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Show Statehouse Report Rampton Agrees to Sign Laws For Constitution Revamp BY C. SHARP ' Gov. Calvin L. Rampton announced Feb. 6 that he will sign legislation enacted by the Legislature revamping revamp-ing the state's liquor control system so long as it is constitutional. con-stitutional. The governor expressed his views at a television news conference. He has reservations, however, how-ever, about some aspects oi the so-called Van Winkle bill, he said. One provision would permit per-mit some restourants to qualify as package sellers of liquor. It would permit waitresses wait-resses to bring mixers to a patron's table but require the patron to walk to the cashier's counter to buy a mini-bottle of liquor. Artificial "This is such a patently artificial situation that I am afraid the law won't be observed. ob-served. If it is enforced we may have our jails full of waitresses," he said. Proponents of the bill said the bill would merely follow a practice begun in mid-19fi7 when a state liquor agency was opened in the Kitty Hawk dining room at the1 Salt Lake International Airport. Air-port. Gov. Rampton said he had tried to fulfil bis earlier promise to bring together opposing factions and try to get them to agree upon a mutually satisfactory bill. ''T tried. I contacted them tjuite a number of times, but I was unable to get the cc- operation necessary to set up a joint meeting," he said. Water Treatment Strangely, the public reaction reac-tion to a bill to provide for statewide fluoridation of culinary cul-inary water (to be accomplished accom-plished by stages) was far greater than toward proposed propos-ed revamping the liquor control con-trol laws. Many more persons attended attend-ed a hearing on the fluoridation fluorida-tion measure than the hearing hear-ing conducted Feb. 6 on 3B 145, the liquor control bill and SB144, the nonprofit locker lo-cker club bill. , Gov. Rampton described the liquor bills as a liberalization liberal-ization of some liquor laws "to some degree." A 16 per cent cut in the proposed appropriation for state travel promotion below Gov. Rampton's recommendation recommen-dation was proposed by a subcommittee of the Joint Appropriations Committee of the Legislature Feb. 6. Travel Recommendations Senator C. Taylor Burton. R-Salt Lake, heads this subcommittee sub-committee which will make recommendations to the Joint Appropriations Committee Commit-tee on agencies of the Development De-velopment Services Department. Depart-ment. Gov. Rampton, a strong advocate ad-vocate of travel promotion, had proposed raising the Travel Council's appropriation appropria-tion from $541,775 to be spent this fiscal year, to 774,000. The subcommitte cut tills to $648,900. Sen. Ralph A. Preece, It-Vernal, It-Vernal, also a strong proponent propo-nent of travel promotion, fought for a higher recommendation. recom-mendation. Fight To Retain "In view of the sharp struggle against appropriation appropria-tion increases, I am planning to fight hard for retaaMon of the $648,900 recommendation in the full appropriations committee," Sen. Preece said. The subcommittee recommendation recom-mendation is considerably ciDaer to Gov Rampton's recommendation than to in-sumtions in-sumtions given by Rep. Frank V. Nelson, R-Salt Lake, co-o!iflirman of the Joint Appropriations Committer. Commit-ter. . Rep. Nelson asked for a four per cent cut below expenditures ex-penditures of the diffrent agencies ag-encies during the current fiscal fis-cal year. Addressing the full committee commit-tee Feb. 4 Rep. Nelson declared de-clared that if the Legislature Legisla-ture holds appropriations down to the level of the current cur-rent fiscal year that the state will be short $10 to $12 million by June 30, 1970. Raise Necessary In effect, Rep. Nelson was agreeing with Gov. Rampton Ramp-ton that there must be tax increases to support even continuation of the present level of state expenditures. An irate delegation of women wo-men carried their battle against ag-ainst any tax increases to 'the Capitol Feb. 5. Mrs. Karolyn Hood, president presi-dent of the Association of Utah Taxpayers' and Housewives, House-wives, presented a huge roll of paper bearing names of more than 12,000 persons opposed op-posed to any form of tax in-, crease. , At a conference with Gov. Rampton Mrs. Hood and three other directors of the group demanded .cutting out the fat and excesses from all government, . including the schools. -'" x Beautiful Buildings They were critical of he beautiful schools being erected erec-ted and asked for a return to fundamentals with -less elab- orate buildings. Gov. Rampton told the women wo-men that 92 per cent of his proposed budget would go to five areas public schools, higher education, health and welfare, highways and police protection. He said increases being asked for higher education still would not bring Utah's expenditure per student up to the national average. Atty. Gen. Vernon Rom-ney Rom-ney gave an opinion Feb. 3 that Salt Lake City police would be obligated to make arrests and help maintain order if riots or other Tlisor-ders Tlisor-ders occur on the University of Utah compus. James L. Barker, city commissioner com-missioner of public safety, had asked for the opinion in the event Utah gets a share' of civil disorders which have occurred at universities elsewhere else-where The U of U campus, Mr. Romney pointed out, is state property. Any authority given giv-en to the school, however, does not prevent cooperative law enforcement on the school property, he held. |