Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 87

fm7m ISSlSSlpBl perspective 8e tflarion-Jcncr DlyNews Sunday, September 7, 1986 3H Dire predictions of budget crises -Am call tor a measure of skepticism All you covcrnment-watohprs aM rooHir closed, wondered aloud if he was being punished frX Shawn Mcintosh Staff Writer The Clarion-Ledger r- m-fMl-n" A 1 the wails, the roars and the collective groans. State budget negotiations for fiscal year 1988 have begun and the New Capitol may never be the same. Last week lawmakers heard dozens of agency heads request millions of additional dollars -all slices from a revenue pie that is expected to grow only slightly, if at all. The legislators attending the budget hearings showed little reaction to horror stories about what would happen if more money isn't found. Probably, though, they couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.

The Legislature is facing what has been described as one of the toughest budget years in recent memory and it's compounded by the fact that many agenices are hoping to make up budget cuts they suffered this fiscal year. When the Legislature convenes in January, lawmakers will again have to choose between cutting proposed budgets and raising taxes. They faced the same situation during the 1986 legislative session but weren't hounded then by the prospect of a re-election campaign. Consider their position. During the first two days of budget hearings agency heads asked lawmakers for budget increases ranging from a mere 1 or 2 percent to more than 100 percent.

It's true, a few agencies didn't request budget increases, but more than one legislator on the House-Senate budget committee has predicted that combined budget requests will dramatically exceed available revenues. So legislators have two choices: They can appropriate agencies considerably less than is requested, or they can vote to raise revenues instead. Either way, someone's not going to like it. Sen. Jack Gordon of Okolona outlined the di- tor his vote not to spend $12 million of state funds, which was left in the bank at the end of the year.

Roberts denied the possibility, good-naturedly protesting that he was shocked to be accused of such political posturing. But while Roberts and legislators at the budget hearings were willing to laugh off any possible political blame, voters might not be so charitable. Nor would voters on the other side of the issue have been charitable if Gordon had been willing to spend the one-time money to temporarily prop up ongoing state programs. But Gordon and other legislators can be comforted by one fact: No matter what agency heads say, budget crises don't ever seem to measure up to predictions. Remember budget negotiations last year? At one point state agency heads predicted that layoffs of state employees would total something near 2,000 if lawmakers didn't find a lot of extra money.

Well, they didn't find a lot of money, and the layoffs were nowhere near the estimates. The number of layoffs, in the end, came much closer to 200 than to 2,000. That's not to say that the loss of jobs wasn't important to the laid-off employees and it's not to say there isn't a case for argument that the layoffs shouldn't have occurred. But the of -base predictions should reveal one thing to state lawmakers: When agency heads say they've got another tough year coming, it's hard not to be a bit skeptical. The Legislature is facing what has been described as one of the toughest budget years in recent memory and it's compounded by the fact that many agenices are hoping to make up budget cuts they suffered this fiscal year.

State Sen. Emerson Stringer Louisiana's 'creationism' law has strong support in South lemma well last week when he joked about the closing of a driver's license examination bureau in his northeast Mississippi district. Gordon, questioning Public Safety Commissioner James Roberts about why the bureau was Joe Atkins Gannett News Service Boards of supervisors statewide watching 'Neshoba experiment' If Neshoba County is successful in full implementation of the county unit system, the case study being prepared by the Cooperative Extension Service could prove a strong selling tool in convincing the Legislature to mandate the unit system statewide, as organizations such as the Mississippi Economic Council have urged. WASHINGTON Mississippians cheered in 1925 when William Jennings Bryan proclaimed to a sweltering, hot courtroom in Dayton, "I believe it if it's in the Bible." Only a year after the aging politician's successful defense of Tennessee's anti-evolution law in the famous Scopes "monkey" trial, Mississippi began levying a $500 fine against anyone caught teaching the theories of Charles Darwin. Expect to hear some cheers again from Mississippi when the state of Louisiana brings the Scopes debate full circle and defends its five-year-old "creationism" law before the U.S.

Supreme Court. Enacted five years ago but never enforced, the Louisiana law requires that public schools teaching the theory of evolution in classrooms should also teach so-called creationism or creation-science. Creationism teaches that the Earth and most of its life forms came into existence suddenly about 6,000 years ago roughly the time and manner of creation described in the biblical book of Genesis. Evolution proposes that the planet Earth is billions of years old and that life forms evolved or developed gradually over the past few million years. Mississippi creationists such as state Sen.

Emerson Stringer of Columbia will be watching when the Supreme Court takes up the Louisiana law in the term beginning next month. "My proposal is similar to Louisiana's, which says if you teach any theory on how the universe was created that you got to teach creationism, that all matter in the universe was created by a Supreme Being," Stringer says. "I don't mention the Bible." A conservative charter member of the Legislature's rural-oriented "country caucus," Stringer has established something of a tradition with his annually submitted creationism bills. One of them won Senate approval in 1980, but that's as close as Stringer has come to victory. "I just keep on keeping on," says the Marion County cattle farmer, who expects to try again next session even though he is actively considering a bid in 1987 for the post of Mississippi commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce.

If the high court upholds the Louisiana law, "it would give momentum for support which they (supporters of teaching creationism) have rarely gotten in the past," says Hilary Chiz, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Jackson office. The ACLU is the chief legal opponent of the Louisiana law. Louisiana's law is unique in the nation. Its lack of direct biblical references distinguishes it from a similar law adopted in Arkansas but overturned by a federal court in 1982. -r Sid Salter Editor Scott County Times Still, the U.S.

District Court in New Orleans has ruled that the Louisiana law is a violation of church-and-state separation provisions in the U.S. Constitution, a decision upheld on an 8-7 vote by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last December. Because of the closeness of the appellate court vote and a procedural protest against the lower court's ruling, Louisiana decided to take the case to the Supreme Court. "The law does not say anything about teaching any religion in public schools in Louisiana," says Rusty Jabour, a spokesman for the Louisiana attorney general's office.

"Theonly thing that is attempted to be taught is the science of creationism science, the science of how we got here." Of course, that's not how a group of 72 Nobel Prize-winning scientists describe the law in a recently filed "friend of the court" brief on the case. "It sets up a false conflict between science and religion (and) misleads our youth about the nature of scientific inquiry," the brief reads. Harvard University paleontologist Stephen J. Gould is more to the point. Creationism is "just a phony new legal strategy a whitewash for a specific, particular and minority religious view in America Bible literalism," Gould told reporters recently.

Gould's terse dismissal of an issue that goes to the emotional heart of so many Southerners is reminiscent of the courtroom attacks against Bryan and other anti-evolutionists by attorney Clarence Darrow 61 years ago. Darrow defended the evolution-teaching of John T. Scopes. "The gimlet questions and ironic sneers of the sallow Mr. Darrow were taken as indictments of the state of Tennessee and indeed of the entire South," recalled author Clarence Cason in his book, 90 Degrees in the Shade.

Like Darrow, Gould and the other academicians sneering at creationists in Louisiana and elsewhere are simply fighting a challenge to their own prejudices, says state Sen. Wayne Burkes of Clinton, a minister at the Bolton Baptist Church and supporter of teaching creationism. "Academicians talk about academic freedom, yet they don't want to talk about creationism," Burkes says. And it's no accident that a Southern state is once again leading the charge against such skeptics, Burkes says. "The South is more committed to the biblical principle than other parts of the country," he says.

It began in July 1984 as an experiment in Neshoba County. Today, Neshoba County is the focal point of boards of supervisors statewide and good-government lobbyists alike as it institutes a full-fledged county unit system of government. So much attention has been focused on "the Neshoba experiment" in recent months that the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service is preparing a case study for statewide distribution. "We know most boards of supervisors across the state are watching us to see if the program succeeds here," said Neshoba County board attorney Don Kilgore. "This county has become, not necessarily by choice, a model county by which the county unit system concept in Mississippi will be judged." The county unit system of government is based on centralization of purchasing, work project assignment and completion, management and accounting designed for maximum financial efficiency.

It replaces the time-honored "beat" system, in which individual supervisors in a county essentially rule five separate government entities within one county. Good-government lobbyists say the system is the most economical way to administer county government. The "beat" system has been criticized sharply over the years as a wasteful and impractical exercise in political patronage. Calls for the Legislature to mandate the unit system to county governments statewide have to date been unsuccessful, but a handful of counties has chosen to revert to the new system voluntarily. "Primarily, those counties that have in the past chosen the unit system are either urban in nature or in counties that have serious financial difficulties," said Kilgore.

"Neshoba County is the first rural county with a strong economic base to test the system. That's why the interest in our progress with the system here is drawing statewide attention." Following the July 1984 vote to move to a modified unit system in Neshoba, the county board set up funds to purchase equipment for the entire county's use rather than making the equipment the property of a single, beat. Further, the board began to work collectively on public works projects, with each supervisory ured prominently in the state's community development efforts, and is recognized as one of the top men in Mississippi when it comes to understanding the complexities of the Community Development Block Grant program. If Neshoba County is successful in full implementation of the county unit system, the case study being prepared by the Cooperative Extension Sei vice could prove a strong selling tool in convincing the Legislature to mandate the unit system statewide, as organizations such as the Mississippi Economic Council have urged. Supervisors who oppose or fear the unit system statewide also have a vested interest in watching Neshoba County.

If Neshoba cannot make the system work in terms of money saved and work produced, the sword of the Extension Service report will cut the other way in legislative lobbying. Proponents of the unit system say that statewide, the program could save Mississippi taxpayers as much as $27 million each year. Further, good-government advocates say that through the use of centralized accounting proc-dures and monitoring of purchasing, county supervisors could divest themselves of the frequent problems associated with requests for free gravel and other public work on private lands. The pressure is on Neshoba County today to see if the "model" county can make the system work successfully. If it works there, rural counties across the state will be forced to examine the merits of a program that could fundamentally change local politics in Mississippi by allowing supervisors to function as top-drawer administrators rather than road crew bosses.

district's work crews concentrating on priority projects in all areas of the county. "As that modified system evolved, the board decided that for unit government to work effectively, it would require that the county make the full commitment in terms of constructing a central county maintenance building and to hire a qualified, full-time county administrator," said Kilgore. The Neshoba board voted to pursue that course in the fall of 1985, and bids on construction of the new $200,000 county building have been received. In August, the board authorized the hiring of Mark Nixon, former state Department of Economic Development marketing and research director, as county administrator at an annual salary of $45,000. Following his hiring, Nixon told The Neshoba Democrat that the unit system was "the way of the future." "Neshoba County will be the test by which the rest of the state judges the system," said Nixon.

"A lot of them (supervisors in other counties) have a 'wait and see' attitude to see if the unit system is as economical as it is supposed to be." During the Winter administration, Nixon fig Determination leads to success, national recognition for Jacksonian 'And "They encouraged me, and they loved me," she says. Billy Skelton Editorial Page Editor The Clarion-Ledger 7 1 the Lord has been helping me. The encouragement, the love and a lot of teaching at home started early on as her parents, who traveled widely taking their daughter doctor to doctor, had to face the fact that their daughter was profoundly deaf. The first of a series of miracles, they say, was learning of the Magnolia Speech School for the Deaf in Jackson. The Wellses moved to the Capital City from Drew for the sake of the daughter's education.

Martha attended MSSD peting with other students and in participating in various school activities. Her father says they usually waited for Martha to express a desire for a particular activity and then, even when they had deep doubts, to "let her go out there and see what she could do," allowing her learn to cope with the outcome. Martha finished high school in three years and at 19 entered Hinds Junior College where she obtained her associate degree in computer science and business. She has since been employed with the National Guard and has become something of a computer whiz. She also fills the roles of wife to Maj.

James Usry and mother to daughter Jennifer, 4. Spending time with her family, she says, draws first priority. What would she tell a deaf child asking for advice on how to succeed in a world of sound? "To have a positive attitude," she promptly replies. Does she have any other goals, or, perchance, any other miracles up her sleeve? As for goals: "Only to be a better Christian." The Usrys attend Calvary Baptist Church where her husband is a deacon. As for miracles, she says that if somehow her hearing could be restored although it's highly unlikely with current technology she'd like to learn to sing.

Nevertheless, she takes life as it is and loves it dearly. Her actions meanwhile "sing" of what can be achieved by love, determination and a positive attitude. Martha Wells Usry of Jackson is the All-American type pretty, vivacious, friendly and full of enthusiasm. In high school, she was homecoming queen, was selected most courteous in a who's who vote, was an honor student, won a Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizenship pin and was elected to the hall of fame at McCluer Academy. She continued to excel at Hinds Junior College, for two years making the honor roll again and performing with the Hinds High Steppers.

Today, at 33, she is a housewife, mother and full-time employee in the work force and she is still winning honors, this time of national scope. Her accomplishments, however, have not been as effortless as her demeanor might suggest. Martha has been deaf from birth. Despite her complete loss of hearing and a speech impediment, she has been a highly respected employee at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office of the Mississippi National Guard for the past 11 years, and was recently promoted to payroll clerk.

This summer she was awarded the National Guard Bureau's Certificate of Commendation as the 1986 National Guard's Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee for the United States. Then last week Martha was informed that she also will receive the Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee award for the entire U.S. Department of Defense, representing all its components. The award will be presented to her Oct. 7 at the Pentagon.

And, as one of 11 co-winners of the national Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee award for all federal departments, she will receive a certificate of recognition in a presidential ceremony Oct. 9 at the Department of Commerce. However, the road from her birth in Greenwood to her trip to Washington has been long and arduous. "A lot of sweat and tears fell on the kitchen table" while she was growing up, says her father, retired Brig. Gen.

Thomas Glen Wells. Her mother, Janell Wells, nods in agreement, but adds, "Martha was a very determined girl." Her parents, of course, have helped her the most to break out of her world of silence. MARTHA W. USRY for eight years before enroll- ing in the fourth grade at a Jackson public school. As she moved through the grades toward graduation, she took tap-dancing, baton twirling and piano, trying to lead as close to a normal life as possible.

During those years her parents had to make difficult decisions about how far to let their deaf daughter venture in com.