Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 96, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 December 1981 — Page 3

Expensive autos targeted Hike excise tax on some cars?

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - If you drive an expensive car, you could pay higher excise tax if a measure proposed by an Indiana lawmaker becomes law. The higher taxes would provide an added $1.3 million for local governments. Rep. Paul Mannweiler, RIndianapolis, is proposing three new tax brackets for owners of motor vehicles costing $15,000 to -$25,000. $25,000 to $35,000 and cars above $35,000. The current tax formula would remain the same for cars that sell for less than $15,000. The excise tax is paid anDozier search continues ROME (AP) Premier Giovanni Spadolini, in a letter to President Reagan on Wednesday, said the Red Brigades’ kidnapping of an American NATO general is a “tragic episode that confirms the existence of international roots of terrorism.” He promised his government would not relax its search for Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier, who' was kidnapped Dec. 17 from his Verona apartment. The leftist Red Brigades have Dozier, 50, the top-ranking IX S. NATO officer at the Vfcrona installation will be “fried” in a “people’s court.” • 4n his letter to Reagan released here, Spadolini said thje kidnapping “shows a new phase in the Red Brigades” anstrategy and is obviously aimed at “international destabilization.” He did not elaborate. Photo experts at the Interior iviinistry, who examined a photo of? Dozier released by the Red Brigades in Milan on Sunday, said the general’s right wrist was chained. They also said the photo was not a montage, as police had suspected earlier, and that Dozier was in fact holding a placard with antiAinerican slogans.

Idaho farmers slay 10,000 jackrabbits

MONTE VIEW, Idaho (AP) - Another 10,000 wild jackrabbits were clubbed to death Wednesday as eastern Idaho farmers and city residents alike joined in a fourth rabbit roundup they hoped would help save their crops. Braving bitter cold, winds and snow up to 5 inches deep, the farmers killed about the same number of rabbits as they did last Saturday. A fifth roundup is planned for this coming

Coup hits Ghana

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) _ The armed forces have seized power in the West African nation of Ghana after overthrowing the government of President Hilla Limann late Wednesday, Accra Radio said today in a broadcast monitored here. There was no immediate information on the political makeup of the new military government ruling the first black African territory to achieve independence in the

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nually by motor vehicle owners as part of their license plate fee. “There have been no changes in the tax bracket since 1974, and we are all aware of what inflation and changes in the economy have done to the auto industry and consequently to the prices of automobiles,” Mannweiler told a Statehouse news conference Wednesday. The 1974 formula now in use has 10 brackets based on the factory advertised delivery price. There is a minimum sl2 tax for cars worth SO-$1,500 and a maximum S4OO tax for cars that sell for $12,500 or more. In

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An electrical technician at Rockwell International installs wiring in the forward fuselage section of the Space Shuttle "Challenger", sister ship to Columbia. Challenger, now in final production stages at Rockwell's Palmdale, Calif., facility, is

Saturday. The farmers, angry at news accounts of how they were clubbing the rabbits to death, barred reporters and photographers from the latest roundup, the fourth in as many weeks. Orvin Twitchell, chairman of the Mud Lake Farmers Rabbit Committee, estimated between 500 and 700 farmers were on hand for Wednesday’s roundup, which began at noon. He said

post World War II era. It was formed in March 1957 by a consolidation of the former British colony of the Gold Coast and the former U.N. trust territory of British Togoland. It was the fifth coup d’etat since the country gained independence. Accra Radio reported that firing was heard during the night around Burma Barracks, the central military camp in the capital, but gave no immediate details.

the middle range, cars owners pay $l6B tax for vehicles that sell for $5,500-$6,999. Timothy Fishburn, assistant director of Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ excise and registration division, says about $195 million is raised across the state annually from the tax. Tax dollars go to the county where the car owner lives. “More than 60 percent of the auto excise money becomes available to schools, so an additional $1 million would be available to the school systems.

scheduled for delivery to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next summer. Columbia's maiden flight and return trip to space were among the top world news stories of 1981.

the drives would continue until 2 million or 3 million rabbits are killed. Farm Bureau spokesman Bill Whittom said 200 dead rabbits were given to Fort Hall Indian Reservation residents, to use as food. “I don’t think they’ve made a big dent in the rabbit population yet,” said Whittom. “They’ve made some strides in that area, but the rabbits are covering at least 50 square miles and there’s a lot of them out there.” Curtis D. Walker of Des Moines also turned out for the roundup, saying he could make the rabbits disappear with prayer. “I just believe in God,” the 26-year-old spiritualist said; explaining he did not claim any one religion. “I just had a feeling I could come out here and lend a hand.”

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The rest of the money would go to cities and towns, library boards, townships and the special service districts,” Mannweiler said. “I realize $1.3 million overall is not a great amount of money, but it ought to help in some instances,” he said. Mannweiler said there are about 12,000 cars on Indiana roads valued at more than $12,500. He said he wouldn’t want to lower the tax on middle priced cars because local governments have built that money into their budgets.

Walker said he had asked Twitchell for $1 million if the rabbits vanish, and Twitchell agreed the spiritualist would probably be paid something if his prayers work. Farmers contend the jack rabbits, known for their appetites, long ears, strong hind legs and dingy fur, are going through a population explosion. Twitchell estimates up to 2 million rabbits in southeastern Idaho have destroyed between $5 million and $lO million worth of crops. Amid freezing temperatures, snow and high winds, the farmers drove the rabbits in an area some two miles north of Monteview. The area is about 125 miles south of Yellowstone National Park and about 35 miles northwest of Idaho Falls. Three previous rabbit drives turned up 30,000 jack rabbits.

Unemployment... 'Can't deal with hurt in my little girls' faces because Santa forgot them', says father threatening suicide

DES MOINES, lowa (AP) Authorities raced to discover the identity of an anonymous letter-writer who described himself as a 36-year-old unemployed father and said he would commit suicide today so his family could collect welfare in the new year. Meanwhile, lowans moved by his letter to a newspaper offered to help out with promises of cash, clothing and jobs. “There is a job for you somewhere,” promised Colleen Shearer, director of the state unemployment agency, and her staff began sifting through records in search of the letterwriter’s identity. The Younkers department-store chain offered a job for the man and clothing and toys for his children, and an offer of SSO came from Bill Tate of Eagle Grove, who will lose his job in June when the packing plant where he works is shut down. The lowa Division of Criminal Investigation provided a handwriting expert to look through job applications and compare them with the handwritten letter to the Des Moines Register. A police officer was assigned to the search and the Polk County attorney’s office sent two investigators. A veterans’ group in Des Moines joined in the search for the let-ter-writer, who said he was a veteran. The letter said the man’s family is ineligible for Aid to Dependent Children because he is able-bodied and lives at home, i “On Jan. 1,1982, my wife and two girls will become eligible for ADC,” the letter said. “I will no longer be living in the

Situation for laid-off workers 'getting desperate'

MAHWAH, N.J. (AP) Eighteen months after the Ford Motor Company shut down its assembly plant in Mahwah, more than half the idled workers remain unemployed, and many may now be desperate, a survey shows. Of 672 former Ford employees who responded to a questionnaire for a Cornell University survey, 55.8 percent said they still had not found jobs. In fact, just 160 respondents said they now are employed full-time. “The situation for those people is now getting desperate,” said Stephen Levine, principal investigator for the survey. “There are a lot of people hurting out there,” he said, adding that unemployment benefits from Ford and state and federal programs have run out for all but a few long-term employees. Most of the still unemployed workers are middle-aged homeowners with dependent children, according to the survey, conducted in late fall by Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “Being out of work has been a horrifying experience for me,” said a 46-year-old former Ford employee from the New York City borough of Queens, who used to commute daily to

Indiana's jobless benefits program could go broke

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The fund that pays unemployment benefits to jobless Hoosiers could go broke early next year, forcing Indiana to borrow from the federal government, a state official says. “Depending on what happens to the level of employment in the first three months of 1982, we may survive with a solvent trust fund and we may not,” Alan R. Diodore said Wednesday. He is the Indiana Employment Security Division’s assistant director for unemployment insurance. The Employment Security Trust Fund has dipped to SIBO million, compared with a balance of $240 million at the start of 1981 and a balance of $420 million two years ago, Diodore said. Indiana has never .borrowed to pay unemployment benefits.

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December 31,1981, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

home. Forgive me, Polk County, for the expense of my burial. “May God forgive me.” The 1981 lowa Legislature changed the requirements for Aid to Dependent Children and removed two-parent families from eligibility. While noting that the Des Moines Register and its sister newspaper, the Tribune, had no way of vouching for the authenticity of the note, Register Editor Michael Gartner responded in a front-page letter. “Scores of thousands of lowans read your letter in this morning’s Register,” Gartner said in his response, printed Wednesday afternoon in the Tribune. “They want to help you. “They don’t know who you are, and neither do I. But I do know this: There is a job waiting for you. And clothes for your family. And Christmas gifts for your little girls. There is medical care if you need it. There is hope. There is life.” The man’s letter was published on the editorial page of Wednesday morning’s Register, and Gartner said the note was turned over to Polk County Attorney Dan Johnston. “The hurt in my little girls’ faces because Santa forgot them this year, the thought of another jobless year, noway to pay the rent next week, I’m sorry, I can’t deal with it anymore,” the letter said. The letter said the man had been to Job Service of lowa looking for a job without success. The agency had no luck in identifying him.

Mahwah, a round trip of 70 miles. “I lost my house. And I have three children in college,” the former worker added. “I finished retraining as a diesel mechanic. But it has been impossible to find a job as a mechanic, because they ask for experience in that field,” a 32-year-old unemployed Paterson worker wrote on his questionnaire. Of 672 workers who responded, 126 were from Bergen County, 106 from Passaic County, 212 from New York’s Orange County, and 38 were from Rockland County, N.Y. A majority and 40 said they have moved since the plant was shut down. More than 200 questionnaires were returned by the U.S. Postal Service to Cornell as undeliverable, indicating those workers also have moved. A total of 375 respondents said they were unemployed, 101 said they were working part-time, 101 reported they were receiving a pension under a Ford Motor Company-United Auto Workers plant that makes employees with at least 10 years service eligible for pensions at age 55.

The fund could go broke even though the state is boosting the unemployment insurance tax paid by employers in 1982. “I have absolutely no desire to go to the federal government to borrow money to pay benefits, but we’ll do it if we must,” Diodore said. He noted the request would have to be made by Gov. Robert D. Orr. The bulk of the unemployment insurance tax is received in the first half of the year because the tax is assessed the first $6,000 of each employee’s salary. The state has been receiving only minimal amounts of income for the trust fund in recent months while jobless claims have risen. Diodore said Indiana never fully recovered from the 197476 recession and then was hit by high unemployment the last two years.

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