Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / Feb. 2, 1983, edition 1 / Page 1
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?m ?? mm M|l . MADISON ? ? ?? ? ?? M M M ? COUNTY I ME n Cvv3 VCI _ _ SERVING THE PEOPLE OF AAADISON COUNTY * ' ? 82nd Year NO. 5 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C. WEDNESDAY, February 2, 1983 15c K Copy Sen. Roy all Proposes 1% Sales Tax Increase State Sen. Kenneth Roy all (D. -Durham) introduced legislation in the General Assembly Friday to increase the state sales tax one per cent. Titled "The North Carolina Anti-Recession Public Works and Tax Equity Act of 1963," the bill would also increase the sales tax on autos while phasing out the present sales tax on food. The Royall bill also calls for spending the increased tax revenues on water and sewer projects for local govern ments, repairing public schools and state government buildings and matching federal aid for highways. Speaking to newsmen in Chapel Hill Friday, Royall said, "It's not a perfect bill, and I'm sure the assembly will work the bugs out of it, but it's a step in the right direction. If North Carolina is going to move forward, we've got to do something like this." Introduced as Senate Bill Number 51, the Royall measure would raise the three percent state sales tax in 1963, phase out the sales tax on food over two years and increase the tax on car sales from the present $200 to >300. The state food sales tax would be reduc ed to two percent in 1983-84, and an additional one percent in both 1984-85 and 1985-86. The measure would also eliminate the local option sales tax on food in 1985-86. According to figures sup plied by Royall, the bill would raise an additional $230 million in the 1983-84 fiscal year. The increase in revenues would provide $60 million for construction of wastewater treatment plants and water supply systems. An additional $60 million would be provided for construction and repair of public school facilities. According to the Royall bill, $55 million would be used to match federal highway funds generated by the five cent increase in the gasoline tax. The remaining $55 million would be allocated for improvements to the state university system, repair of state government facilities and technical instruction equipment for the state com munity college system. Addressing the same Chapel Hill meeting of newsmen, Lt. Gov. Jimmy Green endorsed the Royall bill, calling it, "A fair plan to raise revenues." Both Green and Royall pointed to shortfalls in an ticipated revenue growth in the current fiscal year. Forecast in 1982 for a growth rate of nine percent, revenue growth for the first five mon ths of the current fiscal year has reached only 4.9 percent . Gov. Hunt has asked for a six percent cutback in spending to remedy the shortfall. Hunt has also asked local school boards to trim two percent from their spending. Green, Royall and Rep. A1 Adams of Wake County also endorsed a study of the possibility of a state-run lot tery to raise revenues. New North Buncombe High School Endorsed By ELIZABETH D. SQUIRE The Bumcombe County Board of Education met Mon day night and reversed an earlier decision giving priori ty to construction 6f a new Enka High School. By a vote of 4-1, the board proposed building the new high schools in both Enka and North Bun come simuitaniously in the . next five years. The proposal is contingent upon the passage of Senate Bill 51 which would increase the state sales tax one percent and an adoption of a 10 cent per 1100 ad valorem tax on county property evaluations. If both tax increases become reality, it is expected that con struction on a new Enka High School could be completed in 1987. A new North Buncombe High School could be com pleted by 1968. The Monday night decision was "a small victory," accor ding to John Kilby, co chairman of a citizens' com mittee working for better schools in North Buncombe. Kilby said that the commit tee would work for passage of the sales tax increase and sup plemental county tax and will continue to make Buncombe County commissioners aware of the needs of North Bun combe communities. The committee which is spearheading a drive con struction of a.new North Bun combe High School has asked Akzona Corp. to drop or ex tend its 1968 deadline for the start of construction on a new Enka High School. The Buncombe County Board of Education has given top priority to the Enka High School project rather than North Buncombe, citing the startup deadline (or the Enka site in its purchase of the land held by Akzona. The newly formed North Buncombe committee has asked residents of the North Buncombe area to support the 1 drive for the new school by 1 staying in touch with commit- ! tee members from various parts of the area. John Kilby of Weaverville is the representative from his area and serves as co chairman with Rev. John Kel ly of Hemphill. Weaverville also has three school advisory committee nembers on the group: Richard Lasher, middle school; Curtis Bitner, primary; and David Bradley, North Buncombe High School. J.T. Ray represents the Hillside community. Community and school representatives, respectively, from each school district in North Buncombe are: Pat Sluder and Terry Herbert of French Broad; Sam Tucker and Rev. Roy Shepherd of Flat Creek; Marshall Roberts and Rudy Carson of Barnard sville; and Norma Chander and Buddy Randall of Red Oak. The committee also includes Paul Salks, student represen tative of North Buncombe High School; Kyle Boone, ar chitect for the proposed new school, and Mike Laster, representing the school's Hawk Club. N.C. Unemployment Showed Decline In December The statewide total unemployment rate declined to 9.0 percent in December ac cording to figures released to day by Glenn R. Jemigan, chairman of the'N.C. Employ ment Security Commission. The rate in November was 9.5 percent. The December rate of 9.0 percent represented 262,700 jobless workers, a decrease of 16.000 from the previous month. Hie national unad justed rate in December was 10. S percent (11,628,000 unemployed). Jernigan said, "We feel that the decline resulted from fewer temporary layoffs in mid-December. Also there were fewer unemployment en trants and reentrants into the labor force. In fact, figures for the civilian labor force, total employment and total unemployment all decreased. There is some feeling that ' perhaps unemployment may : have leveled off in December and that our economy may be ; recovering slightly." Manufacturing jobs overall showed no change from I November to December. In i durable goods, Lumber and I Wood (up 100), Furniture and Fixtures (up 300), and Machinery (up 900) showed minimal improvement. Other categories had small declines. In nondurable goods, the leaders were Textile Mill Pro ducts (up 1,100), Paper & Allied Products (up 300) and Printing, Publishing & Allied (Up 400). Declines were general and slight for other categories. Nonmanufacturing jobs overall incresed. Trade led with a gain of 3,600 jobs as a result of the expected seasonal employment. Government i moved up 1,100 jobs due primarily to the employment of students and support per sonnel in the educational . in stitutions. The average weekly hours worked by production workers in manufacturing rose to 38.9 in mid-December from 38.7 in mid-November. In mid November 1981, workers averaged 38 5 hours per week. The average hourly earn ings of North Carolina'* pro duction workers in manufac turing increased. In mid December, earnings were $6.52, up from $6.45 Jury Acquits Graham After hearing two days of testimony, it took a Buncombe Couty Superior Court jury less than an hour to acquit Madison County rest home operator Mildred Graham of conducting unfair trade. The eight man, four women jury denied damages sought by Sue Steele Correll of Salisbury. Correll asked for damages in connection with her son's three-week stay in the home operated by Graham in 1980. Correll was supported in her suit by the Governor's Ad vocacy Council for Persons with Diabilities. She was represented by attorney for the council Karen Sindelar and Asheville attorney Gary i I Cash. Earlier, on Jan. 20, Judge Ronald C. Howell dismissed charges of fraud and ordered the jury to consider only charges of unfair trade and related mental stress suffered by Correll. The previous day, the judge had also dismissed charges of breach of contract and negligence because .of lack of evidence. During the trial, attorneys for Correll charged that Graham had falsely represented her boarding home as a licensed rest home. Attorney Gary Cash said that Graham lied so that she could receive state funding given on ly to licensed homes. Graham was represented by I Ervin Ball, Jr. Ball told the ' jury that the N.C. Department of Human Resources was un fairly using Graham to make an example of problems in rest homes and boarding homes across the state. Graham's Madison County facility was closed several months ago after she pleaded guilty in Madison County Superior Court to charges of operating an unlicensed rest home. She still faces five more lawsuits filed by former residents and employees of the facility. The lawsuits are scheduled to be heard in the next few months. P-I-K Is Explained Secretary of Agriculture Block has announced details of a voluntary program where producers who will participate in the paid diversion program will be offered an amount of commodity (such as corn) as a payment-in-kind (PIK) for an additional 10% to 30% reduction of 1983 planted acreage. This means farmers who participate in this PIK pro gram would receive as pay ment an amount of com, wheat, sorghum, etc. from the Comodity Credit Corporation for reducing their planted acreage of the commodity by this additionl percentage ( 10% to 30%). There are three op tions available to farmers who wish to participate: 1. Participate in the regular diversion program (20% reduction). 2. Participate in the regular diversion program, plus the 10% to 30% Payment-In-Kind. 3. Bid to divert the entire farm acreage base. Those who sign up for the Payment-In-Kind package will sign a contract to receive a cetain amount of bushels of the commodity they would have produced on the PIK acreage. For corn, the percen tage is 80% times the farm's established yield. This com modity becomes the farmers to do with as he wishes (use it or sell it). Sign-up began January 24 and will end March 11, 1963. Contracts must be signed at the Madison County ASCS by March U. Anyone signing up could withdraw or change their percentage of reduction ( between 10% and 30% ) before March 11. After that date, (Continued on Page 8 Delivery Points Are Named The period of Feb. 15 through March 4 has been set by the Burley Stabilization Corp. as the time for receiving carryover tobacco in Ten nessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina, according to the corporation's managing director, William Myers. Carryover tobacco is leaf in excess of 110 percent of the 1982 quota and would be sub ject to penalty if sold in 1962. In announcing the dates for delivery, Myers said that deliveries of the carryover tobacco can be made to the Austin Co. of Greeneville and Gallatin, Tenn. Growers in terested in delivering their carryover leaf to the delivery points should call the Austin Co. after Feb.7 to arrange for an appointment. The Auston Co. offices in Greeneville, Tenn., are located on West Irish Street behind the Pet Milk Co. H>e telephone number in Greeneville is (615) 639-6562 In Gallatin, Tenn., the com pany's offices are located on Council Street in front of Dun can's Diner. The Gallatin of ( Continued on Page 8 Report From The Speaker I By REP. I.ISTON RAMSEY The 135th General Assembly of North Carolina is off to a smooth start, but so far as the State budget is concerned the road could get a little rocky before we are through. An unusually tight budget was the chief topic of conver sation as the session fdrmally opened at Noon on January IX. I was pleased and honored to be elected to a second straight two-year term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. As was the case the first time, I received the oath of of fice from Lacy Thronburg of Jackson County, resident Superior Court Judge of the 30th Judicial District. Likewise, a great many of my friends from Western North Carolina returned for the ring ceremonies, and it a great pleasure to have them on hand. committees," I selected the same individuals who served so ably during the 1981 session ? Representative Dwight Quinn of Cabarrus County as Finace Committee Chairman and Representatives Billy Watkins of Granville County and A1 Adams of Wake County as Appropriations Committee Chairmen. Several Western North Carolina Representatives will chair important committees, including Gordon Greenwood of Buncombe County, Ap propriations Expansion Budget Committee on Educa tion; Marie Cotton of Bun combe, Cultural Resources; Martin Nerfbttt of Bunromh. Small Business; Jeff Enloe of Macon County, ?nplo> Security; Jack Hunt of of the State address to a Joint session and the official presen tation of the proposed 1982-45 budget. The budget, prepared by the Governor and the Advisory Budget Commission, proposes spending >12.55 billion over the next two years. As outlined by the Governor, the budget is a tight one and contains only one expansion item : lifting the freeze on merit pay and salary step increases for State employees and teachers. There seems to be total agreement that this will be one of the toughest budgets we have handled in many years The recession has cut sharply into the revenues of our State government, and It will be a real challenge to fund all at ade shapes up as the major issue of the session thus far. This is the first issue of a report to the people which I plan to release through this newspaper on a periodic basis. I take seriously my obligation to keep in close touch with the people of my District and I hope this will help me to do so. The makeup of my District has been changed somewhat since the last session. Two townships in Graham County ? Stecoah and Yellow Creek ? have been added to my District which includes Haywood, Jackson, Madison, and Swain Counties. And the District number has been changed from 44th to and. To every citizen of the District, Jet me say that my door is always open to yon. Clarke Responds To Reagan In response to President Reagan's State of the Union message Tuesday night, Uth District Congressman James McClure Clarke called on government leaders to take an active role in the solutions to our country's economic pro blems. "President Reagan's State of the Union speech hit the right note in saying that we in government must take the lead in restoring the economy," Clarke said. Although this is quite a change from his earlier statements, 1 welcome his new approach." "Although the President seems to realize that enor mous federal deficits are serious," Clarke said, "he does not seem to understand that further large tax cuts will increase the deficit. Mr. Reagan believes that the deficits are caused primarily by an overgrown domestic budget . I agree that we need to watch domestic spending closely, but I also feel that we need to look at savings in the Defense budget and consider revisions in the administra tion's tax plan." Congressman Clarke also opposed the President's call for enactment of a bill to pro vide tuition tax credits for those who send their children to private schools. "Hie tui tion tax credits which the President calls for would not only seriously weaken public schools." Clarke said, "but they would also add substan tially to the federal deficit." Clarke Receives Appointments 11th District Congressman James McGhire Clarke has been Appointed to the Interior and Insular Affair* Commit tee and the Public Works and Committee for ?. Clarke said \ In the Interior Com to Western Put and the Blue Ridge Parkway, portions of the Pisoah National Forest and the Nantahala National Forest, the UnviUe Gorge Wilderness Area, and smaller attractions such as the Carl Sanburg home in Flat Bock "I'm redly pleaaad with the hard to Rata a Umited number * Beats on the committee, and
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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