The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 1

it .0 -V 155th Year Serving Vermont No. 51 Friday, February 20, 1981 Four News Sections25 Cents We--V-v! -4 JIttrltttgtott Jrff 1 Tax Cut Faces Long, Hard Battle 0 Plan Cheered and Jeered Economists and business leaders were elated Thursday about President Reagan's plans for the nation's economic future, but labor leaders fear severe threats to jobs and benefits Page 8A targeted on middle- and upper-income Americans in the hope they will invest the saving in ways that will create jobs and slow inflation. Sen. Alan Cranston, was skeptical. There is no assurance those earning $200,000 a year would make such productive investments, he said.

"They may just buy O'Neill. Baker said Reagan's call for deep spending cuts will have an easier time winning congressional apr proval than will the tax reductions. He outlined a schedule that would have the Republican-controlled Senate complete action within a month on the first phase of the spending reductions. No one in the Democratic-controlled House would make a similar prediction. Speaker O'Neill, alleging inequities in the spending cuts that would penalize the poor, said "there'd be a revolution in the Turn to PRESIDENT'S, Page 6A 1 8-Cent Stamp Is OKd more fur coats and Cadillacs," Cranston suggested.

Rep. Henry Reuss, pursued that theme with Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan at a Joint Economic Committee hearing. "Are you prepared to advocate an excise tax on such luxury items as fur coats and expensive motor cars?" Reuss asked. There is some concern in both parties that passing a three-year tax cut now, as Reagan recommended, could shatter efforts to control inflation.

Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker told a news conference that because lawmakers have their for Washington's Birthday week. Everyone wishes it were 28 degrees, snowing at night and sunny in the daytime." At most larger ski areas, all lifts were running and most trails were open Thursday, she said. Almost all association members can manufacture snow, and they were relying on it this week. "It's not the gloom and doci'm people expect," she said. A spokesman at Bolton Valley Ski Resort said 20 of the 25 trails were open, with all lifts running.

Several hotel owners interviewed did have gloomy news. "Some of the downhillers are having a good time, but crosscountry is gone," said Mrs. Christel Balzer, owner of AlpineN Motor Lodge in Stowe. "We're about 50 percent vacant. We're usually sold out this time of year." Mrs.

Balzer said 35 guests had left since Tuesday. "It's not too good," said Herbert Leach, owner of the Mad Ellen in Fayston. Leach said he had 11 guests Ski Areas Hope to Weather Early Arrival of Springtime By JEFFREY MILLS The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Postal -Rate Commission approved on Thursday a 3-cent hike for first class mail and added another two cents to the price of a dime postcard. The increases could take effect as early as next month. The new 18-cent stamp still will be two cents short of what the Postal Service requested, and may lead the mail agency to ask for another hike next year.

Commission Chairman Lee Fritschler said the rate decision was "anti-inflationary." A dissenting commission member said the new rates will be inadequate to cover Postal Service expenses and agreed another increase is -likely before long. The decision will give the the Postal Service about $1 billion less per year than the $3.75 billion it said it needs. Moreover, President Reagan is proposing cuts in the postal subsidy. own ideas of when and how taxes should be reduced, "It's possible (debate over) a tax bill may extend into next year." Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, predicted his committee will complete action on the tax cut no earlier than the end of May.

That would make it all but impossible for Congress to send the completed bill to Reagan for his signature by the administration's June 1 target date. "We have to give the public and members of Congress a full hearing" before approving such a major bill, said House Speaker Thomas P. Thursday. The Mad Ellen accomodates 42. At Mount Mansfield, the inches of man-made snow produced earlier this winter were paying off.

"Man-made snow doesn't melt as fast as natural snow," said Polly Rollins, public relations manager. "The natural snow is getting thin on some trails. It's harder work to do spring skiing. It's heavier and harder to make turns." The snow conditions are hardest on beginners, she said. Chan Weller, marketing director at Sugarbush, said the resort is having "our best season ever" despite this balmy week.

He would not say on what he based that assessment. He said some ski areas in New Hampshire and New York have closed, sending skiers over to Vermont. If skiers were not on the slopes or bound for home, at least some made for the bars and restaurants. At the Shed in Stowe, bartender Mark Warner reported business is a little more brisk than usual. i "It's picked up because people aren't skiing," he said.

"Many are leaving before the weekend. I talked to quite a few who are leaving tomorrow. The snow's awful heavy. If it rains tonight, it'll be gone tomorrow." Some of the bigger hotels with other attractions such as pools, seemed unscathed Ly the freakish weather. At Sugarbush Inn, there were no cancellations and "our condos are packed," said sales agent Terry Pink.

"Our occupancy for a holiday week is right up where it should be," she said. "The only reflection we've seen is a handful of early check-outs." By JIM LUTHER The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Reagan's plan to hand Americans a tax cut by July 1 ran head-on into congressional realities Thursday, and some of his supporters predicted lawmakers may be working on the proposal the rest of the year. Many members or congress especially Democrats say they aren't aeainst a tax cut. But they consider the Reagan proposal a big risk for the economy ana a Dig windfall for the rich. Reaean's tax bill, which he out lined Wednesday night as part of a plan to revitalize the economy, is 2nd Iran Mission Planned? FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) Secret locator beacons encoded in videotapes and Christmas presents laced with electronic gadgets were part of an abandoned effort to stage a second rescue mission in Iran, a Fort Worth television station reported Thursday.

KXAS-TV also reported that a helicopter crash killed one man during a practice exercise for the later abandoned second rescue effort. Eight Americans died and five others were injured April 25, 1980, when the first aborted rescue effort ended in an inferno on an Iranian desert. The station's report resulted from a joint investigation by KXAS and NBC News. An NBC spokesman said the network would broadcast the report on the "NBC Nightly News" Friday. iKXAS said a helicopter crash July 18, 1980, near Monticello, Utah, in which 22-year-old Jay Schatte of Fort Worth died, occurred during a training exercise for.

a second Iran rescue mission. At the time, Sgt. Phil Hale, an Army spokesman, denied the crash was in any way connected with a second rescue effort, telling Schatte's parents and reporters that the accident was part of a routine training exercise. "I sort of knew. I had an idea it (planning for a rescue attempt) was going on when he was out here (visiting in Fort Worth)," Schatte's father, John, told The Associated Press.

Schatte said he suspected his son died training for a second mission because he had trained for the first, failed mission. A month after the crash, the idea for a second rescue mission, a plan so secret that former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie did not know of it, was scrubbed, the station said. The idea was abandoned, the station said, because despite elaborate schemes involving sophis ticated transmitters planners could still not pinpoint the exact location of the hostages. U.S. officials were not available Thursday night for comment on the report.

But several high-level Pentagon sources told the AP they recalled no exercises being held in preparation for a second raid. KXAS reported that Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry became an unwitting cover for the government to get secretly coded video tapes into Iran. Turn to REPORT, Page 6A Morrissey By MARILYN ADAMS Free Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER One hotel owner irked by premature spring compared her ski business to "a sinking ship," but other ski industry spokesmen were keeping stiff upper lips Thursday and praying it would not rain. Snow piles around the state continued to shrink under sunny skies with temperatures in the 50s. The abnormal weather was all the more unwelcome this week, which usually ranks with Christmas week as the season's busiest.

On the slopes, skiers were confronted with "corn snow," a loose granular, heavy snow not usually found until spring. Reports of un-seasonal hotel vacancies showed some skiers refused to settle for less than white powder and crisp cold. "What we're experiencing is spring skiing in mid-February," said Candace Moot of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, who insisted business is not hurting overall. "It's not what we'd like Good Morning, Vermont Rain Today Rain, heavy at times, is ex pected today, diminishing to showers tonight; highs near SO, lows tdnight around 40 Page 2A Sports College Hockey Vermont 10 Dartmouth 7 College Basketball Hartford 58 St. Michael's 57 Pro Hockey Montreal 5 Buffalo 2 0-Cent Call Now Limited ToSMimites New England Telephone Co.

finally is using a rate adjustment granted by the Vermont Public Service Board in the 1960s. Pay-phone users in Burling ton, Essex and Rutland are being asked to deposit a nickel for every three minutes after the first five minutes of a local 10-cent call. The system also will begin soon in White River Junction. Other communities will get the added charge as their exchanges are expanded with computers that can time calls. Charles Larkin, telephone expert for the Public Service Board, said New England Telephone figures to gain about $25,000 to $30,000 a year from the added charge.

Because most calls run about four minutes, "most pay phone users won't even know about it," he said. Now that some communities have computers that can time calls, business phones on measured service also are being billed for "overlength" calls. Local State THE UNPAVED PORTION of Vermont 109 In Belvidere closes because of dangerous mud conditions, stranding some residents who have opposed a state proposal to pave the road Page" IB Living THE CARNIVAL Day crew has been combing Burlington the past few weeks, mentally measuring everyone in hopes of finding a dwarf, a prince, a villain or perhaps a hero or two Page ID Washington THE CHAIRMAN of the Nu- clear Regulatory Com-- mission concedes that his agency has not satisfactorily overcome delays in nuclear plant licensing. Page 3A People JOHN K. NORTHRUP, an aviation pioneer who founded two aircraft com- panies and designed dozens of planes including the ill-fated Flying Wing, has died at age 86 Page 4A Nation A FIRE that for 19 years bas burned unchecked through 40 acres of abandoned mine tunnels under a Pennsylvania town is causing renewed alarm after a 12-year-old boy narrowly escaped death in a cave-in 12A World LEFTIST leaders charge that 1UU muiiary auvucia are masterminding a -counter-insurgency plan to 'cut off the head of the leftist and intellectual sectors In El Salvador." The 1 Salvadoran junta and U.S.

Embassy sources deny accusation 6A Money. ID Opinlon-ltA People-4A SporU. 1C Television 8D Deaths JIB 1 A Horoscope. Lander. Living ID LocalSUte-lB Weather.

Rocky SKt CENTER WE HAV Trr 1 1 cur -1 -i CAUCLL.L-N I svnncK. CONDITIONS ON ALL SLOPES, 3 fR Postmaster General William F. Bolger said last week the agency may need to ask for higher rates again later this year if the rate commission did not approve the full request. Meanwhile, Bolger has assured Congress that Saturday mail deliveries, often mentioned as a potential source of savings, will continue despite the budget difficulties. Fritschler told a Senate subcommittee the rate decision included: Making the first-class letter rate 18 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents per ounce after that.

Post cards will be 12 cents, one penny less than the Postal Service wanted. Increases of 9 percent to mail newspapers and magazines, between 6 and 24 percent for advertising circulars and 3 percent for parcel post and book rates. These generally are in line with the rates sought by the Postal Service. Expanded discounts available to business mailers who do preliminary sorting of their outgoing mail, thus saving Postal Service expenses. The new rates "will generate the revenue necessary for postal operations without putting an undue burden on the people who pay postal rates," Fritschler told the subcommittee.

Commissioner James H. Duffy called it "spurious rate cutting" that will only hasten the next proposal to raise rates. The commission eliminated a Turn to 18-CENT, Page 6A DONALD EDWARDS on 3rd ballot Mi XL" A 1 t'A Si )( Reappointed; Edwards Named Adjutant By DAVID KARVELAS Free Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER Superior Court Judge John. Morrissey narrowly won reappointment Thursday when the Vermont Legislature approved new terms for 12 state judges. The vote was 101-71.

A joint assembly of the House and Senate also elected Rep. Donald Edwards, D-Grafton, as Vermont's next adjutant general. Opposition to his reappointment, which was anticipated but on a smaller scale stemmed primarily from his two convictions. "How can we expect young people to have respect for the law when they are being judged by a lawbreaker," said a disgruntled Rep. Robert Emond, D-Brattleboro.

Sen. Robert Gannett, R-Windham, said Morrissey's reappointment might have run into trouble had he not received full support from the judicial retention panel. "If the committee had not been unanimous, he never would have made it," Gannett said after the vote. Republican House leaders pressured several rank-and-file members not to speak out against Morrissey's reappointment. "I did not want it to look lrke the Republicans were against the decision of the judicial said House Republican Leader Robert Kinsey, R-Craftsbury.

Kinsey said he talked only to Rep. Merrill Perle, R-Enosburg Falls, but at least one other lawmaker complained "leadership was strong-' arming people not to talk." Perley ignored Kinsey's request and made his views known on the House floor. "What kind of example does this set for the young people?" he asked. In addition to Morrissey, 11 other judges, including the five Supreme Court justices, were reappointed to six-year terms. The joint session also resulted in the election of three new University of Vermont trustees, all House members.

They are Democrat John Zampieri of Ryegate and Republicans Gloria Conant of Richmond and Edwin Colvin of Shaftsbury. The Legislature's sergeant-at-arms, Reide Payne, was reappointed unanimously. The race for adjutant general involved nine candidates. On the first ballot, Edwards garnered 83 five short of the number needed for election. Roland Cater of Essex Junction received the next highest number of votes, 34; while Childs and Alan Noyes of Barre also received some sizable support.

Noyes and Cater pulled out of the race after the second ballot and threw their support behind Childs. "The boys got together in the back room," moaned one Democrat after seeing the unsuccessful strategy emerge. Edwards said he will keep his legislative seat until March 1, when he assumes the duties of adjutant general. Adjutant Gen. Reginald Cram has retired.

Republican leaders were busy behind the scenes rank and file members not to challenge Morrissey's reappointment on the floor. The Republican-controlled Judicial Retention Committee unanimously recommended earlier this month that Morrissey, twice convicted of drunken driving, be given -another six-year term. GOP leaders were seen later in the day huddling in hastily-called strategy sessions to prevent Edwards, a Democrat, from becoming head of the Vermont National Guard. Republicans hold a majority in both the House and Edwards defeated Herbert Childs of West Dover, 9S-82, on the third ballot. Morrissey, 51, needed 86 votes, a majority.

I. Ti tin firm.