Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 19

uimn Unnaipflir Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. Friday, October 24, 1980 (2 Dakota Prop: Tax cut by scalpel or meat axe? By RUTH HAMEL taxes to 1 percent of 1977's full and true valuation. Anderson is the Minnehaha County chairman for Dakota Proposition; Wikle is the group's East River coordinator. The men say the city will not be hurt under Dakota Proposition because if the state picks up the burden of funding education, local property taxes will be left to Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County. "They (Dakota Proposition opponents) are assuming revenue will be cut in half," Anderson says.

"But the school board is now using two-thirds (of local property tax dollars). There will be quite a bit left." Hence, Anderson says, essential city services will be funded, as well as such "quali ty of life" services as libraries and parks. South Dakota's constitution requires the state to provide free, public education. If Dakota Proposition passes, the Legislature cannot avoid its constitutional obligation to schools, Anderson and Wikle say. However, if the state failed to pass a replacement tax such as an income tax to replace the void left by Dakota Proposition, "it certainly would disrupt things," Wikle says.

It probably would disrupt things, says Bill Peterson, director of legislation and research for the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. Peterson supports a recent report by the chamber's tax council that con demns Dakota Proposition as a meat-axe approach to tax reform. Recent contact with state officials has convinced Peterson that the state may not find a suitable replacement tax if Dakota Proposition passes. "There obviously will be pressure on the state to pick up the loss," Peterson says. "But there has been no indication from state offices or state legislators that that would actually come about.

Everybody will fight for or against a replacement tax. I don't see how they would ever be able to sort it out." If no replacement tax were enacted after DAKOTA PROP Continued on page 3C Argus Leader Staff Writer Depending on who you talk to, Dakota Proposition would either cut deeply into Sioux Falls city services or leave those services unscathed. While three local studies have been issued this year predicting cutbacks in city services if Dakota Proposition passes in November, two organizers for the tax-cutting measure say the city would not necessarily be harmed if local property taxes were reduced by about 50 percent. Tax reformers Johnny Anderson and Art Wikle say they have few quarrels with the way the city handles its money it's the tax system in general they oppose. They do not rail about waste in city government, but about the property tax system that funds the city, county and schools.

Dakota Proposition would cut property SOUTH DAKOTA PSALM GOP mailing list arouses questions on fact source PEOPLE SERIOUS ABOUT LIBERTY AND MORALITY vl In dress was listed, he said. Pete Goodwin, who took over as state personnel commissioner Sept. IS, said card files containing employees' names and addresses are open for public inspection. Pulling his own card out as an example, he said he would allow people to look at the files but wouldn't give them permission to copy down information without a legal opinion. The personnel office, one of the offices that has access to such information, hasn't had any requests for such information since he took over, he said.

Attorney General Mark Meier-henry said the name, position and salary of state employees is public information. Asked, hypothetically, what he would advise if a department head asked him if names and addresses could be released to meet a request, Meierhenry said he would probably say release the names but not the addresses. Meierhenry said a person would have to explain his or her reasons for wanting a list of names and addresses before they would be given out. Providing names wouldn't be illegal, he said. How names were obtained would be a different matter, he said.

Each state department has a list of employees' for its department, officials said. But only a few would have access to a master list. By ROB SWENSON Argus Leader Staff Writer PIERRE, S.D. Some people are wondering where Republicans got names and addresses for a recent mailing seeking party donations. They say address information, detailed as it was in some cases, could only have come from state government files.

The Republicans deny they used or received any such information. Furthermore, state officials say, such information, for the most part, is not very hard to obtain. In question is a Republican State Central Committee mailing that went out last month. The letter, which begins "Dear Republican Friend" and carries party Chairman Dan Parish's signature, courages people to contribute to the party. GOP Executive Director Jeff Stingley said about 6,000 copies were distributed to people who have never contributed to the party before, including Democrats and Independents.

Stingley, who oversees uch mailings, said no information from, for example, a government computer payroll, was used and that he didn't, think such information could be used without his. knowledge. Stingley said the GOP generally uses readily available sources, such as phone books, voter registration lists and city, county and government directories, for its mailings, and that information stored in the party's own computer is continually updated as new information comes in. Loila Hunking, state Democratic party chairman, said Thursday two people told her address information for them had to have come from state records. If it did, she said, it may not be illegal but certainly unethical.

"I'll bet you a dime if I went up there to get a list they wouldn't give me one," she said. One letter recipient, a former state employee who didn't want to be identified, said mailing information from him could only have come from a bank or state records. The employee, a Democrat, lives in Pierre but is registered to vote in another county. He isn't listed in the state government directory and his personal phone number is listed under his roommate's name. Furthermore, his full name, which he rarely uses, was used on the envelope.

Pierre bankers said law prohibits disclosure of customers' names and addresses. "I've heard of several other cases, not only in Pierre but in other areas," the former employee said. In one case, the state was the only place an employee's current ad Argus Leader photo by LLOYD B. CUNNINGHAM Dakota's first rally of PSALM In a chorus of H. Wayne Williams leads the group at South "God Bless America." Political action pushed during church-style rally Candidates wary of Mandan By TONY BROWN Argus Leader Staff Writer I With the strains of "Jesus is Call-; ing America Back from Her Sinning I Ways" dying in the background, Jerry Prevo began talking of a national crisis and urging 200 people in a Sioux Falls motel to get involved in politics.

have legislators and congressmen scared to death." He said the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution "will destroy" the American family. He said homosexuality is dangerous and not an acceptable lifestyle. He said pornography is the "greatest cause of child abuse in this country." He said that if America had a stronger military, the Soviet Union probably wouldn't be occupying Afghanistan. He said church-going people have to get involved in politics to stop all that. The crowd, quiet throughout, answered with an occational "amen, amen" and put money in paper buckets as they were passed around.

As a rally; it was as church-like as it was political. All the speakers were ministers. The money people were asked to give was called an "offering." A choir sang and was not applauded. When people stood for the national anthem or to pray, the ministers said, "you may now be seated." The speeches from the podium in the Ramada Inn encouraged those present to fight what was called the "destruction of America" by the government. Prevo said they didn't want to change the politicians so much as they wanted to change the philosophy of the politicians.

But, he said, something has to change. "There is a moral majority out there," Prevo said. "That's why we Prevo, an Anchorage, Alaska, Baptist minister, was here for what was billed as rally by the People Serious About Liberty and Morality It wasn't a debate, but it was probably as close to one as candidates for the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission will get before Nov. 4. In taped comments, PUC candidates George Kane and Jeff Solem briefly reviewed their philosophies and beliefs on South Dakota Public Television Thursday night.

Kane, a Democrat, spoke favorably of energy conservation and said graduated rate scales for electrical use during periods of peak demand may be desirable in the sary before implemented. Solem had no objection to utility regulation changing with the times. Solem, mayor of Aberdeen, S.D., and a former radio station owner, and Kane, a Pierre, S.D. real estate salesman, and former state commissioner of schools and public lands, seek the PUC seat being vacated by Commissioner Norma Klinkel. The two candidates comments will be aired again Sunday "I do not believe we can use the electric utility industry as a welfare agency," he said.

Like Kane, Solem, a Republican, said a need for the proposed Man-dan power line should be shown before it can be built. He said he would also like to know if South Dakota would benefit from the line. "Those are questions I would need to know before I think I could make an intelligent decision," Solem said. Kane said any new rules on utility regulation should be proven neces PSALM. They are trying to get people with their views anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, in favor of higher defense spending, anti-ERA, anti-pornogrphy to have "a wholesome influence on City finishes uranium study Ballot questions confuse some also has a copy of the report.

But Wingler said he preferred to let the mayor release the findings. Wingler said he is not opposed to uranium exploration and feels criticism about potential safety hazards is often overblown. Nobody died in the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, he said. Since the Phillips Uranium Co. received permits to explore for uranium north of Sioux Falls, some people have expressed concern that the exploration could endanger the city's water supply.

study several months ago and finished it Oct. Assistant Planning Director Tom Jacobson said. The city's Engineering, Water and Health Departments contributed background information. The League of Women Voters received a copy of the study, but promised not to release it until the mayor reviewed the findings, member Judy Winter said. The league will ask the mayor to respond to the report, she said.

Commissioner Harold Wingler i The city of Sioux Falls has completed a study on the possible effects of uranium mining, but the report's contents are temporarily off-limits to the public. Mayor Rick Knobe now is review-! ing a report from the City Planning Department, which has studied the potential effects of uranium exploration, mining and milling. i Knobe, in Pierre, S.D., Wednes-' day and today, was not available I for comment. 1 The planning office undertook the two-thirds of the state's "qualified electors." As the attorney general's office sees it, that language is ambiguous and, since it isn't giving legal opinions of initiatives not yet voted on, the "two-thirds vote" wording is the best it could do. Assistant Attorney General LeAnn Finke said the involved court cases on "qualified electors" are confusing and that, if the Dakota Proposition passes Nov.

4, an official ruling may have to given. "We may have to say something on it," Ms. Finke said. "Someone is probably going to ask. But it's a very sticky legal question." There have been days in the South Dakota Attorney General's office lately when "it's been absolutely crazy" with telephone calls about this year's ballot questions.

The most interest has been on the wording of the Dakota Proposition section. In the third section of the property-tax limiting amendment, the voter is instructed that new taxes may only be levied "by a two-tbirds vote." The question, as they're coming in to Attorney General Mark Meierhenry 's office, is: Two-thirds of what? Or by whom? Well, the initiative itself calls for the vote to be of .4 Argus Leader photo by JOHN DANICIC JR. Stark sky, leaveless trees and this resting place for the dead near Canlstota offer a bleak reminder that winter Is lust around the corner In South Dakota. Dead quiet.