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Show Honey Boftb Eru pfs us Lavmakers Near Adjournment Set for March Utah's Legislature is fighting the money battle-where battle-where and how to spend a-vailable a-vailable revenue during the next two years as the session ses-sion nears adjournment March 9. The chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee announced Feb. 23 that he is trying to save $4.5 million mil-lion in appropriations to regujtar agencies below sums recommended by Gov. Calvin L. Rampton Sen Wallace H. Gardner, R-Spanish Fork, the chairman, chair-man, declined to amplify his remarks other than to say that the $4.5 million is needed need-ed for bills before the Legislature. Leg-islature. This apparently means that the GOP dominated group plans to spend this much more for support of (public schools, higher education ed-ucation and retirement benefits ben-efits than the Governors proposals. Tax Increase Banned How to do this without hurting i the trick, since tax increases have been banned by both Democrats and Republicans. When asked! what he thought of the appropria- tions committee's quest for the $4.5 million Friday, Gov. Rampton replied that it is the responsibility of the Legislature to decide how to spend the money. The lawmakers could cut public welfare benefits or payments to doctors, hospitals hos-pitals or nursing homes, but then the basic question would remain how much the people want in the way of services, he said. Members of the appropriations appro-priations committee Feb. 21 approved! subcommittee re-Irommendaitions re-Irommendaitions to give state employes $4.63 million mil-lion in pay increases during the next two years. 5 Per Cent Increase Of this, $2.07 million would come from direction appropriation to pay part of the cO)St of a five per cent pay increase. The departments wouid have to raise an additional $1.27 million by economies, the two would be enough to give an additional five per cent increase to all employes. em-ployes. This would be above and beyond) the regular five per cent annual merit increase in-crease for which each employe em-ploye is eligible. An arlHitinriol C1 97 il lion should be appropriated for selective salary adjustments adjust-ments to bring state employees em-ployees to pay levels prevalent prev-alent in other employment, the committee decided. This makes a total of R4.63 . million. Gov' Rampton Ramp-ton had recommended $3.19 million which is a little less than the net $3.36 million proposed by the committee. Travel Promotion lsue ... On the controversial issue is-sue of how much to spend Iflor travel (promotion, the committee Feb. 23 recommended recom-mended an appropriation of $1.4 million. This undercuts under-cuts Gov. Ramlpton's rec- ommenaauon oy almost $600,000. The night before Gov. Rampton announced that he would veto a $500,000 appropriation ap-propriation for the State Travel Council. "I would not want to create the illusion that we have a travel promotion program, which we would not have with only $500, 000," Gov. Rampton declared. declar-ed. He said Friday that he would approve the $1.4 million, mil-lion, if enacted, since it would enable the Travel Council to continue operation opera-tion at virtually its present pres-ent level. Slash Rumored Should the '"hatchet" committee slash this down to $1 million as has been rumored, Gov. Rampton said he would require further fur-ther study to decide whether whe-ther to approve or veto that item. Sen. C. Taylor Burton, R-Salt R-Salt Lake, subcommittee chairman, recommended only on-ly $500,000 for the Travel Council. This he said, would be a 10 per cent increase over the appropriation under un-der the previous administration. adminis-tration. He pointed out that the state should not take credit for all the increase in tourist tour-ist travel during the past two years. The Petroleum Council is spending $2 million a year on advertising to generate Utah vacation travel, while hotel, motel, restaurant and resort operators, railroads, air lines, bus companies, cha-mfor of commerce, counties co-unties cities and organizations organiza-tions such as Pro-Utah and Olympics for Utah Inc. are spending large sums, Sen Burton said. Minority Report Adopted Rep. Edward E. Drake, R-Moafo, R-Moafo, presented the minority mi-nority report asking for $1.4 million which was a-dopted. a-dopted. He urged that Utah is coming .of age in the travel business and has the attractions attrac-tions and' the facilities to keep visitors an extra three to four days in the state. The Travel Council is performing an invaluable service in coordinating the ad- ertising by the other agencies, he said. Rep. Rlalph A. Preece, It-Vernal, It-Vernal, said tourist travel now is big business and it is highly competitive. If Utah goes back to the "horse and buggy days" by appropriating only $500,000 Florida, Hawaii and other states which pay for graphic advertisements will reap the harvest, he warned. : Sen. Samuel J. Taylor R-Moab, R-Moab, and Omar B. Bunnell, D-Price, were staunch advocates ad-vocates of the higher travel mrom'ntinnal' n.njTYnrvnriatinn Bill Would Require Bids The Senate Feb. 24 passed pass-ed a House-approved bill which would require cities and counties to advertise for bids on road construction construc-tion projects costing more than $25,000. ' HB 15, to "require merit' systems for counties, was recalled by the House Feb. 21 and ammended so as to execlude all counties except ex-cept Salt Lake, Weber and Utah. It was re-passed and sent to the Senate. The House Feb. 24 passed a bill to raise fish and game license fees. This measure now awaits Senate action. |