The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 3

The Sallna Journal Wednesday, April 9,1986 PagfeS Exemption dispute dooms sales tax negotiations TOPEKA (AP) The issue that threatens to send the Kansas Legislature into overtime came no closer to resolution Tuesday night, when House and Senate negotiators broke off talks on increasing the sales tax to generate money needed to fund next year's budget. Talks are to resume this morning. Legislative leaders said unless the stalemate is broken soon the lawmakers stand no chance of meeting Saturday's scheduled adjournment of the regular portion of the 19IJ6 session. A joint committee broke off negotiations on the sales tax increase in a dispute over whether to exempt janitorial services from the tax. House negotiators had agreed to take to the House and try to get passed a 1-cent increase in the sales tax, effective July 1.

That was the way the Senate wants it. But the House members also insisted that the senators agree to restore to the bill provisions that would impose the sates tax on janitorial services. w- Senate members of the conference committee said that bill being used simply as a vehicle to develop a sales tax compromise was dead in the Senate, and was kept alive only to have a shell of a bill to insert the sales tax increase provisions. Neither side could believe the other would hold out over the janitorial services exemption, but the six-member panel broke up after meeting for an hour and 45 minutes over that sticking point. They agreed to talk again today, hoping some way out of the dilemma can be found.

Raising the sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent would generate an estimated $172.1 million in new revenue for the next fiscal year and $186.2 million for the year after that. The negotiators were told that enacting the 1-cent Increase and having it in effect for all of the next fiscal year would result in an $80 million general fund balance on June 30,1987, if all appropriations bills that have passed either the House or the Senate become law. Both sides said they regarded that as a minimum balance for the safe operation of state government. The bill that is being used as the vehicle to amend in the sales tax increase provisions passed the Senate, 23-17, Tuesday. The House refused to accept Senate amendments, on a vote of 75-41, sending the measure to the conference committee.

While the sales tax issue dominated Tuesday's legislative actions, it was far from the only major issue commanding attention. In other developments: A joint House-Senate conference committee began negotiations on a compromise version of the sales tax increase bill. Despite objections from House Democrats, both houses approved a bill into which provisions for a sales tax Increase will be amended. The bargaining committee started with the Senate wanting a 1-cent increase and the House holding out for something less. It appeared a bill to reimpose capital punishment in Kansas for first-degree murder was dead for the 1986 session.

The Senate Governmental Organization Committee called off a hearing on the bill for lack of interest and Chairman Ben Vidrlcksen, R- Salina, said he would not reschedule it. House supporters conceded they didn't have the votes to override a certain veto. The Senate passed, 35-5, and sent to the House a bill that would require girls under 16 to obtain written consent from a parent or guardian before they could get an abortion. Supporters said the measure could help strengthen family unity, but opponents said good family relationships can't be mandated by law. The House adopted Senate changes in two key water bills, sending both to the governor, but rejected the Senate version of a third proposal regarding construction of large reservoirs.

The House accepted a bill to establish a statewide system of water assurance districts, aimed at allowing cities and industries to use water in federal reservoirs during times of drought, and one requiring the Kansas Water Office to develop guidelines for water conservation plans. Ronald Radford plays his flamenco guitar Tuesday at an assembly for students at St. John's Military School. It's only 'gypsy but they liked it By CAROL LIGHT! Staff Writer For a few minutes Tuesday morning cadets at St. John's Military School forgot their preference for rock 'n' roll music as they listened to the gypsy melodies of flamenco guitarist Ronald Radford.

After about 50 minutes of watching the flamenco techniques and imagining themselves in a cave in southern Spain with gypsies dancing to the music, the cadets responded with a standing ovation. Radford, who is one of about six flamenco solo concert artists, is in Salina as part of the Marymount Artist Series and will perform a concert at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Marymount Fine Arts Theatre. Radford, Tulsa, told the cadets that his own musical tastes leaned toward rock 'n' roll while he was in high school. He played electrical guitar with a rock band, he said.

But he said his life was changed after listening to an album by flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya that his mother brought home. At the time he had never Heard of Montoya. "I was so inspired I never played another note of rock 'n' roll," he said. Radford played that record over and over and unsuccessfully tried to play the music on his electric guitar, he said. When Montoya performed in a concert in Tulsa, some of Radford's friends arranged to have him meet the artist backstage.

There Radford played for Montoya on his $15 pawnshop guitar. Montoya invited Radford to go with him to New York City and study with him for free. "That's when the work re'ally started," Radford said. Solo flamenco guitar music was first performed in concert in the late 1930s by Montoya. The music, sometimes called "gypsy jazz," is a traditional folk art of southern Spain performed with singing and dancing.

Radford is the only person ever awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in flamenco. Through that scholarship and other grants he has made eight trips to Spain in a period. Because flamenco music is an unwritten folk art, Radford had to learn the song forms from the gypsies. He is the only American touring solo flamenco artist. The difference between flamenco music and classical guitar music is that flamenco is performed only on the guitar and is unwritten, he said.

Classical guitar music is music written by a composer that is played on a guitar, but could be played on other instruments. A flamenco guitar differs from guitars used to play classical music, he said. Radford also gave a demonstration Tuesday evening for guitar students at S.M. Hanson Music, 335 S. Clark.

He will be perform concerts at noon today for the Downtown Lions Club at the Bicentennial Center and at 7:15 p.m. at the Presbyterian Manor. His residency in Salina also is sponsored by the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission. Tickets for the Marymount concert are $4 for adults and $2.50 for senior citizens and students. Children accompanied by an adult will be admitted free.

One killed when plane crashes into Cheney Reservoir MOUNT VERNON (AP) Rescue divers recovered the body of a man Tuesday night from a single-engine, home-built airplane that crashed earlier in the day into Cheney Reservoir, about 30 miles west of Wichita. Gregory Mills, supervisor for the Wichita-Sedgwick County Emergency Communications unit, said authorites were "fairly positive only one person was on the plane because we were able to track it from where it took off in Wichita and there was only one person on board at that time." The name of the pilot was being withheld pending notification of relatives. Mills said divers from the Wichita Fire Department recovered the body about 6:15 p.m. He said the pilot still was strapped in his seat and had to be cut free. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to investigate the crash, he said.

Emergency dispatchers said the plane entered the water about 11 feet deep near a marina at the east end of the lake about 4:20 p.m. Rescue workers tied ropes to the craft's fuselage and tail to keep it from sinking deeper into the water, according to dispatchers. Witnesses said the only part of the plane visible above the water was part of the tail section, which was heavily damaged. Scott Cassube, 7, said he was outside his home near the lake and saw the plane circling just before it crashed. A fisherman said he saw the plane pass low overhead, heard a loud pop and then watched as the craft spun into the water.

The man said he rushed to the wreckage in a small boat, but was unable to find any survivors. Rescue workers recovered many pieces of debris, including a door with a plaque noting the plane's classification as an experimental aircraft, authorities said. Canton man charged after 2-hour standoff Panel urges purchase of Colby TV station TOPEKA (AP) The Kansas Public Broadcasting Commission approved a report Tuesday that calls for spending $400,000 in state money to help a western Kansas educational television station purchase a defunct commercial station in Colby. Secretary of Administration Alden Shields, chairman of the broadcasting commission, said officials of KOOD-TV at Bunker Hill had asked the state to contribute $600,000 toward the $1.9 million negotiated purchase price for the Colby station. Shields said the commission made its decision based on findings of a subcommittee appointed to study the proposed purchase.

The subcommitte reported that the old commercial station, called KLBY-TV, is overpriced. "Our position was that as a commercial television endeavor, the station isn't worth that," Shields said. Instead, the commission based the proposed state grant on a purchase price of $1.6 million. Shields said officials think the federal government would approve a $900,000 grant for the purchase and the remaining $300,000 would be raised in the Colby area and by KOOD. Shields said KOOD officials will have to decide whether to renegotiate the purchase price or raise the $300,000 difference between the $1.9 million offer and the commission's recommendation.

The commission's recommendation will be submitted to the Legis- lature. But Shields said that the purchase may be the most "cost effective" way of bringing educational television to most of western Kansas. Colby is about 50 miles east of the Colorado border in extreme northwest Kansas. Ken Gardner, manager of KOOD, told the commission that after the station is purchased, plans call for programming to be beamed by microwave signals to Colby from KOOD's Bunker Hill facility. From Staff and Wire Reports CANTON Four felony charges were filed Tuesday against a Canton man accused of threatening two police officers with a gun in a two- hour standoff Monday night.

Ricky D. Crowell, 27, faces two charges of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer and charges of aggravated assault and making a terroristic threat to Julie Orth, also of Canton. Crowell is being held in the McPherson County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for April 23. McPherson County Sheriff Harris Terry said no shots were fired during the incident, and no injuries were reported.

The incident began at 9 p.m. when two Canton police officers went to a residence in the south part of Canton in response to a domestic disturbance report. The officers talked to Orth, who was standing outside the house. Crowell is suspected of using a rifle to break a window out of the front door and threatening the officers with the gun after they attempted to enter the house. The officers went to their police car and radioed for backup help.

At least eight McPherson County sheriff's officers and several police officers from McPherson and Galva arrived at the scene. Officers were able to talk by telephone to Orth, who told them everything was fine and to go home. Terry said both Orth and Crowell stepped outside again, talked with officers briefly and went back inside. When officers heard noises as if the man were nailing the front door shut from inside, the decision was made to go in and arrest him. Several officers rushed in the front door and overpowered him as he attempted to go down a flight of stairs into the basement.

Officers seized a bolt- action rifle and a box of ammunition from the home. Several children in the house apparently were asleep in a bedroom during the incident, Terry said. Law enforcement officials attend ground-breaking Carlson invited to Washington Saline County Commissioner Dennis Carlson has been invited to Washington for an April 25 briefing on a plan to alleviate rising liability insurance rates. Carlson will join other state and local offi- Carlson cials around the country at the briefing with U.S. Attorney General Edwin UMBe and Attorney General Richard Willard.

The subject of the meeting will be President Reagan's eight-point plan to reform tort law. "The briefing will be to do about the liability insurance premium crisis," Carlson said. Between 1984 and 1985, the cost of the county's comprehensive general liability rose 222 percent, from $20,664 to $66,469. The policies are to be renewed in July and commissioners expect another increase. The information Carlson received from Washington indicated that resolving lawsuits costs $70 billion each year, the prime reason premiums soared.

Commission adopts plan for community corrections program policies for certain tynes of coverage at any cost. Neither the city nor the county have found a company willing to insure against damages caused by pollution. The county's weak spot is its weed control program. Saline County's proposal for a local community corrections program soon will be on its way to Topeka for review. Saline County commissioners Tuesday adopted the plan drafted by the Community Corrections Advisory Board, which has been working since January 1985 on the proposal.

The program is intended to reduce prison overcrowding by keeping some non-violent adult and juvenile offenders in the community. The main ingredient in Saline County's plan involves intensive supervision for its participants. Advisory Board Chairman Doug Smith expects the program to be implemented by July, providing the Kansas Department of Corrections approves the plan. Smith said the initial budget of $274,091 will finance the hiring of a director, three intensive supervision officers, a victim-witness coordinator and a part-time diversion monitoring supervisor. All the money is supplied by the Department of Corrections.

For the first year, Saline County is entitled to receive up to $330,000. Smith said the supervision officers will contact each program participant an average of 44 times a month, compared with two to three contacts a month in a standard probation program. Smith said the program has room for about 40 adult offenders and 20 juveniles. "We can't allow a large number in the program," Smith said. "If we do that it would reduce it's effectiveness." TOPEKA (AP) Officials and members of law enforcement groups Tuesday broke ground for a memorial on the state Capitol grounds to honor slain law enforcement officers.

A crowd of about 150 people, many of them uniformed officers, watched as Gov. John Carlin; Attorney General Robert Stephan; Sen. Ross Doyen, R-Concordia; and representatives of law enforcement agencies turn over the first shovels of dirt. "The significance of of having a memorial is that we've got something permanent," Carlin said. The Legislature approved the project in 1984, and it will be built with private donations.

So far about $50,000 of a necessary $60,000 has been raised. Col. Bert Cant well, superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol, said the Kansas State Building Trades Council, which represents local trade unions, has offered to provide free labor. Plans call for the memorial to be built on the northeast corner of the Capitol grounds. It will feature a star set in a circle 27 feet in diameter.

The circle and star would rise only a few feet out of the ground, and names would be inscribed on the circle. The memorial would have room for 120 names, and about 40 names- of officers who have died since Kansas became a state in 1861 have been collected. A circular sidewalk, shrubbery and benches would surround the memorial. Stephan said he hopes the memorial can be finished within 60 days. "Though it is a tragedy these (officers) had to lose their lives to make Kansas a safer place in which to live, it would be an even greater tragedy should their bravery be forgotten," Stephan said.

The legislature in 1984 also created the 10-member Kansas I-aw Enforcement Memorial Committee, made up of five representatives uf law enforcement groups and five from state agencies. The committee approved the design and contacted local historical societies to collect names. "It's hard to believe we don't have a memorial," Stephan said. Stephan said anyone interested in the project can send donations to the committee in care of the Kansas Sheriffs Association in Topeka..