Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 2

"Jper a If to mr to fcre Martin bxt Jpfrt gobmurmt feillioui nfaFajirr nitopper bithoul gBe.rronmt, lIouli not hHU mmnent fa prefer lutUr. Thomas Jefferson Tuesday, September 5, 1 989 Pace 2 Gazette v. The Indiana Zaire through rose-color glasses Utility tax return due but when? refused to talk to us about it, so we examined bis financial records. Behind many an ideological change is a check, and we found one. Savage got (1 ,500 in campaign contributions last year from Mamadl Diane, who was with Savage in Zaire last March.

Although not officially a lobbyist for Zaire, Diane is. tight with Mobutu new 1989 bill to cut aid to Zaire, show that one would have to go a long way to exaggerate about the country. Half the children there die before the age of Z. Not one hospital has been built since Mobutu took over in 1965. The bill sponsored by Ron Dellums, claims that sick Zairians have to bribe hospitals for medical By JOHN I.

KENNEDY Harrisburg Newt Service Washington win soon decide the fate of (19 billion in tax over-collections, scooped ud unin Washington By JACK ANDERSON DALE VAN ATTA WASHINGTON President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire is the kind of guy who lines his pockets while his people starve. After 24 years with Mobutu at the helm, Zaire has taken giant strides backward. But Mobutu knows bow to make friends in high places. Rep. Gus Savage, is one such friend.

On a trip to Zaire last March, Savage met Mobutu and pronounced him to be a compassionate man. Maybe Savage was too blinded by the opulence of the dictator's lifestyle to notice the death and disease around him. Or maybe Savage had other things on his mind. The trip to Zaire has already been widely scrutinized for more titillating developments. A Peace Corps worker claims Savage got her in the back of a limousine during a bar-hopping night in the capital city of Kinshasa and fondled her, despite her protests.

If it Is true (Savage denies the story), it wasn't the only time Savage showed a gross lack of judgment in Zaire. Zairian press accounts quoted Savage as saying this about Mobutu: "What struck me the most was the humane side of (Mobutu's) personality, one radiating warmth and showing concern for the happi-' ness of his people." Savage reportedly told Mobutu be could count on Savage's support in Congress. This is the same Gus Savage who, two years ago, co-sponsored an unsuccessful bill that would have slashed U.S. aid to Zaire because of Mobutu's repressive regime. Why the change of heart? Savage Merry-Go-Round The changing face of Irish politics tentionally by the nation's public utilities when the corporate tax rate dropped three years ago.

Congress will either maintain federal law, which allows the utilities to return the money over as many as fifty years, or let each state set the payback timetable for its utilities. If Congress repeals (he law, Pennsylvanians may get their share of the money, $700 million, in as few as three years. "There are really two Issues involved," said Caroline Chambers, Director of Congressional Relations for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. "Everyone agrees that it's the ratepayers' money, but the questions become who should have control over the refund, and how quickly should the money be given back." The controversy centers around the 1986 reduction in the corporate income tax from 46 percent to 34 percent. That decrease, aided by a common accounting procedure, presented utilities with a windfall.

This is how that windfall developed. For tax purposes utilities may accelerate the depreciation of their capital equipment. In other words, they may pay less tax on any one piece of equipment early in its life, but and this is the rub collect from the ratepayers as of they were paying tax or a straight line depreciation basis. In any one year, then, utilities collect more for taxes from the ratepayers than they actually must pay to the federal treasury. The so-called deferred tax pool that results is entirely legal and encouraged by the government.

The extra money is usually re-invested in new plants and equipment, which in the long run benefit the ratepayer. But the. 12 percent reduction (46 percent minus 34 percent) in the tax in 1986 resulted in the utilities collecting an extra amount, above what normally lies In the deferred pool. Foreseeing the over-collection, Congress passed legislation in 1986 that required (he utilities to pay the money back. Under the law, they may pay it back over the life of the equipment being depreciated, which ranges from a low of about 12 years for a phone company to 40 or 50 years for an electric utility.

Yet most states, if given the would require the utilities to return the money over a much shorter period of time. "We have precedent for our argument," said Bill Shane, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. "In 1979 the federal tax rate dropped from 48 percent to 46 percent, and it was never questioned that the state's would set up their ownlimetables for when the utilities would give the over-collected tax money back. Then, the PUC required it returned over three years." According to PUC figures, in eastern Pennsylvania the average family is due 1100, and the average business $18,000 of the over-collections. In the west, the average family is due (50 and the average business (10,000.

(Eastern families and businesses are owed more since their utilities have had more recent capital investments. Concurrently, the state's largest local phone company, Bell of Pennsylvania, owes its ratepayers (250 million. The largest electric utility, Philadelphia Electric Company, owes (150 million; Duquesne Light, (55 million; West Perm, (30 million; Pennsylvania Power and Light, (150 million; Perm Power, (8 million; Penelec, (32 million; and Metropolitan Edison, (25 million. Not surprisingly, the utilities prefer their current payback schedules. In fact, they are spending thousands to defeat legislation that repeals or alters the current law.

One bill, introduced by Congressman Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, simply repeals the law, granting authority over matter to the states. Another bill, authored by Congressman Robert Matsui, D-Califomia, also gives the state the authority to set their own timetables, but requires that returns can't be made in less than three years. (This is a switch for Matsui; in 1986 he sponsored the current law. "In the long run It will end up costing the consumer more if we have to give the money back sooner," said Harold Piety of the Pennsylvania Electric Association, who nevertheless admitted that the longer the payback period the greater the chunk inflation will take out of the money. "We don't have that kind of cash lying around, and if we have to borrow money to give the tax money back, that will be reflected in the rate base." Moreover, according to Nikki Marx, Director of Taxes at Bell of Pennsylvania, the 1986 law was the result of compromises with "the intent that we use that money for long term investments that will benefit the ratepayer down the road.

Making us pay the money hack sooner will help present ratepayers but only at the expense of future ones The issue will come to a bead when House Ways and Means Committee meets in September. Then, experts say a close vote to amend a budget bill with either repeal the law or let it stand. Two Pennsylvania Congressmen serve on that committee: Republican Richard Schulze opposes the amendment, while Democrat William Coyne supports it. "That vote in the committee is the crucial one," said Caroline Chambers. "If we win there, the amendment will stay on through the House and Senate.

But if it's not amended there we can forget about it for this year." care. The Zairian military fleeces people at roadblocks. Parents often have to bribe their children's way into school. Human-rights groups claim prisoners are tortured, starved and executed without trial. Savage isn't alone in the Mobutu fan club.

This year, the U.S. government will give Zaire (50 million because, while Mobutu may be a rogue, he's a cooperative rogue. Zaire is the primary source of some minerals used by the U.S. defense industry. The Central Intelligence Agency helped put Mobutu where he a demographic study just published at Queen's University (Belfast), a Catholic majority is no longer "a realistic scenario." The current Northern Irish population is 1.6 million, some 38 percent Catholic.

Finally, the Provisional IRA now is divided on what course to follow: still more terrorism, or political action? The part of the movement connected with Gerry Adams, head of the IRA's overt political organization, the Sinn Fein Party, a Belfast M.P., wants more emphasis on a political solution. This divides him from the so-called military wing of the IRA, and considerable tension is reported to exist. The dispute follows from the failure of an intensified terror campaign in recent months, meant to produce results by the 20th anniversary, in August, of the intervention of British troops. Not only were there repeated security force successes against the IRA, the campaign's effect on public opinion was disastrous. ml PfRMAiDl0rJiT inlnrilWf and pushes Zaire's interests in Washington.

He is the president of Amex International a shipping agent for Zaire, and he heads a Washington-based group called the Zaire-American Research Institute, which promotes close ties between Zaire and the United States. Diane told our associate Scott Sleek that money did not buy Savage's praise for Mobutu. He said Savage merely reacted to what he saw in Zaire and that the country's problems are exaggerated. Those problems, as spelled out in a is the economic and social structure of the Irish situation in both north and south. The Irish Republic has in the past lagged behind the north.

Today it experiences a very considerable and well-founded economic The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, in its latest survey of Ireland's economy, describes vast improvement as a result of the drastic cuts in public expenditure made since 1987 by the government of Charles Haughey. The OECD's confidence in Ireland's economic perspectives (over 4 percent growth this year and better than 3 percent expected next year, which means sharply higher levels of employment) is bettered in the forecasts of Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute. It sees 5.75 percent growth this year and high exports (13.25 percent export growth, as against the official government forecast, last January, of 6.75 percent). Investment is high and inflation under control. An economy "out on its feet" at the beginning of the 1980s Dublin's Sunday Tribune writes "has returned from the The country is.

now seen to have an' economic future." Population is falling in the south (the forecast is of a total population of 3.496 million people in 1990, against 3,513 today; three years ago Ireland had a population of 3.541 million). This, in combination with economic growth, means a rapid rise in individual prosperity, even now visible in Dublin and its surroundings, which contrasts with con1 ditions in the north. Rural poverty remains evident here in the West Country. EEC regional funds projects are, however, drawing the parts of the Irish Republic together. In the north the Catholic birth rate is also falling.

A decade ago the Catholics confidently expected to become the eventual majority. This Is no longer justified. Catholics continue to have more children than Protestants, but the differential has steadily dwindled, and according to is by a coup and has continued to help him fend off would-be assassins and rebels. Adding Savage to the list of admirers may be a mixed blessing for Mobutu. The publicity surrounding the alleged sexual assault in the limo has shown an ugly side of Savage.

The congressman thinks he is the victim of a white-controlled press. He shouted expletives at a reporter outside the House chamber. And, during an Interview with television reporters. Savage said, "I have no sexual peculiarities, as some of you may have. You may be a faggot or something." ESCAPE ARTIST The man that Colombian police would most like to arrest for cocaine trafficking is Pablo Escobar, the chief planner behind the Medellin cartel's execu- tion squad.

Escobar reportedly has escaped to Panama under the protection of Manuel Noriega. Fourteen months ago, the Colombian army almost caught Escobar. An elite, incorruptible force hunted him down in Medellin and got so close that Escobar had to flee in his pajamas. MINI-EDITORIAL It seems like It was only yesterday (actually, it was the day before yesterday that the Postal Service raised the price of a stamp to 25 cents. Now the postmaster is warning of another increase, possibly to 32 cents, by 1991.

One of the mysteries of the universe is that no matter how high the price of postage goes, the junk mail never abates. You won't get many letters from Mom in 1991, but you can count on hearing from Ed McMahon. United Feature Syndicate, Inc. In European Parliament elections in June, Sinn Fein's share of the Northern Ireland vote fell from 13.4 percent to 9.1 percent In the Irish Republic, Sinn Fein got just 1.2 percent of the vote in the last general election, earlier this year. Just who does the IRA represent? Even Sinn Fein has to ask that question.

Where is its constituency now, its mandate? The Catholic population in the north of Ireland votes for the Social Democratic and Labour Party led by John Hume. His view of Northern Ireland's future, and of the opportunilies peace that exist, merits a separate column. Los Angeles Times Syndicate (r totter County fair flea market disgusting Dear Editor, Three cheers for the "Great Indiana County Fair flea market fias-' co!" Perhaps I'm doing nothing: more than shouting in the wind, but I am disgusted and A group of friends from some distance away and myself met early Sunday morning to attend the "200 booth" flea market for which we were charged a one dollar perl person entry fee. This, the entry was loudly criticized by many other would-be visitors, who turned in anger and departed. We, unfortu-' nately, paid our dollar and entered and visited the perhaps 15 sales' booths, and wandered back out of the fair grounds.

Poor management; poor organization and a total lack of care or concern for the visiting public has left me feeling very bitter toward whoever was responsible for the incompetent handling of this situation. At the very least, the entry fee should have been stopped before it started and most certainly returned as people exited Sincerely; Howard T. Seibert Brush Valley, Pa: I xi. vg. tuttM MJC Jfc.1- Publhtwd by THE INDIANA PRINTING PUSUSH4NO COMPANY P.O.

Im 10 Indiana, Pa. IS701 Phn412-4o5-S55S CitablUhiin10 IUCV ft. OONNf PmWMtC-kli)Mr JOB DONNIUY Prtnktent C-Publihrftdit MICH A El J. SKrataiyffraMr 0nwal Manager MASTIl O. KINTM Auitrant rmwtr STACIt K.

DONNEllV AHitla.it Sacratary JOSEPH Of AM Oitclr WILUAM t. HASTINGS Manaaina dilw FRANK I. HOOD AiMciot Edilar MtMiER Of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Thi AMwlatcd PiWH lh um npraductlMi all Ixal nmwt printed in thlt MwipQptr a wall at all AP ntwt ditpotchai. USPS 32-M0J By WILLIAM PFAFF BALLINA, County Mayo. Ireland Twenty years after the British Army entered Northern Ireland to maintain order, important developments have occurred on both sides of the border, the most important of them the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which gave Dublin a consultative role in Northern Ireland's affairs.

This agreement provoked bitter Protestant hostility, as well as the resistance of many Conservatives in London who might have known better. For the first time in the recent and tormented history of the Ulster Protestant Unionists' relationship with British Conservative governments, a Conservative prime minister did not back down. Margaret Thatcher may not feel enthusiasm For this agreement, or for the Irish, but she refused to be blackmailed by the Ulster loyalists. Every previous attempt to involve Dublin, or impose power-sharing in the Catholic-Protestant rivalry in Northern Ireland, has been destroyed by Unionist strikes and political resistance. This time the British government held to its course, and there is little doubt that in doing so it reflected public opinion.

The British majority has not much patience left for Ulsler loyalists. The leader of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party, John Hume, is able to say today that the agreement "has done something (for the Unionist leaders) that in their deepest hearts they knew needed to be done but couldn't ever do for (Mrs. Thatcher) has stripped them of ascendancy and privilege and in so doing has done a service to us all by placing us on a politically equal footing." Out of that has come, for the first time, the necessity that the Unionist Protestant leaders deal with the Catholic community in the north. Mr. Hume believes they will eventually do so.

The second thing that has changed Environment, politics? vJIVv gAKKSR PRAYS FoR A little over a year before the gubernatorial election the Casey Administration has kick started its re-election bid by assaulting a possible opponent Under attack is state Senator Michael Fisher, R-Allegheny, for his recent role in a fight between the legislative and executive branches over obscure regulations intended to reduce air pollution. Through his state Department of Environmental Resources, Casey has filed a suit against Fisher, and others, for rejecting DER's regulation that calls for reductions in the volatility of gasoline sold in the state. (Lowering the volatility of gas lowers its carbon emissions and so reduces air pollution.) Fisher chaired the committee that initially reviewed the regulations, and later led the fight in the Senate to reject them. The suit alleges that the Senate action was unconstitutional for it tipped the delicate balance between the top of the powers in government. "We maintain that the actions of the Senate and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (a state review agency that also rejects DER's regulations) violate the separation of powers doctrine by unduly interfering with the duties of the executive branch through a burdensome and intrusive legislative review process," said Keith Welks, DER's Chief Counsel.

The department proposed lowering the gas volatility rating on a quicker timetable than one proposed by federal Environmental Protection Agency, a schedule initially backed by Fisher. Essentially DER wants a statewide volatility of 9 pounds per square inch by the summer of 1990. The Protection Agency has ordered 9 psi nationwide by the summer of 1992. The rating now stands at 10.5 psi. To defeat the DER proposal in the spring, Fisher used arguments fostered by the oil industry: the Department's stricter schedule would result in price increases and possible shortages in gasoline.

Fisher bad commented then it's better to avoid the lines and the price increases and hold off on the tougher standards for a few more years. However, Fisher and the Senate later compromised with DER's position and passed legislation calling for the department's stricter timetable for Philadelphia and its suburbs, but for the EPA timetable for the rest of the state. The bill still sib in the Democratically-controlled House. By attacking Fisher whose name, by the way, Is not required on the suit Casey hopes to weaken a possible challenger by creating doubts in an area where both Casey and Fisher appear particularly strong, the environmental realm. Fisher not only leads the legislature with environmental initiatives, but is the only viable Republican who could compete with Casey's short but strong history of cures for environmental woes.

'S SS If Mxtinmm (gazette.