Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 33

STATE EBITO tateMiaey f. The Arizona Republic SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1988 bill Senate passes GOP tax Democrats balk; soda, cable TV would face levies Tax packages Senate: Add 5 percent sales tax to carbonated beverages $5.8 million. Repeal Income-tax renter's credit $20 million. Raise minimum charge for vehicle-license tax to $30 from $10 million. Cap school-district property-tax rebate for homeowners at $500 $11 million.

Repeal lower taxes on commercial rentals that are considered "casual" In nature $3.3 million. Reduce labor-tax deduc-tion for contractors $15.8 million. House: Increase ciagarette tax by 5 i cents per pack, to 20 cents $17.3 million. Cap income tax "windfall" at 46 percent $45 million. Reduce school-district prop- erty-tax rebate for homeowners to 50 percent from 56 percent $17.6 million.

Repeal sales-tax exemption for expendable materials used in semiconductor production $2 million. the full House. 'During Friday's 2'i-hour Senate debate, Democrats repeatedly chided Republicans, painting the GOP as the party that wants to raise taxes at the expense of the poor. "Those who are voting 'no' truly don't want to raise taxes, and those voting 'aye' truly don't want to close loopholes," said Sen. Jesus "Chuy" Higuera, D-Tucson.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Us-dane, R-Scottsdale, said that some compromise will have to be made with See REPUBLICAN, page B5 where a tax package with several significant differences is in the works. The Senate bill calls for new taxes on cable television and the sale of carbonated beverages, a repeal of the renters' income-tax credit and moving to Sept. 1 a 1-ccnt hike in the gasoline tax that had been planned for 1990. It also would cap property-tax rebates now given homeowners and freeze at 1987 levels the amount of state aid tq local school districts, making it likely that districts would have to raise property taxes to make up the difference. The plan also would alter some corporate taxes.

Senators rejected a proposal to require residents of unorganized school districts, such as Sun City, to pay school-district taxes. The House tax plan, unveiled Friday, does not include repeal of the renters' tax credit, currently $100 a year for year-round residents, or the tax on carbonated beverages. However, the House plan calls for a 5-ccnt increase in cigarette taxes. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to vote on its tax package Monday and forward it to By Martin Van Der Werf The Arizona Republic Republicans pushed a bill to raise taxes by $200.8 million through the state Senate on Friday without any Democratic support. The bill passed 16-10, with no votes to spare, and was sent to the House, nr -J "4 'iis m-1 APS agrees on refund over 3 years I $20.49 million to be paid By Guy Webster The Arizona Republic Customers of Arizona Public Service Co.

will receive a refund of $20.49 million over the next three years under an agreement reached Friday. The refund will come as credits on monthly bills during the summers of 1989, 1990 and 1991, said Tim Hogan, attorney for the Arizona Corporation Commission. Residential customers will receive 1.40 to SI. 75 on bills for four months each year. The refunds will amount to.

a total of SIS to $20, according to figures from the regulatory agency. A For commercial customers, refunds will be based on individual billing amounts, Hogan said. The refund results from a negotiated agreement between APS and the Corporation Commission. The money is a consequence of lowered federal tax rates for APS. Jaron Norberg, chief financial officer for APS, confirmed the agreement Friday.

Hogan said that the state Residential Utility Consumer Office also had approved the agreement The three-member commission will consider the agreement July 12. The commission has sought a refund to compensate ratepayers for the portion of rates that have been collected on the premise of APS tax obligations. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the utility's rate taxes. Norberg said the company agreed to the refund "in order to avoid having a long, drawn-out hearing over a very complex issue." "It was in everybody's interest to resolve it at some level we could all feel comfortable with," Norberg said. Hogan said the $20.49 million is an accurate calculation of what the company should pay and not a compromise.

It does not include any amount for Unit Three of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, because costs for that unit are not yet being borne by ratepayers, he said. The commission had ordered APS to present a refund plan for $24.6 million. APS officials had claimed that a refund of $6.25 million was appropriate and that it should be spread out over several decades. The agreement calls for refunds totaling $7.55 million in 1989, $6.83 million in 1990 and $6.1 1 million in 1991. i ill f.

Dave NelsonThe Arizona Republic ABOVE THE RUSH College students (from left) Annie Saxton, Aron Ba'rr, Julie McCook and Ron Saxton enjoy dinner on the pedestrian bridge above the Superstition Freeway at College Avenue. The women pulled their boyfriends away from a racquetball game and brought them to the spot. Most-feared diseases AIDS most-feared ill in state survey Disease Feared by Deaths AIDS 69 HI Cancer 21 6,126 Heartstroke 4 10,045 Alzheimer's 2 192 Other 2 No opinion 2 'In Arizona in 1986 Source: West Group Marketing Research, Arizona Department of Health Services commissioned the survey. "I'm not trying to minimize AIDS, but 27 Arizonans die every single day of heart disease." Although cardiovascular diseases account for nearly half of the nation's annual deaths, Maki said, they do not get the attention from the public they should. Neither do blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diet, exercise and other factors that contribute to these By Peter Aleshire The Arizona Republic AIDS is the most feared disease in Arizona, and heart disease and stroke, which kill up to 10 times more people, are not major concerns, according to a statewide survey released Friday.

"It's incredible," said Dr. Peter Maki, a Phoenix heart specialist and presidcnt-clccl of the Arizona Heart Association, which diseases, he added. The survey consisted of 600 telephone interviews by the Phoenix-based West Group Marketing Research. Asked what disease they fear the most, most of those polled cited acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Of the 499 who responded to that question, 69 percent said AIDS, 21 percent said cancer and only 4 percent said heart 5ee AIDS, pageB4 Mine-digging prohibited until tribe's suit is tried I FIRST SECTION OUTER LOOP FREEWAY PIIJIUHIIJ IJ wm 1B Boy dies after liver transplants By Peter Aleshire The Arizona Republic Scven-ycar-old Shawn Spoon died Friday, ending a long, gallant struggle against liver disease.

The Buckeye boy had received two liver transplants at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Shawn died at 2:30 p.m. of massive bleeding into the brain. Also contributing to his death were several major infections caused by drugs that were being used to keep his immune system from attacking his transplanted liver, doctors said. Shawn received his first liver NORTHERN TO PEORIA w.v Vvx-K-xK-: A -moms li 1 1 l'T 1 'h 'i W4 ffl ARIZO nut: ill Doyle SandersThe Arizona Republic The solar-powered Sunraycer breaks through a barrier to open the first part of the Outer Loop in Peoria.

By Mark Shaffer Northern Arizona Bureau A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix ordered Friday that below-the-surface work on a controversial uranium mine south of the Grand Canyon be delayed for an additional two months. Judge Roger Strand's ruling was in response to a suit filed by the Havasupai Indian Tribe against the federal government and the U.S. Agriculture Department. Strand ruled that the suit will be tried Aug.

24 and that a stay prohibiting subsurface development at the site will remain in effect until the trial. The stay, ordered by the U.S. Forest Service, a unit of the Agriculture Department, was due to be lifted Sunday. The Havasupai suit alleges that the 17-acre Canyon Mine uranium site, which has been cleared in preparation for sinking a mine shaft by Energy Fuels Nuclear Inc. of Denver, violates tribal members' First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom.

Havasupai religious objects have been removed from the site, the suit alleges, and the remafns of tribal medicine men have been disturbed. The proposed mine is located eight miles south of the Grand Canyon National Park boundary near the community of Tusayan. "The construction of the mine will prevent the free practice of the Havasupai religion on the site and destroy our religious beliefs," the suit says. "It will kill the sacred mother that lives at the site and prevent renewal of the Havasupai spirit." Joe Sparks, a Scottsdale attorney who represents the Havasupais, said the federal government would be guilty of "cultural genocide" if mining transplant May 12, but his immune system attacked that liver after about a week. After being near death for two weeks, Shawn received a second transplant June 1.

He never got off the critical list. His mother, Norma Druin, released a statement Friday thanking the families of the two children whose livers Shawn had received after the children had been declared brain-dead. Shawn's first transplanted liver Roger Strand His ruling was in response to a suit filed by the Havasupai Indian Tribe. operations were allowed to proceed. But Pani Hill, a spokesman for Fjiergy Fuels Nuclear, said the corporation remains undaunted by heated protests from Indian and environmental groups.

Hill said her company requested the stay to expedite the trial. "We've got a lot of folks who are anxious to get on with their jobs," Hill said. "We've been sitting out there a year and a half, and wc are ready to sink that shaft." The Kaibab National Forest, which is administered by the Forest Service, originally approved the mine in September 1986, but that decision was appealed and a partial stay, which allowed work only on the surface, was granted. Forest Service officials in Washington, D.Cr rejected, 1 appeals last. SeetimMuMjpascBl BeardslayRd.

Freeway JclLRcL 41 HtLU iM Area 1 hr AeNJ4-mlleectlon x- to open In fall 'U Cost: $31.9 million V--J Peona Ave. I 11 Olive Ave. (vi) jiwj 3niie section 11 Northern Ave. "OW open 1 ft I Cost: $27.6 million p-' Planned Paradise Fwy. Camelbad( Rd.

I I ft" 0 4 9 i i 3, McDowell Rd. if sSS I 20 years of planning yields 3-mile drive on Agua Fria freeway By Steve Nolen The Arizona Republic The first section of a 231-mile Valley freeway system financed by a half-cent sales tax opened Friday in Peoria after spending more than 20 years on the drawing board. The threc-mile stretch of the Agua Fria freeway, the western half of the planned Outer Loop, opened between Northern and Peoria avenues at a cost of nearly $28 million. "Three miles doesn't seem like much," Gov. Rose Mofford fold a small group gathered under a hot sun for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"But when you look at it in a historical perspective, it is a giant step forward." Mark Bonan, a spokesman for the Arizona Department See AGUA FRIA, pageB2 U' laiuc iiuni umh iivi umigiuii, a 2-ycar-old from west Phoenix who ied after being shot in the head. Her father has been charged with lecond-dcgrcc murder. The second transplanted liver came from an Arizona child whose name Ras not been released at the request of (J)c family. I "Without the organ Shawn would never have nad a chance all," Druin said. "I want to thank the people ho have given love and support (o hawn in the past month." Sec BOY, pageB3 fa Vanuren5L imjje JU The Arizona Republic.