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Show Jp(L -CC1-333-2- ES HARRIOT Ji- LIB? pr -r AR Y cot orser cry sepialc U U ' "... i ,., f ; I OF Vjbk. More taxes proposed if sales tax on food is cut Citizens Against the Sales Tax on Food, known as COST-OFhave formally drawn up proposals by which they recommend the state make up the $45 million loss to the treasury if the sales tax on food is abolished. They recommend: F, Raising the upper levels of the state income tax; A one percent increase in the income across-the-boa- rd tax; A one percent increase in the sales tax on non-foo- d items; A two percent increase in the cigarette tax; A one or two percent severance tax on coal; An eight percent tax on in- tangible personal property; orand a one percent increase in the corporate franchise tax. The group has also begun circulating petitions designed to force legislative consideration of the food sales tax issue by the next session of the state legislature. They have proposed the alternative ways of generating revenue because, without them, they fear the bill stands little chance of passing. Contacted by the Enterprise to comment on the com- continued to page 3 Insurance or service? Title insurers can expect changes CP ! by Colby Smith Enterprise Staff Writer . i X-4 .- For most people, jiuyinga house or a piece of property is one of the most significant investments they will ever make. For them, title insurance is a little understood, but necessary part of their new investment. And usually the fee is small enough that they dont ask what it is, and those who do get a garbled response smothered in legalese. Few r , j underistand it, and those who do generally disagree over its Saying his own outlook changes weekly, Day notes, , valuearid'functions. Its little wonder then that Insurance Commissioner Roger Day has reservations about whether a committee charged with studying the subject is fully aware of everything it needs to know pbout the industry before making recommendations about how to increase the publics awareness. We dont know enough to know what definitive changes we need. There will probably be some proposals going to the legislature in the 1979 general session, he said, but changes for the title industry will come in incremental steps, rather than a full blown upheaval. a Insurance is something of misnomer, according to Crush of air passengers flares bumped business travelers ire Area business people, initially on cloud nine after introduction of airline peanut fares, now claim the cut rates arent what theyre cracked up to be. Aside from the risk of being bumped off an over- booked flight, the possibility of never making a connection with a reservation agent is considered a real problem in business circles. Time is money, one attorney grumbled, and Ill wager at any given moment in this country, easily one million people are listening to the canned music pumped into telephones by airline reservation clerks who have more calls than they can handle. The jammed lines and packed flights are the result of reduced rates, a strike at Northwest Airlines, and the seasonal increase of air traffic during the summer. While some officials think the congested phones and planes will continue through the year, others believe the problem is a temporary one. Frontier, for one, is investing more than $90 million in 15 Boeing 727s, and expects to add six of those planes to its fleet of 26 by the end of the year. Additionally, it is adding 40 new reservation agents this month, bringing the total working at the main switchboard in Denver to 280. Fifty clerks were hired in April to handle the summer rush, but Bob Schulman of Frontier public relations, said it simply wasnt enough. The reduced rates cause two problems with airline resSchulman et vaiion clerks, said. First, the number of calls handled in Denver daily has soared from 11,000 to 14,500 since we initiated cut rates. Secondly, the time each call takes has increased since the clerk must research what kind of reduction is available for each flight. The only way to Fly The Denver office, which handles reservations for the entire West, is facing a general upswing, Schulman said. Traffic is generally up and we therefore do not believe we are overreacting by adding the planes and employees. Sales are up 26 percent over the same period last year, and although we dont know how steep the growth climb will be, we know it will continue, he added. Carrie Mitchel of Westerns Salt Lake office said her company has reconfigured its planes so more people can be seated in the same amount of space. Westerns 747s, once at capacity of 99, now seat 104. Traffic at Western is up 29.9 percent over the same period last year, and phone lines in use have tripled, she said. Its unbelievable the amount of calls we receive, In May, each Mitchell said. of our 70 employees handled 'y- ,IX Vv&x a Thats 3,043 calls each. more than 100 calls a day. - Air travelers claim it's near impossible to get a reservation agent on the line these days. The airlines claim the jammed lines are the result of reduced rates, a strike at Northwest Airlines, and the seasonal increase in summer traffic. NUMBER 7 VOLUME 52 MONDAY, June 26, 1978 Mitchell said Western hired summer employees to continued on page 3 many industry critics, who claim the bulk of the title agents job is performing a title search to determine whether or not any legal claims or encumberances exist against a piece of property about to be purchased. The insurance aspect of the business enters as an extra safeguard against things that might have been missed in the search. The fee paid to the title agent covers both the search and insurance aspects of the title policy. A major source of con- troversy among those sitting on the Utah Title Insurance Study Committee has been whether or not anti-trulaws should apply to title insurers. They are currently exempted by provisions of the Act which allows insurance companies to act in a manner which would otherwise be considered monost polistic. Gordon Strachan, a local attorney, favors removing laws, immunity from anti-truclaiming title agents perform a service function, rather than He an insurance function. compares allowing title companies to work together in establishing prices with telling GM and Ford to get tost gether and tell each other how to make cars. continued on page 9 Will he, or wont he? Sources close to the citys budget making machinery have indicated Finance Commissioner Jennings Phillips may move to block the citys annual $20,000 donation to the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce because of the Chambers stance on City-Coun- ty unification. Another source indicated the money is currently contained in the budget, but that the commissioner may try to have it removed before the budget is finalized next week. Phillips, who strongly opposes unification, could not be reached before press time. Spokesmen for the Chamber declined to comment on the story. 50 CENTS |