by and enforce,
Falck said. "It's ridiculously broad. The
sweeping breadth of the amendment's
prohibitions raise doubts as to its con
stitutionality." The amendment would also force
the endowment to act as a "cultural
czar" by making its members deter
mine what art is obscene and what isn't,
she said.
The NEA has given about 80,000
to get minor-league
The Durham Bulls are a Class A team
and will be the closest minor league
team to the Wake County team.
Each major-league team has one low
A minor team, one high A, one AA and
one AAA the latter being the highest
level. There are only 26 AA and AAA
minor-league teams in the world.
But Bryant said he didn't think the
higher AA status of the Mudcats will
draw a significant number of baseball
fans from Durham to Zebulon.
"The AA status might have a little to
do with it, but basically the Chapel Hill
and Durham viewers will still go to see
the Durham Bulls. Our target audi
ences are the baseball fans in Raleigh,
Wilson and Rocky Mount."
The stadium will be built near the
intersection of U.S. 264 and N.C. 39
and is expected to be completed by
April 1991. Financing for the stadium
will come from both private and public
funds in the counties, he said. He pre
dicts the cost to be around $6 million.
The 8,000-seat stadium will bring
more business and tourism to Zebulon,
said Charles Home, Zebulon town
manager.
"Mudcat baseball is wonderful. It
seek change in Social Security laws
co-authored the study. "It punishes the
elderly but doesn't save the govern
ment any money."
The study was sponsored by two
conservative-oriented research groups
in Dallas, the Institute for Policy Inno
vation and the National Center for
Policy Analysis, and released by a task
force of the House Republican Research
Committee.
Rep. Dennis Hasten, chairman of
the committee's Task Force on the
Social Security Earnings Test, said the
study bolsters the case for legislation to
repeal the limits and deflects arguments
that the change would be too costly.
"That's the importance of this study,
that we can start to tell the White House,
'Listen, there isn't a revenue cost here,'
" said Hasten, whose bill to eliminate
the earnings test for those aged 65 and
years, which means weekend and eve
ning sessions, Oglesbee said. "They
took two years of my efforts and threw
them in the trash can. It's like a kick in
the teeth."
Oglesbee, a resident of Carrboro,
said he may get involved in town affairs
when some of the aldermen change in
elections and time allows.
"I still like Carrboro. I still think it's
a great place to live."
Hilliard Caldwell, alderman and
mayor pro tempore, advocated elimi
nating parts of the plan that would
halt funds for art
grants, less than one-fourth of one
tenth of a percent of which have caused
protest, Falck said.
If passed, the amendment would
permit government funding for neo
classical art since almost all art could
be considered objectionable by some
group, said Dennis Szakacs, director of
communications at SCCA. Neo-classical
art is the kind of art found in the
average American home. "It would take
the bite out of art, and one of the things
that has always defined art and art
making is a bite. It would be a tragedy."
Deciding who would be responsible
for classifying the art would be diffi
cult, said Mary Regan, executive direc
tor of the N.C. Arts Council. "It's almost
overwhelming to think about how
complicated it would be."
Others say the amendment is needed
to set definite limits on what kinds of
has sent tremors of excitement through
out the town. In restaurants, on the
street, in the shops, the topic of baseball
always comes up. Many people want to
be a part of it when it opens in '91."
Home said he believed the town of
Zebulon would able to shoulder the
burden of increased traffic and visiting
fans. Viewers won't have to cut through
the actual town because of the stadium's
location, he said.
The Mudcats will have a significant
impact on the economic development
of Zebulon.
"Steve Bryant and I have discussed
the rippling effect that baseball involve
ment in this town will have, especially
where commerce is concerned," Home
said. "The economic factors the team
will bring will be seen throughout the
town in the housing industry, restau
rants, dry cleaning and gas stations, to
name a few. We hope to attract enough
people to stimulate the need to build a
nice restaurant here in Zebulon."
The establishment of the team will
provide about 150 jobs in Zebulon
during the five summer months of 1 99 1 ,
Bryant said.
"We will also hand-select a 15- to
above has more than 130 co-sponsors.
"Eliminating the earnings limit is sound
policy. It's basically a win-win situ
ation." Under current law, workers aged 65
to 69 lose $ 1 in Social Security benefits
for every $2 they earn above $8,880.
The limit is $6,480 for workers under
age 65; there is no limit for those 70 or
older.
Starting in 1990, benefits for those
age 65 to 69 will be reduced by $1 for
every $3 earned above the limit, which
rises with growth in average wages.
Almost 1 million Social Security
beneficiaries lose some or all of their
benefits each year, and an additional
100,000 people in the 65-69 age group
do not file for Social Security benefits
because of the limit, according to the
Social Security Administration.
resigns
disrupt the lives and homes of resi
dents. He said he wished Oglesbee had
not left the board, but said he did not
support the plan.
"They (the residents) convinced me
that the problem only happens two times
a day at an hour each. We do have a
downtown parking problem, but not a
circulation problem."
Caldwell feels it was his responsibil
ity to listen to the needs of the people
before making decisions, he said. "They
are also citizens, it affected them, it
didn't affect Steve Oglesbee."
art can be funded by tax money. "Art
ists can do whatever they want as long
as it's funded on their own time and
their own dime," Eisner said. "All we're
saying is they don't have a right to take
taxpayers' dollars."
The public should not have to pay for
art it doesn't want to see, said Dee
Dickelman, legislative liaison for the
American Family Association. "Public
funding should be used for public art.
How can they expect art that is only
qualified for private collections to be
funded by the government?"
Supporters of the amendment say if
it does not pass Congress in its current
form, some form of restriction will
eventually be placed on government
funded art.
"It's not dead," Dickelman said.
"Even if this particular amendment does
not go through, the issue is not dead."
basebal
20-member staff for office positions
in Raleigh, Rocky Mount and Wilson.
This is unheard of in the minor
leagues."
Speculation about whether the
Mudcats' name will stick in Wake
County is circulating. Future fans
seem to like the name and think its
symbol of a fighting fish is appropri
ate for the East Coast state of North
Carolina.
The name will be chosen for cer
tain after funding by county and city
municipalities is completed, Bryant
said.
With plans for a Wake County
minor-league baseball team nearing
completion, fans will have to control
their excitement until 1991.
But Home insists the end result
will be well worth the wait. Zebulon
is ready for the Mudcats, he said.
"I wore my Mudcat hat, which is
the only one in the community, to the
Wake County meeting on Wednes
day to welcome them all to Mudcat
country. When they're ready, we're
ready."
The researchers said their best esti
mate was that if the earnings limit were
scrapped for those aged 65 and above,
there would be a net revenue gain of
$ 140 million for the government, while
expanding the earnings limit just to the
optimal level of $39,360 would cut the
deficit by $3.2 billion a year.
Workers earning more than that
amount most likely have not dropped
out of the work force so that exempting J
them from the earnings test would not
bring in new tax revenue but would still '
cost more in Social Security benefits.
"Short of abolishing the earnings
test, virtually any increase in the earn
ings limit would lead to an increase in
federal revenue that would more than
offset the increase in Social Security
benefit payments," the researchers
reported.