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Show Sun Advocate ppmooo. 4A Wednesday, June Z3, 19BE ft 1982 Lawsuits CofUey No 5me pose threat to citizens serious thing that local communities have the ever faced in history of the state of Utah. Dr. Thats how George Behunin Jr., superintendent of the School Carbon County District, describes a barrage of lawsuits brought against four counties and a school district by d property tax. large corporations which pay Behunins rather dramatic comment has been echoed by Carbon County Commissioner Lee Semken, current president of the Utah Association of Counties. In an apparently orchestrated effort which could have grave implications for local governments throughout Utah, lawsuits were filed recently by four corporations. The suits challenge the constitutionality of laws requiring that values of locally-assesse- d property be rolled back to 1978 levels and that the values be rolled back 20 percent. Utah Power & Light and Rio Algom Mining Coip. have both sued San Juan County and San Juan School District. Southern Pacific Railroad has sued Weber and Box Elder counties. Kennecott Minerals Co. has sued Salt Lake County. If the companies are successful, the rule of law would apply to the entire state. Disaster could result in Carbon County, where 40 percent of the revenue is paid by property owners. The municipalities may have to make up the difference and pay it to the corporations. Officials say the county could conceivably lose between $400,000 and $500,000 from both this years and next years revenue. Carbon County School District may lose $1 million and would have to double its income just to break even, according to Behunin. Central to the dispute is a difference in assessment formulas for property (chiefly mines, utilities and d railroads) and property (local homes and businesses). Each side claims the other gets an unfair break on property taxes. The Utah Association of Counties has decided to enter the cases as a friend of the court in behalf of the defendants and will file a counterclaim against the plaintiffs. The association in fact was on the verge of filing a lawsuit against the state Tax Commission alleging that the assessment procedures gave the companies an unfair advantage. The counties contend that locally-assesse- d property is taxed d at value, while property is taxed according to their net income. The system is fundamentally inequitable. But the corporations got the jump on the counties association. Before it could carry out its well publicized intention, the corporations made their move. The corporations were not required to disclose their strategy as were the counties. Unfortunately, there is no Sunshine Law which applies to industry. Even so, the counties plan a statewide public relations blitz recruiting support for their position. Together with school boards throughout the state, they are solidifying their ranks and bracing for the battle. We urge public support for the position of the local governments. The quality of education and availability of municipal services is at stake. Its the most state-assesse- state-assess- state-assess- Its not a British attack... just a stray shot from the ed jack anderson locally-assesse- ed state-assesse- fair-mark- et joe spear How will Israel withdraw? ed state-assess- Middle East!! Sooner WASHINGTON or later, Israel will have to pull out of the Lebanese territory it has overrun in the past few weeks. World opinion will force the withdrawal. The big questions then are: Who will the Israelis turn the captured territory over to? Who will be their choice for an occupation force to keep Palestinian troops from moving back and once more threatening northern Israel? the likeliest Unfortunately, choice for this job seems to be a depraved Lebanese cutthroat, Major Saad Haddad. He and his rightwing Christian soldiers have been on Israels payroll for years. To Israels shame, Haddad and his mercenary thugs have proven to be as dangerous to the United Nations peacekeeping force as they have to the Liberation Palestine Organization In fact, Haddads record bloody puts him on the same moral level as the PLO guerrillas. terrorists. Consider this shocking report from a secret State Department document on the plight of the United Nations troops in Lebanon: The forces . presently deployed have been subjected to numerous attacks by Haddads forces since 1979, including at least 30 incidents in which U.S. soldiers were killed. The secret report then cites a gruesome particular. In one case, two Irish soldiers were tortured and shot in the presence of an American officer, the document states. Our sources say the American officer, an Army major, was acting as an observer. He apparently blundered into the situation just as Haddads troops captured the two Irish soldiers from the U.N. peacekeeping force. The American was restrained by Haddads men while the two Irish soldiers were viciously tortured and shot. Haddads hostility toward the U.N. troops may stem from his feeling that the U.N. forces have failed to keep PLO guerrillas from at will throughout caught the Reagan administration southern Lebanon. Both Haddad completely by surprise. It also and the Israelis are known to embarrassed the president while consider the U.N. force sym- he was on a European trip that was supposed to show our allies he was pathetic to the Palestinian cause. But this is a far cry from in control of events. justifying the brutal murder of What particularly irritates some Irish, Dutch, French and other of the administrations advisers is U.N. soldiers. These young men the violated this: Israel clearly are in Lebanon trying to keep Act Control Arms by using Export peace in a conflict they have no American-suppliein an d weapons stake in. a Its dirty job, personal adSome attack. aggressive probably an impossible one. Just ministration that officials argue because theyre not doing it sucIsrael should be punished for this. cessfully is hardly a reason to The most severe punishment, of murder them. a halt in U.S. be would course, Israel is not the only country that to Israel. aid military should be ashamed of Major Other presidential advisers, we Haddads excesses. The United States didnt even lodge a protest are told, are secretly pleased at the over the senseless torture and idea of a southern Lebanon free of murder of the two Irish soldiers, the Palestine Liberation even though an American officer Organization. This would be a was an eyewitness. Instead, our giant step forward for peace in the government prefers to maintain Middle East, some of the the fiction that Israel has no presidents aides feel. But for control over the bloodthirsty Major obvious political reasons, the Haddad. administration cant take this line The Israeli invasion meanwhile, publicly. roaming castle country OCSSQIPSII Newspapers are human, too By DAVID LONG Managing Editor Newspapers make mistakes every day. Although we dont like to admit it, hardly a week goes by when we arent redfaced about something that managed to sneak into print. Not all of our mistakes are grievous ones. Some are just house typographical errors comes out mouse, noon comes out soon. Some are factual errors wrong names, wrong addresses, wrong ages, wrong dates. Some are garbled quotations. We dont make mistakes intentionally. Neither do our friends at other newspapers. But when they do occur, we try to correct them as soon as possible .usually the very next edition. Given the pace of our business and the speed at which each paper is produced, some mistakes are almost inevitable. We are not infallible, and neither are the people who submit material to us. More often than not, our mistakes can be traced back to a source who didnt know what he was talking about. We rely on people all over this community fbr the news you read in the Sun Advocate. We contact people every day who give us the details and facts that make up the stories that fill the paper. Sometimes, those people we thought were knowledgeable werent. What makes our task even is relying on information brought into our office. Too often, we have published an item as it was submitted only to discover that a name or two was misspelled. Those who give us material are not always careful about tougher obtaining correct spellings. Sometimes we catch the mistakes others make. Sometimes we dont but we always get the blame. Ive lost count of the number of times Ive had to go around the office for help in decifering someones chicken scratches. Keep these things in mind the next time you decide to bring something by our office. I know some newspaper editors who are content to follow the early traditions of our business they ignore mistakes and hope the readers do, too. These editors think that by acknowledging an error, the paper will lose its credibility and respect or even start losing paid subscribers. I have another point of view. Although I dont like to eat crow, I will when I have to. If the Sun Advocate makes a mistake, you can be sure that it will be corrected when it is brought to our attention. If we didnt correct our mistakes, I believe thats when we would start to lose our credibility. Ill always opt for a correction in order to keep the record straight and to be fair to you, our readers. When you see a mistake in the paper, give me a call. Ill check with the source of the information and make sure a correction is published. Communication between newspapers and the people who y read them cant be a street. We have to listen and not do all the talking. Just so you know the Sun one-wa- Advocate isnt the only newspaper that goofs every once in a while, read on for some real doozies. The following corrections are real, as documented by Gay Sands Miller in an article in the Wall Street Journal: Swallowing hard, the Bryan (Texas) Eagle advised that the correct title of a book to be discussed by a local church group wasnt How to Say No to a Baptist and Survive, but How to Say No to a Rapist... Fannie Peskind really didnt spend the night in jail after her purse was snatched, the Los She Angeles Times just had to stay late at the station house to answer questions. Unless youre crazy about cinnamon, you wont care for d our recipe for apples, the Louisville Courier-Journwarned as it slashed its recommended dose of the spice from one and a half cups to half a teaspoon. The Corning (N.Y.) Leader d when it had to was correct this typographical error from a story on street-fai- r murals: Children of all ages, for a small fee, will be able to paint their own morals on the wall. When the Des Moines Register switched its births and deaths column headlines, Editor Paul Laurence spent the better part of a day writing apologetic letters to the families oven-frie- al red-face- involved. some photographs didnt arrive on time and the paper was forced to make some layout changes, the Twin Cities Reader didnt know quite how to make the corrections easy to understand. After instructing people to tear out When last-minu- te and transpose paragrapns and even whole pages, the small Minnesota weekly advised: Now tear the entire paper in half. Keep tearing until you have a pile of shreds. Put this ... high grade confetti ... in a shoe box and set it aside until New Year's Eve. ' |