OCR Text |
Show gTIjc Halt akf gfribtntf Wednesday Morning, December 3, 1980 Section A Page 11 UTAs $4,500 Subsidy Beats Redoing Buses for Disabled The Utah Transit Authority, with a cheek for $4,500, has made a major, posithe contribution toward improving the mobility of the elderiy and handicapped. The money, to subside ise experimentally private systems, will be far more effective federal requirethan the ments that public buses be retrofitted with expensive, but fickle, wheelchair lifts. The money will allow a new company, T.H.E. Van Inc., to furnish CO service to the days of handicapped and elderly from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week. And do it for only 50 cents a ride, compared to previous costs ranging dial-a-rid- from $10 to $20. When Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 it included provisions that federally subsidized public transit systems, like UTA, must retrofit their buses with wheelchair lifts for the handicapped. This, automatically, raises the cost of a bus by $15,000 or more. Studies done by transit agencies, including UTA and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, found that retrofitting buses was not only not cost effective, but it didnt come close to accomplishing what Congress wanted done: Providing reliable and readily available public transportation for the handicapped. The Wasatch Front Regional Council determined, for instance, that more than 85 percent of the handicapped population in the UTA! service area of Salt Lake, Davis and Weber Counties are capable of using existing public transit. And the handicapped population requiring specialized transportation services ranged between 5,000 and 8,000 individuals along the Wasatch Front. Further, it was determined that only 3,000 of those handicapped persons have sufficient mobility to get to and wait for a bus at a regular bus stop. bottom line? A potential handicapped persons can be best served by a The market of about demand-reponsiv- e 2,500 (dial-a-rid- sys- e) tem capable of providing in the y trips a neighborhood of 1,800 done be can by day. And these trips UTA with a fleet of 20 wheelchair lift costing about equipped The each. $50,000 price of a regular bus is currently $137,000 and going higher every day. one-wa- mini-buse- s, has properly concluded that where the total accessibility concept appeals to and is valuable to a Gocal) market of approximately 400 handicapped individuals . . . the market e services is nearly 2,500 for UTA dial-a-rid- handicapped individuals. . . Thus, that $4,500 check is the initiation of a process that could, if allowed to pioperly expand, provide more than six times as many handicapped people with inexpensive public transportation than Congress envisioned with passage of the well Section intentioned, but 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. TRB From Washington Look for Reaganomics to Moderate The New Republic Arthur Bums is testifying. He arranges his leather tobacco pouch, matches, pipe, ash tray, glass of water, yellow pencil and pad and, while senators and audience watch in fascination, begins in a low, judicious voice, weighing every word. He picks up the pipe, strikes a match, listens, replies (puff, puff) and puts down the match just before it bums him. It is a virtuoso performance. This is the man who, before he was chairman was of the Federal Reserve Board (1970-78chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (1953-56- ). Always he was the adviser of d Republicans, the symbol of orthodoxy. Bums is a favorite of congressional commit- ), middle-of-the-roa- eliminate waste and extravagance" from the budget. That will balance the budget in three or four years. Inflation? Pooh! It is all very strange. The stock market met the Reagan landslide with an e record of 84 million shares, and the Dow Jones industrial average zoomed up 16 points. But the next day it slid down 17.75 points. What did it mean? all-tim- Reagan has made election speeches for two years and never has given precise economic three-yea- r, details. He embraced the Kemp-Rot- h 30 percent tax cut proposal and originally argued that this would so stimulate production that it would pay for itself in Treasury revenues. Later he added the qualification that federal spending should be cut at the same time (all but defense). There were expressions of Republican dis-- Fairness Wins a Round What many Americans felt in their hearts has now been given legal backing by a distinguished judge in the federal governments Abscam undercover operation was dirty pool. Judge John P. Fullam dismissed the Abscam convictions of two Philadelphia officials partly on circumstances peculiar to their cases. veteran of But in so doing the the federal bench also addressed the long suspected defense of entrapment and found it had substance. That finding will likely figure in other Abscam conviction appeals and trials. Judge Fullam, who presided over reorganization of the Pennsylvania railroad after Penn Central Railroad went bankrupt, said the two Philadelphia defendants should have their guilty verdicts voided because, in their case, federal jurisdiction over the offenses was artifically created. Further, he said, the two were victims of entrapment because, aside from the Abscam matter, there was Philadelphia: 14-ye- ar process of law. The last two findings can likely be applied to other Abscam cases. These rulings at the district court level are certain' to be appealed and ultimately the Supreme Court may ss Bureau of Investigations far. tees, alternately testy and droll, placating and patronizing, who once listened to a harangue of Hubert Humphrey against unemployment and responded, V 'ell, senator, I can only say that this is one ol the wisest (puff), profoundest dissertations cn the subject that I have ever heard. Now, at 72, he finds himself in a strange position indeed. He and other Republican fiscal conservatives are trying to advise a presidentelect who believes in fairyland economics. Reagan is advised by a rival group of who Republican activists, or supply-siderargue that Amercias economic problems can be solved very easily. Just boost defense expenditures, cut income taxes 10 percent across the board each year for three years and s, Those laymen who are better versed in fundamental fairness than the legal niceties are uneasy about sting type techniques employed by law enforcement agencies. Even those willing to concede that police must be allowed to match wits with the criminals they pursue were troubled by numerous questions raised by no evidence they were predisposed to the Abscam affair in which agents take bribes. Finally, Judge Fullam posed as wealthy Arabs seeking found governmental overreaching political favors, mostly from conamounting to a violation of due gressmen. Judge Fullams ruling, while not They call them compact cars because they have about enough room for a mirror and a the last word, provides legal backing for those of us who are bothered by powder puff. over-eaglaw enforcement and its a a is considered Nowadays marriage success if it lasts longer than the reception. dangerous potential for abuse. er Ozzie 17th-centur- But they would also learn that, thanks to the efficiency of the frozen food industry, the whole idea of the harvest has grown remote and vague in American minds less of an annual event in most lives than, say, the opening of the new television season. Gov Bradford would be stunned by the wealth visible around him, and he would perceive that money was the least of it. He would see that life spans now average twice the I t- and infant mortality rates are theirs. perhaps He would be struck by the easy transportation and the huge houses with their warm rooms. He would note that the only Americans of this generation who chop wood are those who dont care for basketball or jogging. At that point, the Pilgrims would probably begin asking questions the sort that hastened their departure from England. They might ask to what good purposes Americans were using their vast wealth. And they would discover that most people consider themselves to be just getting by. They would discover that most Americans have fallen into a gloomy state of mind about their prosperity. Most of them think they are getting poorer, or are about to get poorer. The Pilgrims would find that astonishing, amidst such evidence of abundance. Being earnest but tactless people, they might very well point out that great wealth carries with it great power, and therefore great responsibility for the moral welfare of the world. If they But Sen. Robert Dole, Republican of Kansas, He will be the new finance committee chairman. doesnt accept the new economics. The supreme intellectual achievement of the year, perhaps, was the operation by which wise old Arthur Burns and fellow orthodox economic counselors (Alan Greenspan and George Shultz) worked out the Sept. 9 speech for Reagan which attempted to reconcile rival theories. It was like reconciling Galileo and the J pope. Reagan may sympathize with that but his speech of Sept. 9 shows him capable of quite breathtaking change. He will be safer listening to Arthur Bums. pipe-puffi- (Copyright) Didnt Have Rockefellers Bucks Newhouse News Service WASHINGTON the By a vote of 376-3House of Representatives voted on Oct. 2 to for expel Rep. Michael Ozzie Myers, 0, D-P- trading a promise of votes and influence for money. Prior to the vote of the House, a Brooklyn, N.Y., jury had voted 12-- to convict Myers of the crime which that trade constituted. On Nov. 4, by the relatively tiny margin of 56,529 to 51,770, the voters of the 1st Congres Pilgrim View Would See America Differently Pilgrims, sent. Arthur Burns, as usual, worked from within. But George Bush, then a presidential candidate, called it voodoo economics. That criticism was easily met: Reagan named Bush his running mate. Otis Pike Another Viewpoint From The Washington Post What do you suppose Gov. Bradford and the Pilgrims of the first Thanksgiving would make of contemporary America? They would certainly disapprove. They would observe that, at great risk, they fled the corruption and arrogance of London and Amsterdam only to see that their heirs and successors had built far larger and more splendid cities. The Pilgrims of 1621 would see that, over the years, the turkey supply situation has been satisfactorily resolved. m car-make- rs determine whether the Federal zeal in rooting out crooked politicians exceeded its authority. Entrapment is a complex defense. In essence it hinges on whether a suspect, prompted to crime by a police undercover agent, was predisposed to commit the act or was enticed into breaking the law by police lures. Judge Fullam decided that undercover FBI agents went too The GOP tax populists are still there. They include Arthur B. Laffer of the University of Southern California, Sen. William V. Roth, Rep. Jack Kemp and Jude Wanniski. It promises to be an exciting year. Which Reagan did we elect the tax populist or the Arthur Burns moderate? Reagan the Moderate I think we elected the moderate Reagan, and I suspect the ultraconservatives on one side and the tax populists on the other are going to start criticizing him right away. Some see the 1980 election as an ideological turning point, a great divide; but I believe that Sen. Birch senator from Bayh, the defeated three-terIndiana, takes a sounder view: I think it was basically an economic question," he says, not a big philosophical turnover. The nation is sick and tired of inflation and a little frightened; if Reagan can end it, more power to him. His credibility is deeply involved. Can he do it without requiring sacrifice? One cause of the trouble is an endless spiral: Wages go up and then prices go up, too. How do you break the chain? More productivity (the supply side) will help enormously. But somehow or other the wage-pric- e spiral must be snapped; somebody must yield first. Nixons Attempt Nixon tried to get through the 1974 oil crisis without sacrifice. He protected the consumer by refusing to let domestic gasoline rise to world prices. That persuaded Detroit to continue to make gas guzzlers. That meant Chrysler went bankrupt; that meant the Big Three lost $3.5 billion in the first nine months of this year; that meant one in four auto workers is idle, and that one in four cars sold is an import. We have just elected the most administration since Eisenhower, and simultaneously restored the Senate to the Republicans for the first time since Ike. Reagan would love to return the nation to the era of Eisenhower tranquility. Arthur Burns saw that period, too. But Bums knows that things are moving at a faster clip. It was all right for Ikes assistant, Howard Pyle, to say, The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free economy, just as the right to prosper is. Ike himself to observe in 1953, Or for folk-her- o I believe that for the past 20 years there has been creeping socialism spreading in the United States. asked how that power is currently to be used, they would be told, of course, that Mr. Reagan's transition teams are thinking about that one. But most people feel that American power and perhaps American responsibilities with it has been shrinking. Gov. Bradford would disagree, and hed be right. Thanksgiving is the most deeply American of all the holidays on the calendar. It's not only an occasion for a good dinner although a good dinner is truly one of the better things in this world, and theres nothing wrong with a little reflection on tile circumstances that bring good dinners to most Americans pretty regularly. But Thanksgiving also recalls the original compact that bound Gov. Bradford"s community together in mutual encouragement, inspiration and support. The compact has had its good times and its bad times. It has changed a lot over the years, as the governor would be the first to observe. But the compact endures and, along with the dinner, it deserves to be celebi ated sional District of Pennsylvania completed the job. denying to the ousted congressman a return to the seat he had held for five years and nine months. They, too, felt that trading a promise of votes and influence for money went beyond the bounds of accepted political practice in the United States. On that same election day, in the state next door, the voters of West Virginia voted 387,269 to 328,911 to return to his public office Democratic Gov. John D. Jay Rockefeller IV. There is an uneasy feeling here that what Rockefeller did was trade not a promise, but an outright expenditure of money for influence and votes. Own Very Deep Pockets The Washington Post reported that the total spent by the Rockefeller campaign for 387,269 votes was $11.75 million, of which $250,000 was from contributors and $11.5 million was from the candidate's own very deep pockets. Thats a hair over $30 34 per vote. Even in times of double-dig- it inflation, that is an awful bundle of money. It eclipses the former record for a statewide race set by Jays Republican uncle Nelson in 1966 for the governorship of New York. The 1966 dollars Nelson Rockefeller was spending went a lot farther than Jay Rockefeller's 1980 dollars, but they had a lot farther to go. Nelson Rockefeller had to slather them over million New York voters, Jay Rockefeller had of a million on which fewer than to pour his. And he did pour it on $4.5 million went to a television campaign, including $800,000 to a Pittsburgh station and $500,000 to one in Washington, DC. neither of which are in the heartland of West Virginia, though they are picked up by viewers in some parts of the state. 6 three-quarte- rs Computers cranked out those fake personal to families, so effective and so letters expensive. Some families, said the Post, got as many as 10 personal letters from Jay and his campaign. How are you going to vote against a friend who remembers to write home so often? Hes almost one of the family. Friendly governors from other states were influenced to stand before the TV cameras and indicate that with the possible exception of themselves. Jay Rockefeller was the finest governor since Cornwallis left Virginia. Friendly businessmen stood and indicated that although they were Republicans, by golly Jay Rockefeller was the finest thing to arrive in West Virginia since sliced bread and indoor plumbing. He may be. On the other hand, you CAN buy votes. walking-aroun- d Whether it is the money paid to campaign workers on election day, illegal exchanges with voters as they prepare to enter the polls, or legal expenditures for slick ads the result is the same. Money as Ozzie Myers put it in half of a talks. d phrase. well-tape- It Takes the Money Any politician welcomes an opponent who is broke, dreads one whi is loaded. It takes some money to run any political campaign, but spending more than a dollar to get your message across to one voter is unnecessary. Spending $30 per vote is an outrage. Applied with only moderate skill, such an expenditure could purchase any seat in the House of Representatives or the Senate in a district or state where the two parties are roughly equal. It could buy the presidency. It is legal, but it is a trade of money for votes and influence just as devastating to a democracy as Ozzie Myers sleazy acU. Some go to jail, some go to the governor's mansion. Its all in how you do it (Copyright) |