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Show Romney Urges Fair Court Trials Vith No Speedy-Radical Changes By C. Sharp Fair trials, not perfect trials, must be provided by Utah's courts to guard against long backlogs of cases which unduly delay justice, Atty. Gen. Vernon B. Romney declared de-clared May 12. Romney expressed his views on the proposed unified state courts system, being advocated advoc-ated by the State Bar and a Legislative Council committee, commit-tee, on a KBYU press conference. confer-ence. "I agree with Chief Justice E.R. Callisler Jr. of the state sta-te Supreme Court that we should go slo wabout changing chang-ing our court system because our courts are among the most current in tlie nation," he said. California courts, he said, "horse around for months on such things as convening a jury to try Angela Davis, while other pressing cases must be delayed for lengthy periods. Dislikes Duplication The Utah attorney general praised, however, efforts made in the proposed unified plan to avoid double trials, first in justice or city courts which do not keep verbatim records, and second in district dist-rict courts. Under the proposed plan, magistrates would be appointed ap-pointed by district judges. The magistrate would conduct con-duct courts with full records to be kept. Appeals could be made from them to district courts which would review the record only, not conduct new trials. Appeals from district courts lo the State Supreme Court could be made only on matters mat-ters of law or constitutionality. constitutional-ity. Asked his opinion concerning concern-ing a proposed tax shelter plan for the aged either by deferring increased property tax payments until tlie property pro-perty is sold, or by constitutional consti-tutional amendment to ta. homes occupied by needy aged owners only for their residential value, proposed by the Tax Commission and Gov. Calvin L. Rampton respectively, res-pectively, Romney said: " Up To The Daopte " "Taxpayers whose interest would be jeopardized by the proposals will fight, them and it will lie up to the Legislature Legisla-ture and the people to de-decide." de-decide." Vernon L. Holman, Tac Commission chairman, told the Legislative Council com mittee that need for soim form of aid to needy aged home owners will accelerate for two reasons. The first, he said, is because be-cause many properties not reappraised for 20 years, now arc being revalued. With rapidly increasing demand de-mand for land, tlie valuation hikes will be radical. The second reason, he said, is because be-cause the percentage of older residents in rural counties is increasing. ABCD Battle Romney predicted that a "real Donnybrook will develop deve-lop among the varied ABCD group of Golden L. Allen, A. Fred Beck, D. James Cannon Can-non and William E. Dunn 'fighting for the Republcan nomination for secretary of state. He also predicted a close race between the winner and the lone Democratic nominee, nom-inee, Clyde L. Miller, now completing eight, years in this office. Romney declared that his assistant, Homer Holmgren, who had written an informal opinion holding that Wayne Winters, Road Commissioner, is barred from political activity act-ivity by the federal Hatcli Act, had no political motivation motiva-tion whatever in reaching that conclusion. ! The most recent opinion written by Romney himself, holds that only persons whose prime employment is paid for in part from federal funds, are subject to the Hatch Hat-ch Act. Hospitals State Fire Marshall Robert Rob-ert A. Tanner told Ramptcr. May 10 That the Monument Valley and Tremonton hospitals hospi-tals probably wril not qualify quali-fy for treating Medicare and Medicade patients and that the Cooley Hospital at Brig-ham Brig-ham City is "marginal." His office now is making fire safety inspections for the U.S. Department of Health, EEducation and Welfare," as well as for the state. Taking the advice of the new Advisory Council of the State Agriculture Department Rampton and his staff now are seeking federal funds to seed clouds over southern Utah with the hope of breaking break-ing the drought there. Oklahoma Aided Rampton told the council that Texas, New Maxico, Ari-zon.fc Ari-zon.fc and Oklamoma received receiv-ed ?280,00 0 each from the federal government last year for experimental cloud seed ing. The drought has broken brok-en Oklahoma but Arizona and some of the other states still are stricken by drought. Already, San Juan and Grand counties are designated designat-ed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as drought disaster areas permitting farmers far-mers to buy feed at reduced prices, Joseph H. Francis, state agriculture, reported. RampTon predicted May 12 that state tax collections for the fiscal year to end June 30 will provide a substantial surplus which he plans to hold for the disposition of the 1973 Legilsature. The collections likewise will fully fund the $6.2 million mil-lion building program provisionally provis-ionally appropriated by tlie Legislature, he said. Sales tax, income tax and corporate franchise tax co'-lections co'-lections all will exceed estimates esti-mates used by the legislative auditor in balancing the budget bud-get of appropriations against anticipted income and Ramp-ton's Ramp-ton's own estimates, he said. |