Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 106, Greencastle, Putnam County, 13 January 1982 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, January 13,1982

Scott Williams 111 lets loose a stream of breath that becomes highly visible in near zero-degree temperatures in the Chicago area. It was as if Williams sent the arctic blast southward, as subfreezing temperatures settled on citrus crops in central Florida. (AP Laserphoto)

Nationwide death toll tops 100

Snow, ice, cold paralyze South

By the Associated Press Winter’s latest onslaught lashed parts of the frozen South with sleet and up to 5 inches of snow today as the nationwide death toll from a five-day cold wave climbed past 100. The record cold devastated Florida’s billion-dollar citrus crop Tuesday, raising the possibility of higher prices at the nation’s grocery stores, and storm clouds flung sleet, snow and rain from Arizona to Georgia. Multicolored lightning flashed through the sleet that fell on Birmingham, Ala. At least 116 people have frozen to death or died in weather-related accidents since the cold wave that set 75 low-

Auto parts plant will close doors PORTLAND, Ind. (AP) - Scheller-Globe Corp. has announced it will close by the end of March its Portland auto parts manufacturing facility, leaving 60 workers jobless. The company, once Portland’s second-largest employer with more than 500 workers, fell victim to the national auto slump, company officials said. Chester Devenow, chairman and chief executive officer, said the company has begun a phase out which should be complete by March 30. He said the company has moved some of its equipment and activities from Portand to Rs plant at Grabill. He said the company will attempt to find a buyer for the Portland plant.

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temperature records began Saturday. Up to 5 inches of snow had accumulated in northern Georgia by today, and some parts of the state had freezing rain. More snow was predicted today for parts of the Northeast and South. New snow, in many cases accompanied by sleet, piled up to 7 inches in Arkansas and a foot in Arizona. Miles of icy highways were closed Tuesday throughout Dixie, and other roads were clogged with stalled and abandoned cars. Thousands of people stayed home from school and work, water pipes burst and elec-

Thought about pretending I was dead'

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) George Stepp says he considered playing dead in the snow to avoid dying alone in the cold. Stepp, 47, of Chicago nursed frostbitten hands Tuesday as he told of being stranded for more than 13 hours in a blinding Indiana snow storm because his car kept breaking down. He said scores of cars passed him as he tried unsuccessfully to flag them down for help. “There was a point when I was so cold and my hands were in so much pain that I was thinking of lying down by the car and pretending I was dead,” Stepp said at a Red Cross shelter in Lafayette’s National Guard Armory. Stepp said he was returning to his Chicago home when his car broke down the fourth and final time north of Lafayette on Sunday in sub-zero temperatures and snow whipped by strong winds. He had been visiting relatives in Hopkinsville, Ky., and was on his way home when problems began. His car first broke down in Evansville and after 2V> hours he got a ride to a service station. The station sent a wrecker and charged Stepp $5 for a bat-

Circle April 27 as state's 'Tax Independence Day'

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - April 27 isn’t an official holiday in Indiana, but it’s a day most

PREVO’S

tricity was disrupted as ice caked power lines. Commercial flights were canceled and public transportation ground to a halt in Mississippi and the Alabama legislature canceled a joint assembly Tuesday night. “We were scared to be too alarming, but apparently our worst fears were even conservative,” said meteorologist Max Blood at the National Weather Service office in Homewood, Ala. At least 25 states have reported weather-related deaths since Saturday. There were 18 deaths reported in Illinois; 12 in Pennsylvania; 11 in North

Hoosiers may want to commemorate. The date marks Indiana’s

Carolina; eight in Texas and New York; seven in Iowa; six in Michigan; five each in Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio; four each in Minnesota, Alabama and Mississippi; three each in West Virginia and South Carolina; two each in Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee, and one each in Nebraska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida and Virginia. Two others were missing and presumed dead in Virginia. Snowplows in Georgia were unable to reach some areas blanketed by snow Tuesday night because thousands of cars were still bumper-to-bumper on the city’s freeways near midnight.

tery charge. The attendants left, but his car stalled again as Stepp tried to leave. The only motorists he was able to flag down, Stepp said, were two men in a pickup truck who charged him S2O for a ride to another service station. “I couldn’t argue because my hands were frostbitten,” he said. After a delay, his car was towed into a station near Evansville where “they drained the antifreeze and charged my battery,” he said. “It cost me $50.” He started out again after noon Sunday, but broke down again just south of Lafayette. A state trooper driving by recharged his battery, but five miles down the road the car died again. “I saw a truck across the highway and asked them for a jump,” said Stepp. “He said he wouldn’t jump any more cars. The guy saw my hands messed up and knew I was in pain. He radioed for help on his CB radio and a couple in a station wagon answered the call and picked me up.” He was taken to St. Elizabeth hospital and treated for frostbite and later taken to the Red Cross shelter.

Tax Independence Day, the day the average Hoosier stops working to pay taxes and starts working for himself or herself, the state Chamber of Commerce says. Last year, the date was April

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Snow began falling on Georgia Tuesday afternoon, and Atlanta was virtually paralyzed by at least 3 inches of snow. City streets were as clogged at midnight as at rush hour. Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen called up one unit of the National Guard and ordered all state agencies to be prepared for a disaster. An estimated 14,000 homes in north Louisiana lost electrical power and an unidentified utility company repairman was electrocuted Tuesday night in Shreveport when he touched a wire severed by a fallen tree limb, officials said.

28, the chamber said. The chamber reported the date of Tax Independence Day after issuing its annual tax calendar, which lists federal, state and local tax periods and due dates.

world/ -Estate

Despite deficit, Orr endorses tax-break plans

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - At a time when Indiana’s bank balances are in the red, Gov. Robert D. Orr has endorsed election-year tax breaks that will mean an extra $Bl for the average Hoosier family. Orr also wants to pass on the benefits of Reaganomics to Indiana businesses by allowing them to get faster state tax write-offs on their investment in business equipment, machinery and buildings. But corporate Indiana will have to underwrite the state’s largesse with a tax surcharge, estimated to be about 10 percent. Orr’s recommendations were outliined in his “State of the State” speech Tuesday night to a joint session of the Indiana House and Senate. His 30minute address was televised live. The governor underscored his pledge that “it’s not my intent to balance the state’s budget on the backs of beleaguered Hoosiers,” by outlining a plan to give $35 million in state tax breaks to individuals and businesses. If the Legislature approves, Hoosiers would get the same breaks on their state income taxes for investment in “allsavers certificates” and individual retirement accounts as they will under federal tax law. Under the all-savers program, single taxpayers may earn up to SI,OOO in tax-free interest on their savings; for married taxpayers, the limit is $2,000. Passing along this break for state tax purposes will mean a sl9 savings for a single person and a S3B savings for a married couple with one spouse working, assuming the investors earn the maximum interest allowed. The federal law exempts from taxation money deposited in IRAs as well as the interest earned on it. A single taxpayer may deposit up to $2,000 a year. A married couple may shelter $2,250 a year if only one spouse works. If both work, each may shelter $2,000 a year. Assuming each taxpayer deposits the maximum in an IRA, a single taxpayer would save S3B on his state taxes, while a one-wage-earner family would save almost $43 and the two-wage family $76. For taxpayers who buy an allsavers certificate and invest to

Amendment would prohibit j liquor sales in grocery stores^

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The make-or-break power of a legislative committee chairman can be seen in a bill that would outlaw liquor sales in groceries with pharmacy departments. Sen. Marlin K. McDaniel, RRichmond, chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee, added the provision Tuesday as an amendment to a bill dealing with classification of alcoholic beverage permits in the Indiana Code. The committee approved the change without taking

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GOV. ROBERT ORR Urges tax breaks

the maximum in an IRA, the state tax savings would be $57 for a single person, almost $Bl for a one-wage couple and sll4 for a two-wage family. Orr said his requests “are part of a necessary prescription for Indiana’s economic health. They form a strong foundation for renewed economic strength and therefore more jobs.” Orr wants to adopt, for state tax purposes, the federal depreciation schedules for business investment. As a trade-off, corporate taxes will be increased. If the state didn’t conform with the federal government on this issue, it would create a bookkeeping nightmare for businesses. Unless the formulas are the same, companies would have to keep two sets of books, one listing the depreciated value of equipment for state tax purposes and another for federal tax purposes. Last week, the State Budget Agency released figures showing the state general fund would be $68.5 million in the red by June 30, 1983. The property tax replacement fund is projected to be $69 million in the red by the same period. To remedy the situation, the governor urged the lawmakers to speed collections of state sales and income taxes from Hoosier businesses. This tactic is expected to generate a onetime windfall of sllO millionn with $75 million going to the general fund and $35 million going to the property tax relief fund. The surcharge on corporate taxes is expected to raise $57

testimony, which drew protests from opponents. McDaniel said the Legislature never intended groceries to sell hard liquor, but grocers used another provision of the law to get around it. That section allows pharmacists to sell liquor. About 24 groceries operate pharmacies that sell the alcoholic beverages. “They snuck in the back door, and they can sneak back out again," McDaniel said. “They (grocers) shouldn't pull this in the first place," he said.

million in fiscal year 1983. That would pay the accelerated depreciation breaks for businesses of $3.5 million the rest of this fiscal year and $22 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1,1982; and $8 million to $lO million for the all-savers and IRA tax breaks for individuals. Orr also asked the Legislature to create a budgetary “rainy day fund” to see the state through hard economic times. Saying, “We must cut expenses,” Orr announced new restrictions on state spending, including a freeze on all hiring and equipment purchases. He said agencies must undertake an immediate review of all contracts with consultants and trim telephone, postage and printing costs. Construction projects using general fund money will be delayed. Out-of-state travel, which already has been cut, will continue to be reduced, as will in-state travel. In his speech, given on the first anniversary of his inauguration, Orr said some of his administration’s “critical goals” haven’t been met “largely due to forces beyond my control.” Instead of going through all of the items in his legislative agenda, Orr limited himself to his priorities. He asked the lawmakers to: —Create a select commission to study elementary and secondary education in Indiana the next two years. “Although added funding for public schools is out of the question this year because of our fiscal problems, it is not too early for us to begin sketching our blueprint for excellence in the public schools.”. —Enact nursing home reform legislation because “the state has a clear obligation to protect its most vulnerable citizens. ” T —Consider alternatives to conventional prison facilities with an eye toward communitybased alternatives. “I assure all Hoosiers, especially the elderly, that if my choice becomes one of building more prisons or allowing rapists, robbers and murderers to go free, I will build more prisons.” —Enact a five-bill package of economic development legislation to help stimulate new jobs in the state.

The Public Policy Committee voted 6-0 to prohibit alcoholic beverage permits for drug store operators doing business in the same building as a grocery tha{ sells beer and wine. McDaniel said the proposaj was discussed in a study com*mittee, but no action was taken; “I think it’s a clear-cut issue; do we want liquor in grocery stores?" McDaniel said. I* He said no testimony wa§ taken Tuesday because “wf don’t have time” during th£ short session. It costs day to run this place." McDaniel added he didn't thins testimony would have changed the outcome. I" Industry officials *‘l understood a pubkC hearing meant an opportunity for public testimony," said Joseph A. Lackey, president the Indiana Retail GroceH Association. “They (opponents} were sitting there with their hands up. and he (McDanieD ignored it.” “There's potential fora lawsuit."