Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 1

JACKSON MISSISSIPPI STATE 25c Copyright 1981 Volume I25DNO, 107 sections 60 pages Mississippi's leading newspaper for more than a century May 29, 1981 FRIDAY insonput on probation in sex case Ex-congressman's former backers say fate no longer concerns them Request to halt election rejected By BRIAN WILLIAMS CUrioa-LedgerSuff Writer The U.S. Justice Department has turned down a request by civil rights leaders who sought a court order halting Jackson's Tuesday general election on grounds of Voting Rights Act violations. A Justice Department spokesman said Thursday the decision not to interfere with the election was made after a conference between James P. Turner, acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Attorney General William French Smith. Turner, who met with civil rights leaders Wednesday over whether residents of areas annexed by Jackson in 1976 should vote in municipal elections, conveyed the decision to Walter Faun-troy, the District of Columbia's congressional delegate and chairman of the congressional Black Caucus.

Turner told Fauntroy that Jackson officials have been warned that they were "proceeding at their own risk" if the annexed area participates in the city election. Meanwhile, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Thursday that city efforts to stage municipal elections next week were testing the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the good will of the city. Jackson made his comments as he returned after a trip to Washington, D.C., with a local delegation which asked the Justice Department to file suit to halt the election Tuesday. The black group objects on grounds that areas annexed in 1976 were predominantly white in effect diluting black voting strength.

"I think in a real sense Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is on trial," Jackson told reporters. "The good will of the city of Jackson is on trial. But perhaps more lJsj iff 4 v-, )L cX; V. i 'rC if V-t 4'H I 2k I By JOHANNA NEUMAN and CLIFF TREYENS CUrioo-Udger Stall Writers WASHINGTON Former U.S. Rep.

Jon Hinson of Mississippi quietly entered District of Columbia Superior Court Thursday and changed his plea on a misdemeanor charge of attempted sodomy from innocent to "no contest." After hearing objections from the U.S. attorney's office, which opposed the plea, Judge David Norman pronounced sentence: Hinson received a 30-day suspended jail term and one year's probation with minimum supervision on the condition that he continue to receive medical treatment for "dissociative reaction." The maximum penalty for attempted sodomy is one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The hearing came just days before the scheduled Monday start of Hinson's trial on the charge, which stemmed from his Feb. 4 arrest with a male Library of Congress employee in a public men's room of the Longworth House Office Building here. In pleading no contest, whereby Hinson claimed neither guilt nor innocence, Hinson employed the only option short of trial left open to him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Knight has refused consistently to offer Hinson, who in 1976 was arrested on a charge of committing an obscene act, an option to enter the District of Columbia's first offender program. Under that program, the charge could have been dropped if Hinson successfully completed tation. Law sources who have read the arrest report also have, consistently doubted that Hinson would risk an open trial in which the Capitol Police sodomy descriptions would be made public. Hinson, whose resignation as Mississippi's 4th District congressman took effect April 13 in the midst of his second term, was unavailable for comment Thursday, as was his attorney.

Knight, who said Hinson "had little left to bargain with," added, "We thought the no contest plea was inappropriate. We thought a straight plea of guilty was appropriate." Hinson's co-defendant, Harold Moore, will now be offered a chance to plead guilty in return for admittance to the first offender program, said his attorney, Joseph Bernard. The court action Thursday put the final legal touches on a congressional career which soured politically on Feb. 4, the day Hinson was arrested and charged with felony oral sodomy, a charge that was later reduced to misdemeanor attempted sodomy. Top Mississippi Republicans who once backed Hinson seemed only mildly interested Thursday in news of his sentencing.

"As far as I'm concerned, the Hinscn matter closed with his resignation," said Mike Retzer, chairman of the state Republican Party. Retzer, who backed Hinson until the disclosure of the Feb. 4 arrest, was one of the first party officials to call for the congressman's resignation. "I have no feeling or comment on it (the sentencing) at all. We've gone on to work on other things," Retzer said.

"We feel 1,000 or 2,000 miles away from Jon Hinson." One of Hinson's biggest former supporters was W.D. Mounger, an independent oil producer in Jackson. Never at a loss for words, Mounger has been known alternately in the past for his outspoken support of Hinson and his later biting criticism. On Thursday, Mounger was uncharacteristically low-key. "I don't care if he (Hinson) receives any sentence at all.

I don't really think people much care if he got any sentence once he removed himself from the See Hinson, page 18A the black people whoare under-represented at every level are not going to stand by to have our right to vote or its impact negotiated away." Jackson-added, "It would be'Kunuch easier for the city to be in compliance than to be in defiance. And I hope that happens." He said the point originally was raised by the Justice Department and he felt See Elections, page 1 8 A WAITING Janice Comer, with her son Naval Station on Thursday after a Tuesday accident Robby, 5, cries as she awaits dockside to rrtot hr off Florida that killed 14 men. Petty Officer 3rd husband Robert, a member of the crew Nim- Class Lewis James McLaurin, 22, of Soso died in the itz. The Nimitz returned home the Norfolk (Va.) incident. See story, page 3A.

House Dems dash hopes for quick tax-cut compromise President Reagan had told a group of state and local officials he hopes "very shortly we will have a bipartisan tax policy." But any such expectation appeared to have been cooled when House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill told "Progress has been vastly overstated by the press." effective date postponed until Oct. 1. a revised plan endorsed Wednesday by Dole and supported by a group of conservative House Democrats who supported Reagan's spending cuts. Rostenkowski initially called for a less costly one-year tax cut that would provide more relief for lower- and middle-income families than would Reagan's plan.

Though still opposed to a cut locked in for a full three years, Rostenkowski later had been indicating that a multiyear cut would be acceptable. According to one knowledgeable administration source, Rostenkowski had signalled willingness to support two-thirds of Dole's tax proposal a 5 percent cut in tax rates, effective this Oct. 1 and another 10 percent cut next year but was still wary of an additional 10 percent cut in the third year. The source said the administration is unwilling to give up the third year cut or an across-the-board rate reduction that provides the same percentage cut to all income levels. Under such a scheme, the vast bulk of the reduction would go to upper income families.

However, the administration is willing to satisfy the Democrats' demand for tilting more of the cut to the less wealthy by accepting other changes sought by Rostenkowski that would be of particular benefit to middle-income Americans, the source said. Such additional changes could include narrow ing the "marriage penalty," under which a working husband and wife pay more taxes than if they were single and lived together, and increasing incentives for individual savings. The administration previously has sought to keep its tax bill free of such items, preferring to save them for a second bill later in the year. The source said the administration also is likely to support Rostenkowki's proposal to reduce the maximum rate on non-wage income, such as interest and dividends, from 70 percent to 50 percent all in one step rather than in three steps as proposed by Reagan. The source cautioned that the president has not yet approved any changes in his original tax proposal, but is almost certain to compromise if assured of speedy congressional approval.

Amid gloomy prospects for passage of Reagan's original bill, the administration has looked to Rostenkowski and the leadership of the Democratic-controlled House to come up with a bipartisan compromise, i In the meantime, the administration also has sent out signals that if Rostenkowski doesn't move quickly, it will try to win passage of the 30 percent tax-cut in the House by re-creating the coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats responsible for House approval of the president's budget proposals. A number of the conservative Democrats have endorsed the three-year, 25 percent tax cut. i naled they were closer to finding that compromise. President Reagan had told a group of state and local officials he hopes "very shortly we will have a bipartisan tax policy." But any such expectation appeared to have been cooled when House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill told reporters, "Pro-.

gress has been vastly overstated by the press." Rostenkowski said the Democratic caucus was "worried and concerned about across-the-board tax reductions," such as proposed by Reagan, which would give the same 30 percent cut in tax rates to rich and poor alike. "The consensus was that across-the-board tax reductions would not do much for working Americans," Rostenkowski said. "There also was a feeling that a multiyear tax cut is not acceptable, at least at this time." While no further negotiating sessions with Dole and Regan have been scheduled, Rostenkowski added, the reluctance of the caucus "does not conclude my discussions with the secretary or with Bob Dole." Earlier, he and Regan and Dole, while refusing to discuss any details of their meeting, had indicated to reporters that progress was being made but an agreement had yet to be reached. "We think the ball was advanced," said Regan, who later briefed the president on the tax negotiations Thursday. "I didn't give very much and they didn't take very much," Regan later told a WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee dashed hopes for a quick compromise on a tax-cut plan Thursday, insisting on greater relief for lower-and middle-income workers than recommended by President Reagan.

During a two-hour caucus, the Democrats also held firm in their opposition to a multiyear tax reduction another key element of the president's plan. "I hope it doesn't" mean an end to negotiations with the administration on reaching a consensus tax-cut plan, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, told reporters. Rostenkowski said he interpreted the statements of fellow Democrats as instructions for him to continue to look for an acceptable compromise. At the White House, deputy press secretary Larry Speakes said the administration had heard "only second-hand reports on the Democratic caucus." But until Rostenkowski and Reagan talk, Speakes said, "Reagan's position remains firm: across the board, multiyear tax cuts are just as essential to economic recovery as across-the-board, multi-year budget cuts." Ways and Means Democrats caucused a few hours after Rostenkowski; Sen.

Bob Dole, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; arid Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan had sig group of business executives. Rostenkowski told reporters: "I prefer to think we are in agreement much more than in disagreement Things have gotten brighter." "I feel we are quite close," Dole said, adding the precautionary note that "again, we could be a long way off." Reagan has proposed cutting all personal tax rates by 10 percent a year for three years starting July 1, for a total cut of 30 percent. However, the administration is now indicating it would accept a reduction of 25 percent, with the Index Mail-in vote wins raises for Lambert and Smith 1 mental" raises for May could be included in later checks. Brooks said the reason the raises were rushed through were that they were made at Winter's re quest.

"He was pushing to get it on in. We looked at those, and just made a poll trying to get it ban died," Brooks said. Attorney General Bill Allain said Thursday that his "off-hand opinion" is that actions taken by polling members of oversight boards can be challenged unless the polls were made "under an emergency situation." An emergency, Allain said, would be some kind of natural disaster. 7 "Unless it was some kind of extreme emergency; it defeats the purpose of an open meeting," Allain said. "Generally, you should wait until a meeting to take official action, otherwise, you're defeating th spirit of the open meetings law." Brooks, who also chairs the House Fees and Salaries Committee, headed the fight for the House of Representatives with the Mississippi Senate over executive salary increases during the 1981 session; See Lambert, page 18A "poll" of six of the members of the Personnel Board by mail to get the salary raise approved last week May 19.

The action was officially entered into board minutes this week, showing approval of all eight members. Two members Spencer Nash of McComb and state Sen. Edgar Overstreet of Oxford added their approval by hand-delivering their mail-in sheets at this week's Wednesday meeting of the board. Board members Danny Cupit of Jackson, state Sen. John Waldrop of New Albany, state Reps.

Bunky Huggins of Greenwood and Tommy Brooks of Tupelo, Issac Sayle of Charleston and Jim Carraway of Bassfield returned their approval by mail last week. The the pay raises were not included on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting. Asked why a poll was necessary when a regular meeting was scheduled eight days later, Groff said, "the action came up and we handled it with a poll. We handle a number of things on a poll basis. There's nothing deceptive or deceitful.

"Poll actions are always made part of the minutes," be said. It could not be determined how often the board uses the "poll" method as Personnel Board employees would only allow inspection of the April and May minutes Thursday without permission from Groff, who was not in the office. Groff, contacted at home after office hours, said the method has been used less than a dozen times in the past year. Brooks, chairman of the Personnel Board, said approval was needed by May 19 in order to have the necessary paperwork completed at the state auditor's office so that the raises could go into effect for the May pay period. "It was a time factor," Brooks said.

"We had to have that thing in prior to deadline in order to get it into the auditor's by the 20th." State Auditor Hamp King said Thursday, however, that the paperwork authorizing the raise had not reached his office as of Thursday a week after Personnel Board officials said it had to be at King's office and that the raises wouldn't be included in the May paychecks for the two men. State employees receive their May paychecks today. Jim Terry, operations coordinator for the Personnel Board, said the necessary paperwork could reach the state auditor's next week and "supple- Amusements 2-4D Ann Landers 2D Classified 6-1 8C Two top state officials, who didnt get pay raises Comics 6D from the 1981 Legislature, have quietly been grant-Crossword 7C increases totalling $19,000 a year by the state Editorial "ZZZZ6-7B Personnel Board. Footloose ID jhe personnel Board used a mail-in vote by a Horoscope 2D majority of the eight-man board to approve raises Je'ro for Revenue Commissioner Butch Lambert and Money oo commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance riumeS i a Glenn Smith. The increases made both men among Obituaries itA the highest-paid state government officials with Sport" 1-6C sanes dM1-000 each.

State 3 A Lambert, a member of Mississippi House of Re-Stocks 9-10B presentatives for 17 years before being appointed TV Log 5D to chair the State Tax Commission last July, was Weather 2A making $33,000 annually before the raise, while ABOUT-FACE: One day after call- Smith, a Brookhaven banker appointed to his curing for higher military pay, Presi- nt Job in December was earning $30,000 a year AcTm Rpatfan apreed Thursday to a Winter' who appointed both men to their jobs, fu fh hSi aI I mm letter to Personnel Board May 11 three-month deferral of a military the board raise the salaries of sUtegov-raise this summer as a cost-saving ernment executives "where feasible and not con-move to help reduce a growing 1981 tradictorytolaw." budget deficit. Page 13A. Personnel Director Guy Grof conducted a.