The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 47

September 29, 1996 Page 1E Business Editor Frederick Burger, 235-9288 Frederick RiledlSoaiir taboo Presidential candidates won't talk about it mo candidates and Medicaro How President Clinton and Bob Dolt would slow the grw of Medicare the health Insurance for about 37 million, mostly elderly. Clinton In i ftsle i The tear-by-year spending tola u'k; -tr unnion's latest proposal and the congressional Republican which Dole endorses. Over six years, Clinton would spend 3 more. In billion 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2CC2 CIlntOB $197 $210 $228 $243 $280 $279 $301 Poll $198, $209 $226 $238 $253 $269 $28? Trust Fund going treks Latest protections for the Medicare Trust Pund Medicare fund at par tad $200 1995 i problems. Under current projections, Medicare will have overtaken Social Security as the most expensive government program by 2030.

One in five Americans will be covered, but costs will have raced ahead of enrollment more than tripling as a share of the national economy. That will mean higher taxes and less to spend on other national priorities. Campaign commercials and sound bites don't give you that background. Polls show that voters don't want to hear about cuts in Medicare. So the candidates play on the emotions.

Clinton and his organized labor allies accuse Dole of trying to slash Medicare by $270 billion last year to fund tax cuts for the rich. See Medicare2E Hss two parts: Part 1 covers hospital care; Part covers doctors' eervfC83 i Part Financed mostly through a payroll tax paid by workers and employers. Its trust fund Is 'j going broke I I Part Financed by I premiums paid by elderly and ganaral Treasury revenues. It contributes to 1 budget csficit SOURCES: Committee Medicare Trustee Report, Congressional Budget Office, Senate Budget By R.A. Zaldlvar Knight-Rldder Tribune Ntwt Wire WASHINGTON When it comes to Medicare, what Bill Clinton and Bob Dole aren't telling you could cost you.

Neither candidate for president has a plan to deal with Medicare's basic problem: it's too expensive to keep caring for the elderly and disabled under 1960s-style insurance that puts few restrictions on patient choice. With Medicare's hospital trust fund headed for bankruptcy in five years, the next president and Congress will have to act. But whether their response is a stopgap fix or an effort to address critical long-term problems remains to be seen. Experts say fixing the system V. 5 BCA trying to get back on fast track 54V i will ultimately require deeper spending reductions and higher costs for beneficiaries than either Clinton or Dole are talking about Tax increases could also be in store, although they're politically unmentionable now.

"The politicians think they're dealing with a little skinned knee that needs a Band-Aid," said Guy King, a former Medicare chief actuary. "What they've got is a huge problem." (Actuaries specialize in long-range financial planning.) Medicare now serves 37 million people one out of every seven Americans and consumes 1 1 percent of the federal budget. Costs are growing around 9 percent a year, about twice as fast as the economy. The hospital trust fund's impending bankruptcy is only the beginning of 'Vriu: 1 Beach for several years, working in an ad agency. Two of those years he worked as agency art director.

He returned to graduate school at Florida and in 1990 earned a master's degree in art history. In 1991, Siboroski came to the Anniston Museum of Natural History as a graphic designer. In September 1994 he became curator of exhibits, succeeding Joe Hines, who took a job at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. In his current job, Siboroski helps plan as many as four temporary exhibits a year, as well as permanent exhibits, which he says take two to five years to plan. What He Likes About His Job: "I get to learn new things all U.S.

August ratal Crating up, shipping out Jeff Roperrieft, and Adoiph Anders prepare to crate order that was being transported in 10 crates weigh-up a pollution-control device manufactured by the tng an esUmated 30,000 pounds. Exports have fcllSOsllllaa -100 2804 -30 blllloa 1995 government to "improve the state's business climate" was the reason the Business Council was formed in late 198S. The BCA hopes Stone's arrival on Oct. 7 will signal its renewal as an effective political organization. "Robin is an excellent addition to the BCA team," said Winton Blount III, the BCA's interim president.

"He is experienced in all aspects of government and public affairs, from communications to grass roots. He is a consensus builder who can both lead and work within a team structure, a critical component to a successful governmental affairs program. We are excited to have him on board." Stone, 42, brings solid credentials to his new job. In recent years, he has been in charge of the Washington, D.C., lobbying office of the Boeing the nation's leading aircraft manufacturer. See BCA2E Big door open for buyout offers Associated Press BIRMINGHAM Big Inc.

left the door open for other buyout offers after rejecting an unsolicited, $330 million offer from Revco D.S. Inc. Big with almost 400 drug stores in five Southern states, said directors had also taken steps to ward off unwanted suitors. To help fight off hostile takeovers, directors approved a plan through which owners of Big common stock can purchase shares at a discount or buy shares from anyone who purchases 10 percent of the company without approval from directors. Officials at Revco headquarters in Twinsburg, Ohio, said they would not give up the fight for Big B.

Big based near Birmingham, issued a statement saying directors unanimously voted against the offer from Revco, partly on the recommendation of financial advisor Robinson-Humphrey Co. Inc. seen rising 2001 04 urayiun uorp. oi jaciuonvuie. inis piece oi equip- become Important to Drayton's business.

The comment, which has been shipped to Houston, pany's exports this year are expected to account for on to a paper plant in Brazil, was part of a $225,000 30 percent of its estimated $4 million in sales. By Frederick Burger Star Business Editor Internal upheavals have left the Business Council of Alabama, the state's largest business-related political organization, smarting from dissension for almost four months. The BCA last week started trying to regain its political equilibrium. The organization hopes the healing will begin with the hiring of Etowah County native J. Robin Stone to head the BCA's governmental affairs branch, an office vacant since June when George Clark, a former legislator, was fired, along with five other staffers.

Governmental affairs is what the BCA is all about. That's the division of the organization that lobbies the Legislature for what the Business Council defines as pro-business causes. Indeed, influencing the Legislature and other parts of state BIN WllsorVThe Anniston Star What He Dislikes About His Job: "Having to wait. Sometimes things don't happen as quickly as you want them to happen." Frederick Burger -r iff Personal nn is i 1 I 1 1 I WJSU news team settling into new lives Familiar faces, old friends, now scattered to different locals, some still out of work. That's the way it has turned out so far for the old gang at WJSU-TV 40.

Most of the folks we used to see on nightly newscasts either have or are trying to move on to other broadcast jobs. Only a few familiar faces remain at the TV station now based in Birmingham and known as Alabama's ABC 3340. Yes, there is a scaled back Anniston bureau. But for many viewers, it's not the same. Phil Cox, who ran the Anniston station before the marriage with Tuscaloosa's WCFT-TV 33, is now vice president and station manager at 3340.

But he's living in Birmingham and no longer on the air. Cox says the station now employs 12 people in Anniston, three of them reporters, the rest in production and advertising. That figure is down from the 40 WJSU employed locally before the merger and move. Sportscaster Mike Scruggs lost out on a similar job at WNAL-TV 44 in Gadsden when the station was suddenly sold to a Florida company and dropped plans to launch a local news operation. Scruggs had worked at WJSU almost 19 years but wasn't offered a job with 3340.

After being unemployed for a month, he's now selling ads for and co-hosting a radio sports-talk show with Cotton Mills on Gadsden's WAAX-AM 570. The two-hour show airs weekdays at 5 p.m. Sportscaster Rick Nyman, an Anniston native, is looking for a broadcast job in the South or Midwest Meanwhile, to pay the bills, he's working 40 hours a week at Davie's Southern School Supply, where he stocks supplies, sells and makes deliveries. Connie Hancock, once a high-profile news anchor at WJSU, is now selling ads out of the new station's Anniston office. Weatherman Dr.

Ted (Klimasewski) continues in his full-time job teaching geography at Jacksonville State University. He has been the weekend weatherman at Huntsville's WAFF-TV 48. But he says the job will end when the station hires a full-time weatherperson. The merger at WJSU was probably more traumatic for news anchor Angle Casey than some of the others. She had planned to work here for years to come after holding broadcast jobs in a number of Alabama markets, including at Montgomery's WSFA-TV 12.

She is, after all, a divorced mother and had decided to raise her children a daughter, 6, and son, 5 and live among family and friends in Jacksonville, her hometown. She, too, had signed on to work at the defunct news operation at Gadsden's WNAL, but learned Aug. 12, after a week on the job, that she was suddenly out of work. Ms. Casey, 36, found herself in a wrenching position.

And the primary question was: How did she support her children? She thought about looking for a public relations job. A friend at Jacksonville State offered a clerk's position to help provide some income. Ms. Casey was embarrassed to file for unemployment: "It was a little humiliating, particularly when you lost a job but didn't do anything to lose it. It kind of makes you mistrust management." Then Ted called to tell her that WTVY-TV 4 in Dothan was looking for a news anchor.

She talked to the news director and general manager. She sent a tape and went down for an interview. Last Monday, Mary Angela Casey and her two children said goodbye to Jacksonville and moved to Dothan to start a new life and a new job. 1 Bid WltoorVTh Anniston Star the time, whether it has to do with exhibits or not. And when an exhibit is finished, I get to step back and see how it looks and how people react to it." Paul Siboroski Organization: Anniston Museum of Natural History, 800 Museum Drive, Anniston.

Position: Curator of exhibits. He is in charge of development, care, maintenance and fabrication of exhibits. Siboroski oversees three people. Background: Paul M. Siboroski, 34, was born in Connecticut but grew up in North Palm Beach, where his father was an engineer with Pratt Whitney aircraft.

His mother was a housewife. Siboroski (pronounced Sib-or-owski) graduated from Cardinal Newman High in 1980 and went on to the University of Florida, earning a degree in graphic design in 1984. He returned to Nortn paim Unemployment rate food, beverage profits 1996 Calhoun County 5.3 I United States 5.1 Stats ot Alabama 4.5 By Leslie Hillman Bloomberg Business News 9 14 percent, less than the expected 17 percent to 18 percent, because it can't get all the profitable shelf space it wants. PaineWebber's Goldman expects PepsiCo to earn 42 cents a share, up from 39 cents a year earlier. Nabisco Holdings profit is expected to rise to 30 cents a share from 27 cents a year ago, said S.G.

Warburg Co. analyst Christopher Jakubik. The company has said earnings may be cut a "couple pennies" a share because of troubles at its Brazilian dairy unit, he said. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company, which is 80.5 percent-owned by RJR Nabisco Holdings in June said it would fire 7.7 percent of its workers and streamline operations. "We're not expecting to see a big upside yet from the big restructuring," Jakubik said.

Other food companies won't fare as well particularly cereal makers, which have reduced prices to put some snap back into sales growth. See Profits2E The world's largest soft-drink maker is expected to earn 38 cents a share, up from 32 cents a year earlier. The earnings aren't expected to be hurt by slightly lower-than-expected sales increases of 6 percent to 7 percent. PepsiCo is expected to report that U.S. beverage case sales rose about 5 percent, analysts said, helped partly by price cuts in select areas and its Pepsi Stuff promotion.

Purchase, New York-based Pepsi's overseas beverage growth is expected to be hurt by mounting troubles in Latin America. Its bottler serving Brazil and Argentina, Buenos Aires Embotelladora SA, is struggling and its bottler in Venezuela, its sixth-largest market, defected to Coke. 'That acts as a drag on their volume growth," said Emmanuel Goldman, an analyst at Paine Webber Inc. He expects beverage sales outside the U.S. to rise 3 percent, with gains in Eastern Europe, Spain and Asia.

Schroder Wertheim Co. analyst Caroline Levy said profit at the Frito-Lay U.S. snack business will rise 12 percent to Some major food and beverage companies are expected to report higher third-quarter earnings, the payoff from a focus on improving their U.S. operations. Coca-Cola PepsiCo Inc.

and Nabisco Holdings Corp. are expected to report increases in earnings per share, analysts said. Other food companies are still struggling, beset with stiff price competition or soaring grain costs. Quaker Oats Kellogg Co. and Tyson Foods Inc.

are expected to report earnings per share that are lower or little changed. "A lot of companies are having to contend with problems that they never would have had a year ago in those domestic markets," said Smith Barney Inc. analyst David Rabinowitz. After years of anemic U.S. growth, Coca-Cola's profit should rise, analysts said, as the company spent heavily on marketing, including $300 million to $500 million for the Summer Olympics.

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