Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 48, Greencastle, Putnam County, 29 October 1990 — Page 2
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THE BANNERGRAPHIC October 29,1990
New tax bill will touch everyone, although rich pay more than poor
WASHINGTON (AP) The tax bill that Congress passed over the weekend will touch nearly every segment of the American public. Most Americans will pay higher taxes, but on their purchases rather than on their earnings. The bite will be relatively light for all but the well-to-do. Those with incomes over $200,000 a year will see their federal tax liabilities rise by an average of 6.3 percent MANY OF THE 70 million couples and individuals with incomes under $20,000 will get a slight tax cut thanks to expansion of the eamed-income credit for poorer, . working families with children. The National Taxpayers’ Union, a nonpartisan organization that campaigns for lower taxes, estimated the bill will boost the taxes of a $30,000 household by an average of $lO9. The union, which figured all households in a certain income bracket, regardless of size, said a $40,000 household will pay $166 more. At $50,000, it will pay an extra $214; $70,000, $277 more; SIOO,OOO, $542 more, and households at the $225,000 level will face an average tax increase of
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$3,572. HERE ARE THE major provisions: GASOLINE: Raise the 9-cent gasoline tax to 14 cents a gallon and the 15-cent diesel tax to 20 cents on Dec. 1. A motorist driving 10,000 miles a year in a car that gets 22 miles per gallon will pay about $23 more. ALCOHOL: Double the beer tax to 32 cents a six-pack; raise the $12.50-a-gallon tax on 100-proof liquor by sl, or 20 cents a fifth; raise taxes on most wines, including table wine, which will go from 3 cents a 750-milliliter bottle to 21 cents. TOBACCO: Raise the 16-cent
cigarette tax by 4 cents in 1991 and another 4 cents in 1993. Snuff, cigars and other tobacco will face 25 percent tax increases each year. AIR TRAVEL: Raise to 10 percent the 8 percent tax on airline tickets, which had been scheduled to drop to 4 percent at year end. The average round-trip ticket, which costs about S3OO, will increase by $6. TELEPHONES: Make permanent the 3 percent tax on local and long-distance phone service, which otherwise will expire Dec. 31. LUXURIES: Impose a 10 percent tax on the portion of the price of cars above $30,000; boats above $100,000; jewelry and furs above SIO,OOO and private planes above $250,000. A $40,000 car, for example, will face a luxury tax of SI,OOO. TAX RATES: Raise to 31 percent the 28 percent top income tax rate paid by the 600,000 couples and individuals with the highest incomes. That will raise taxes on singles making more than about $125,000 a year and couples with incomes above the $200,000 range. CUT TO 31 PERCENT the 33 percent rate that as many as 4 million upper-middle-income people pay on part of their earnings. This will reduce taxes for single people with incomes between about $60,000 and $125,000 and couples between about SIOO,OOO and $200,000. However, other parts of the bill will take back that tax cut in most cases. Raise from 21 percent to 24 percent the alternative minimum tax, which is paid by fewer than
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100,000 high-income people with large amounts of deductions that otherwise could reduce tax liability to near zero. CAPITAL GAINS: Tax profits from the sale of investments at a maximum rate of 28 percent This will provide a break for those investors who now pay a maximum rate of 33 percent There is no deep across-the-board cut in capital gains taxes as President Bush has ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS: Reduce by 3 percent the value of certain itemized deductions that may be written off against adjusted gross income over SIOO,OOO. Only 97 percent of deductions will be allowed against the portion of income above $100,000; thus the allowable deduction will be reduced by S3OO for each SIO,OOO of income above SIOO,OOO. The restriction will not apply to deductions for medical expenses, casualty losses or investment interest. The provision will affect about 2.5 million couples and individuals. EXEMPTIONS: Reduce personal exemptions which now are $2,050 for a taxpayer and each dependent as adjusted gross income rises above SIOO,OOO for a single person and $150,000 for a couple. This will raise taxes for people at those levels. The exemptions will be reduced by 2 percent for each $2,500 that income exceeds those thresholds. The exemptions will be lost once income tops $225,000 (single) or $275,000 (couple). LOW-INCOME: Increase the eamed-income tax credit, which benefits about 5 million low-in-come working families with children, as a way of offsetting some of the higher excise taxes. MEDICARE TAXES: Increase to $125,000 the $51,300 maximum annual wage to which the 1.45 percent Medicare tax applies. This will affect about 8 million wageearners. The tax is withheld as part of the Social Security tax and paid by employees and employers. MEDICARE PREMIUMS: Raise the $28.60 monthly premium for Medicare Part B insurance to $29.90 next year and $46.20 by 1995. About 30 million elderly and 3 million disabled people are enrolled in Part B.
MEDICARE DEDUCTIBLE: Raise to SIOO through 1995 the present $75 deductible, which beneficiaries must pay before Medicare starts paying for doctor bills. SOCIAL SECURITY: Require the 3.8 million state and local government workers not covered by a public pension to pay Social Security taxes. ENERGY INITIATIVES: Provide $2.5 billion worth of tax incentives for increasing U.S. oil and gas exploration and production. EXPIRING BENEFITS: Increase through 1991, at a five-year cost of $5.9 billion, 11 targeted tax breaks that are expiring. Principal beneficiaries include workers who receive tuition aid or group legal services from employers; businesses that hire the poor; investors in low-income rental housing; selfemployed people who buy their own health insurance; businesses that increase spending for research; and low-income people buying a first home. BUSINESS: Raise taxes on life insurance companies by $8 billion.
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Geologists drilling holes in Indiana for quake test
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) Geologists will begin drilling holes around Evansville this week as part of a study to locate areas in Indiana with the greatest potential for earthquake damage. Other cities in the study are Bloomington, Indianapolis, Columbus, New Albany, Jasper, Terre Haute and Vincennes. THE GEOLOGISTS say the study is aimed at helping communities reduce earthquake damage and has nothing to do with the prediction of a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault in early December. The geological survey team will spend the week drilling holes at five Evansville sites: St. Mary’s Medical Center, Welborn and Deaconess hospitals, the Civic Center and Dress Regional Airport. Don Eggert, an environmental geologist with the survey, said scientists will measure the bedrock depth at each site and use equipment that will measure what the “ground shaking intensity” would be at each during a severe quake. HE SAID THE team’s task is to identify “where in the state we are going to have more potential problems” from an earthquake and provide information to local authorities so that builders and engineers can design for safer structures in the future. Eggert said there is no scientific basis for a prediction by Iben Browning, a New Mexico climatologist, that there’s a 50-50 chance of a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault on Dec. 2-3. Eggert said he and others in his field “feel a duty to speak out when someone is crying wolf. As scientists, we’ve reviewed his claims and we’re very displeased with what he claims. It’s scaring people and could cause harm.” HE SAID WHILE there is potential for a major earthquake in the Midwest, it cannot be predicted. Perhaps shaken by predictions of an impending earthquake, Hoosiers bought more than $3 million worth of quake coverage last year. Insurance agents say residents are buying even more this year. Roger Keller of State Farm
Trial will determine who
owns Jack Ruby’s gun
DALLAS (AP) The gun Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald is at the center of a nearly 24-year-old dispute on the court docket this week. A trial was to begin today in Probate Court to determine distribution of Ruby’s assets and consider a petition to remove Jules Mayer as executor of his will. THE MOST VALUABLE asset by far is the .38-calibcr Colt Cobra revolver that Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, used to kill the assassin of President Kennedy in 1963. Mayer, a lawyer who knew Jack Ruby, and Ruby’s brother, Earl Ruby, have been fighting nearly 24 years since Ruby died. This is at least the fifth time Earl Ruby has gone to court in attempts to unseat Mayer. Jack Ruby was convicted of murder in 1964 and sentenced to
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DR. IBEN BROWNING Earthquake predictor
Insurance Co. said earthquake insurance sales have increased 50 percent this year. State Farm is the largest homeowner’s insurance company in Indiana with 333,000 policies. AT MERIDIAN Insurance Group of Indianapolis, earthquake inquiries rose from one or two a week prior to the prediction to 95 per week, said Gregg Huey, vice president. Farm Bureau Insurance Co., which carries 145,000 homeowner policies, wrote 2,500 policies in five days after a Sept. 26 earthquake centered 20 miles west of Cairo, 111., near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The quake measured 4.6 on the Richter scale. “We keep thinking those earthquakes are what happens in California,” said James P. Rink of Farm Bureau. “But in Indiana we have those risks more than most people in other parts of the country.” EARTHQUAKE coverage is not included in regular homeowner’s insurance policies and must be purchased in a special rider to the policy. Indiana Insurance Commissioner John Dillon HI will attend a fact-finding meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on Monday in St. Louis. The hearing will focus on the availability of earthquake insurance and the industry’s ability to withstand claims that would result from a major quake.
death in the electric chair. An appeals court overturned the conviction in 1966, but Ruby died in 1967 at age 55 before a new trial could be held. EARL RUBY claims his brother, from his deathbed, told him that Mayer had been instructed to tear up the will in which he had named Mayer executor. Jack Ruby bought the revolver for $62.50 in a Dallas gun shop and used it to shoot Oswald two days after Kennedy was assassinated. Mayer has estimated the gun, which he keeps in a safe deposit box, would bring $125,000 from a collector. Mitch Martin, a board member of the JFK Assassination Information Center, put the amount at no more than $50,000. OTHER THAN THE gun, that estate includes only the clothing and jewelry Ruby wore at the time he shot Oswald, some personal papers and other clothing. Whatever the value of the gun, Mayer has contended that proceeds from its sale must be used to pay Ruby’s debts among them, $65,000 in expenses he claims he has incurred in handling the estate and fighting Ruby’s lawsuits.
Banner Graphic (USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The DaHy DrapMc Established 1883 Teiophono 853-8151 Published daily except Sunday and Holidays by BannerDrapMc, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, IN 40135. Second-daoa postage paid at Greencastle, IN. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Banner Graphic, P.O. Bex 500, Greencastle, IN 48135 Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier *1.40 1 Per Week, by motor route. *1.45 Mall Subocrlptlon Ratoo R JI. In Root of t Putnam County Indiana U-S.A. 3 Months *20.30 *20.70 *22.20 • Months *37.00 *38.50 *42.00 1 Year *7X4O *7XOO *84.70 Mail subscriptions payable In advanca...not accepted In town and where motor route service Is available. Member of the Aaaodatod Press Ths Associated Press Is entltted oxduaivsly to the use for republication of di the local news printed In this newspaper.