Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Feb. 20, 1969, edition 1 / Page 1
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scon PROPOSES MASSIVE EXTENSION OF INEQUITABLE SYSTEM OF TAXATION By Jack Rider There had been some fleet log hope that Governor Bob Scott might come up with some thing basically new when he got around to recommending taxes to underwrite the programs he believes essential for the con tinued progress of North Caro lina. This fleeting hope fled last Wednesday when Scott unveil ed his budget and the sources of revenue in Support of that bud get Scott proposed nothing new; only a criminal extension of an ancient and inequitable system that is based on the most an cient of political principles: Which is to divide and conquer. Although Scott called for a five-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes sold in North Caro qlina there certainly is nothing pew about taxing cigarettes. The federal government already col lects 12% cents on each package manufactured in the nation, and already North Carolina under its general sales tax laws adds ano ther penny; so what Scott recom mends is not a new tax, but only a sharply increased tax. The same, only to a worse degree, is his recommendation of increased taxes on whisky and beer, which are already taxed to the point of diminishing returns. / THE JOI^ES COUNTY NUMBER 44 TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1969 VOLUME XVI Robert Noble One of 74 of State's 12,000 Students With Perfect Grades; Three Others from Jones Honored A Jones County student has earned a perfect academic rec ord to win scholastic honors at N. C. State University. Chancellor John T. Caldiwell announced that Robert Theodore Noble of Dover was among 74 out of 12,000 NCSU students to score a 4.0 record during the fall semester. Noble, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clifton Noble of Route 2, Dover, is a senior electrical engineering major. He also had a perfect academic record for fall semest er last year, and was on the Dean’s List with an average of “B” or better last spring Three other Jones County men were named to the Dean’s List, announced Chancellor Caldwell. They are Walter L. Adams Jr., Randall 0. Dawson and Cecil S. Hargett Jr. Adams, also an elect rical engineering student, of Route 2, Trenton, is a junior. Dawson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Dawson of Route 3, Kins ton, is a sophomore studying in the agricultural institute. - Hargett is a sophomore liberal arts student of Route 2, Rich First Weed Charge Last waste Kinston polios ar rested 22-year-old Robert L. Hart of 19-F Carver Courts and charg ed him with possession of a small quantity of marijuana. This is the first indictment of but loo lands. He is married to the form er Annette Gray, and they have one child. Cove City Branch Craven Technical Institute to Open A formal opening will be held Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. for the Cove City Program med Learning Laboratory locat ed in the former Cove City Ele mentary School budding. Featured guest speaker will be Joseph E. Carter, Coordinator Learning Laboratories, North Carolina Department of Commu nity Colleges. This will be the first time Craven Technical Institute’s Learning Laboratory officially opens an extension unit. Mrs. Shirley T. Jones, Direc tor of the Library-Learning Cen ter, and William. D. Newberry Craven Technical Institute’s Learning Laboratory Coordina tor, will Acquaint those in at tendance with the materials available in the Cove Gty Branch. ; * Uve Rarhura TVtvft lux9. JtnUtnUit lUwll>uvnO) wyo City Learning Laboratory Co ordinator, invites the public to attend.^ SELDOM USED CHARGE James Stallins was indicted by the sheriff department last week on a seldom used charge: receiv Some Life Sentence In 1961 a young Ayden high school student, Kenneth Jolly, was given a "life" term in pris on for the extremely brutal mur der of a young Wayne County housewife. That he was only 16 was the excuse for not sending him to the gas chamber. Gov ernor Ten-y Sanford paid a political debt to a member of Jolly's family just before his term ended when he commuted the '"life" sentence to one of 3D years. Monday Jolly was be fore the state paroles commis sion, trying to gdt out of pris on after less than eight years. His parole was denied but an official said it would come up for automatic review again on February 17, 1970, and each year afterward until the house wife has been ^completely for gotten and then he will be re leased, at least this is a logical presumption. To Eglin Field Airman Helen M. Wilson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thurl B. Wilson, Route 1, Dover, has {received her first Air Force duty assignment after complet ing basic training at Lackland AEB, Tex. The airman has been assigned to a, unit of the Air Force Systems Command at Eglin AFB, Fla., for training and duty in the. administrative field. Airman Wilson is a ,1967 grad uate of Farm Life High School, Vanceboro. CHASING CHECK ARTISTS v? The Lenoir County Sheriff Department spent a goodly part of its weekend chasing bad check artists in the western end of the county.—The roundup listed Lew Arthur of La Grange, Jesse Joyner, Jr., Leslie Lee Joyner, Norman Cannon, Mose ley Lee Hardy, and Frank Har ris all of La Grange route 1 on charges of passing worthless And in adopting this com pounding of an ancient tax fel ony Scott apparently has com pletely deserted any notion of turning toward the only equita ble tax system, which is a com bination of sales, use and income taxes. The unprincipled principle that has been operative much too long is both cowardly and in equitable in that it imposes upon one or two legal items of trade a vastly disproportionate share of the burden of government. The view that taxing luxuries is less onerous than taxing nec essities is the grossest kind of class legislation; not against a class of people, since in our af fluent society a larger per cent of the poor man’s income is spent on “luxuries” than that of a wealthier citizen. So the class aspect of such legislation is against a specific class, or two of manufactured product. It is too much, of course, to hope that all the ancient sins of this order could be correct ed in a generation, and certain ly not in one four-year guber natorial administration, but it is not too much to hope that on some day some legislature will take the first step down the long, long road toward a fair system of taxation. If the 1969 session of the North Carolina General Assem bly adopts the recommendation of Governor Scott it will be walk ing backwards, rather than for ward in the battle of fairness. Par the State of North Caro lina to impose a five-cent tax ©n a manufactured product that costs less than 11 cents — less taxes — at the factory door is Three from Jones ; County Complete ACC Degree Work Sixty-four seniors at Atlantic Christian College completed de gree requirements at conclusion of the fall semester and will be :awarded bachelors degrees at She college’s commencement scheduled for May 30. Among those completing de gree requirements were Linda Sue Andrews of Trenton; Rose mary Mallard of Pollocisville; ■and Frankie Greene Penny of Trenton. REALLY AWOL! Last week Kinston police pick ed up Victor Brown of 105 West South Street on charge that he was absent without leave from the armed forces. Records indi cate that he had been absent fnom his post since September 28, 1968. legalized robbery. That other states do this badly, or worse is hardly an excuse for such abuse, and especially when that particular product is the No. 1 farm income item for the state and one of the major employers of industrial workers in the state. The tobacco in a pack of cig arettes puts a fraction under one cent in the pocket of the farmer who grew it. At present it puts 12% cents in the federal treas ury, one cent in the North Caro lina treasury. All the costs of sale, storage, transportation, and manufacture, plus the ad valor em taxes levied at each level have to divide the remains of whatever the retail price even tually is established. Whether tobacco is a killer or a blessing is sfill undecided by either the medical or social scien tists, but it is used by every class of citizen, regardless of race, creed, national origin or fi nancial status. So taxing tobacco is just as hard on one group of citizens as any other. Bread is used also by all except the dieting breed, and it makes no more sense to put such a confiscatory tax on tobacco than on bread, or milk. Sales taxes should be levied on every commodity in trade, and at the identical rate. Only in the realm of gasoline taxes is this practiced by North Caro lina. The person who rides a lot on the highways pays a lot of gasoline tax, but there is hard ily a session of the general as sembly when some sainted group such as school teachers or other state employees do not seek to divert highway taxes for other uses. Passage of Scott’s program and its supporting taxes is far from an accomplished fact at this writing, and if members of the General Assembly will avoid being stampeded and resist the temptation of official bribery there is just a little more than a fair chance that it will not be passed as presented. A flat sales tax, with no ex ceptions and no maximums; a flat income tax with no excep tions and no maximums are the simple tax package that can most fairly provide the funds need ed for operation of government. And Scott and all others who have noble programs should have the guts to put forth a tax program that would hit ev ery taxpayer and every commo dity with equal force, rather than trying the ancient shell game device of putting the tax bite under a different shell while the taxpaying yokel’s eye is dis tracted by political hocus-pocus and fiscal chicanery. It is fortunate, despite some recent rceommendations on the point that in North Carolina it is still the governor who pro poses and the General Assembly disposes, and without the possi bility of veto by the governor. March 1st Application Deadline for Grants to Future Tar Heel Teachers Applications for the Prospec tive Teacher Scholarship Loan Fun, a program created by the 1957 General Assembly to en courage students to train as teachers, must be submitted no later than March 1, 1969. Students interested in teach ing in the North Carolina pub lic schools and who are in need of financial assistance for college training during the—1969-70 school year should write to: Scholarship Section, Division of Teacher Education, Department of Public Instruction, Raleigh, 27602. According to Morris C. Brown, «Jpervi*ar o£„Jhe Teacher Scholarship Loan Program, about 600 awards will be made in March in April. Each recip ient will receive $600 per year for up to four years of study. “Priority will be given to appli cants who plan to teach in the elementary grades; however, other areas of study will be con sidered,” he said. A scholarship loan recipient may fulfill his obligation to the State by teaching in the pub lic schools of North Carolina one year for each year of assistance received. More than 2,000 stu dents are currently receiving fi nancial aid through* the pro
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Feb. 20, 1969, edition 1
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