Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 4

a star legislature Tuesday, February 21 1 989 A4 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. I 6 Full House rejects King holiday bill Governor terms failure to honor King a 'profound embarrassment' years, but it was amended in its first reading last week to make the diversion last only one year. But the House agreed that because it does not appear the state's economy will improve dramatically within two years, the diversion might as well be I 1 JN, Montanan to head minerals division CHEYENNE -The Wyoming Board of Equalization has hired a Montana man to be the new director of the state Department of Revenue's minerals division. The new director is Richard Marble of Helena, currently chief in charge of hard minerals for the Montana Department of Revenue, Shirley Wittier, state board chairman, said Friday. Marble will succeed Robert Forsberg, who retired in mid-November, Wittier said.

Marble has 15 years experience with the Montana Department of Revenue and has audited oil and gas, corporations and hard minerals. Wittier said 50 people applied for the job but only one, a current employee in the department, was from Wyoming. She said the position requires a significant background in minerals. i I 0 Birthing services in Sullivan's budget CHEYENNE (AP) Gov. Mike Sullivan needs the ability to help counties, hospital districts and rural health districts contract for obstetrical services, the House has agreed.

Representatives on Friday gave final approval to a bill appropriating $1.9 million in general fund money for the executive branch, amending the measure to give Sullivan the authority to spend $100,000 from his contingency fund to help contract for obstetrical services in areas lacking the services. The budget bill was the last of four making up part of Sullivan's proposed $49.2 million supplemental budget to pass the House. Representatives agreed the amendment sought by Sullivan's office is needed because of restrictions on how he can spend the estimated $1.5 million in his contingency fund. "We have made such tight rules on how the contingency fund can be spent that the flexibility on how he uses that contingency money is no longer there," said Rep. Matilda Hansen, D-Albany.

Representatives rejected, however, a change in the amendment that would have limited Sullivan to helping five areas with the money, a restriction that some said was legislature. Rep. Sullivan noted that President Bush, former President Reagan and national Republican Party hairman Lee Atwater had all condemned the election of Duke, who had received about a dozen write-in votes for president in Wyoming during last year's election. A holiday honoring King would send a message that racism is not welcome in Wyoming, Sullivan said. But Speaker Pro Tern Rory Cross, R-Converse, said while every legislator is "sad" when his or her bill is killed in committee, the Legislature cannot waste time second-guessing committee action.

Cross said if the House keeps trying to revive bills killed in committee "we'll get less done. More important pieces of legislation will die." Several House Travel Committee members said the voted against the King holiday last week because they could only support the holiday if it was renamed to honor equal rights in general, and not King specifically. Although bill sponsors urged the committee to send the bill to the full House for debate, committee Chairman Peg Shreve, R-Park, said last week committee members should vote on each bill before them based on their views, and should not pass a bill out of committee just because of public interest in the bill. The Senate had already approved the bill on a 23-5 vote. By SCOTT FAR IS Star- Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE The House Monday overwhelmingly rejected, on a largely party-line vote, an attempt to revive a bill that would have created a state holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

But Gov. Mike Sullivan Monday urged the House to reconsider its refusal to debate the King holiday bill, saying failure to make King's birthday a state holiday would be a "profound embarrassment to our state." The bill had been killed by the House Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee on a 5-4 vote Thursday. Supporters, backed by Sullivan, Monday attempted to override the committee action and have the full House debate the King holiday today. That motion failed on a 44-20 vote that was essentially along party lines. Only one Republican, Rep.

Nyla Murphy, R-Natrona, voted to consider the bill. Four Democrats Reps. Eli Bebout, D-Fremont; Dave Dunham, D-Washakie; Richard Honaker, D-Sweetwater; H.L. Jensen, D-Teton voted against resurrecting the bill. The vote, if unchanged, means Wyoming will, for at least one more year, be one of only six states without a holiday honoring King.

The others are Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Hampshire and Zbigniew BlakStar-Tribune Lobbyist lawmaker State Sen. Carl Maldonado, D-Sweetwater, makes a point with Pacific Power and Light lobbyist Bob Tarantola during a legislative break. House committee OK's mandatory seat belt bill Increasing bed tax limit approved CHEYENNE -The Wyoming Senate Friday approved a bill that would allow communities to approve a lodging tax of up to 4 percent and to keep the tax in place up to 4 years before it would have to be renewed. The House has already approved the bill as well. Currently, communities may, by a vote of the people, levy a lodging tax of no more than 2 percent, and the tax must be renewed every 2 years.

Money from the lodging tax is dedicated toward local tourist promotions. Currently, Carbon, Laramie, Natrona, Park and Teton counties and the towns of Lovell and Pinedale have lodging taxes in place. Child support action before Senate panel CHEYENNE The Senate Judiciary Committee will reconsider a bill to establish guidelines for child support enforcement, committee chairman Sen. John Perry said Monday. Perry, a Republican who represents the Campbell-Johnson senatorial district, said he was surprised when the bill, which is sponsored by the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee, failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee after passing the House.

The committee was scheduled to vote on the bill again late Monday. Supporters say if the bill isn't passed, the state stands to lose $1.2 million in federal money plus between $146,000 and $731,000 in penalties for failing to comply with federal regulations. and school buses, while the other would have automatically repealed the seat belt law if it did not result in a 10 percent decrease in traffic fatalities in Wyoming. There was little discussion on the bill Monday, as Budd noted the committee had already heard hearings on a nearly identical bill earlier in the session. Budd asked those attending the hearing not to testify if they couldn't "offer anything we haven't already heard." Supporters of a mandatory seat belt law have cited figures which show the number of traffic fatalities have declined in states with a mandatory seat belt law.

Wyoming Highway Patrol figures show that of the 284 people killed in traffic accidents on Wyoming highways in 1987 and 1988, 90 percent of those killed were not wearing their seat belt. Although the law has a relatively mild penalty, supporters have said just having the law will remind motorists to buckle up and encourage them to buckle up. Seat belt use is far more prevalent in states with a mandatory seat belt law, supporters have said. jp 1 A I ml By SCOTT FARRIS Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE A mandatory seat belt bill was approved by a House committee Monday and now goes to the full House for debate. The bill, already approved by the Senate, requires the driver and front seat passenger to wear a seat belt any time an automobile is in motion.

Violators may be fined $25, although a $75 fine would be assessed against a driver who has not required a child under age 12 to wear a seat belt. No person may be stopped by a police officer solely for failing to wear a seat belt, however. Under the bill, a person would be cited for the seat belt violation only if the driver had already been stopped for another traffic violation. The House Transportation Committee voted 7-1 to recommend approval of the bill, after defeating two amendments offered by committee Chairman Dan Budd, R-Sublette, the committee's lone "no" vote on the seat belt bill. One amendment which failed would have required that seat belt usage be mandatory on commercial Rest stop decor in Natrona debated CHEYENNE (AP) How Wyoming's pioneer heritage should be shown to the traveling public is a point of contention between the House and the Senate on a bill to build a new rest stop in Natrona County.

The House approved the $550,000 Independence Rock rest area bill after removing a Senate amendment that would require the Highway Department to give the rest area a western design. Sen. Jim Twiford, R-Converse, asked the Senate on Monday not to concur with the House version of the bill. He proposed the pioneer amendment because of Wyoming's history and the state centennial. He said the first thing a tourist sees in the state should not be a generic concrete rest stop.

"I think it's a dandy little bill," Twiford said. He said he thought the western architecture would not delay construction or add to the cost. Sen. Frank Dusl, R-Fremont, said he didn't want to keep Twiford's amendment in the bill because it was the Highway Department's job to design rest areas. "They've got the message that we want it to go with the Oregon Trail," Dusl said.

MIKE SULLIVAN Last in equality? House vote, revive King holiday bill CHEYENNE Here is the roll call Mockler honored for 2 decades of service CHEYENNE Former Wyoming House Speaker Frank C. Mockler was recognized by both the House and the Senate Monday for his 20 years of legislative service. Mockler, who also served as the vice president of the Senate, served in the Legislature from 1941 through 1960. Mockler, who now lives in Florida, was unable to attend a special session of the Legislature earlier this year honoring all former speakers of the house. Making brief remarks in both the House and Senate, Mockler reminding legislators that Wyoming is a "progressive" state.

He noted he had been chief sponsor of legislation that in the 1940s finally allowed women to serve on juries in Wyoming. Mockler also served as acting governor of American Samoa, and both his sons, Franklin Mockler and James Mockler, and a son-in-law, Bill Budd, have served in the Wyoming House. RON MICHEL! 'Save the process' South Dakota. King's birthday, celebrated the third Monday in January, has been a federal holiday for two years. Sullivan, however, said he wants the Legislature to make sure Wyoming begins observing the holiday next year "the year of the Equality State's Centennial." In a written statement, the governor noted Wyoming has been "a leader in the area of equal rights and human rights, but now we have turned around and refused to recognize the symbolic role of Martin Luther King in the ongoing struggle for equality." "1 don't want Wyoming to be the last state to honor Reverend ideals," Sullivan said, adding, "Being last in an area where we can proudly claim many firsts would be a profound embarrassment to our state." Not approving the holiday would "send a very negative message about Wyoming through the national news media at a time we are trying to improve our image and it would not serve to reflect accurately the character of our people," the governor said.

The House vote Monday came after a 45-minute caucus by each party. House Majority Leader Ron Micheli, R-Uinta, said the vote not to revive the King holiday bill was a vote to protect an orderly legislative process, and not a vote on the merits of a holiday honoring King. Micheli urged House members to "divorce" themselves from the issue and vote to "save the process." "The process is more sacred than any issue," Micheli said, adding if the King holiday has merit it will be reintroduced during future legislative sessions. But Rep. Mark Harris, D-Sweetwater, said the motion to have the House consider a bill which received a "do not pass" recommendation from a committee "is a part of the process.

It is part of our rules." Rep. Don Sullivan, D-Laramie, (no relation to the governor) said it was important Wyoming approve a holiday for King, particularly given this weekend's election in Louisiana of the former head of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, to that state's vote in the House Monday on the question of wheather the house should consider a bill that would have created a state a 1 Lfc, Kie Senate may vote today BBEEEEEl on jobs-for-tax-cut bill Blaekwell. D-Sweetwater Bowron, R-Natrona Budd, R-Subleue By ANNE MacKINNON more than simply the declining Cameron. D-Laramie Star-Tribune capital bureau number of oil and gas rigs, Stroock Chamberlain, R-Goshen sajj cabin, cheyenne The senate is The 1985 eor tax break did not IXWiu, R-Park. scheduled to cast a final vote today encourage any new projects that Dickey, on a bill extending a tax break for were not already planned, but com- DunhamDAvhakie enhanced oil recovery projects panies simply accepted the tax break keeping certain jobs in Wyoming.

and went on moving out all but Gams, R-BigHom The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom those employees they "have to Goodenouh, D-Natrona Stroock, R-Natrona, allows com- have" here to run basic production R-Aibany! YY Y'n Pan'es starting enhanced oil recov- equipment, he said. Hagcman. R-GosheiiYYYYYYiYYYN ery (EOR) projects after July 1, "We blow 'em a kiss and all they Hansen, D-Albany 1990, to get severance taxes on pro- d0 js wait 'til the Legislature leaves H'lmson K' duction from those Proiects reduced and they don't kiss us back they Mines, R-Campbell from 6 percent to 2 percent. do something else," he said.

Honaker, D-Sweetwater Companies must file a list of jobs Stroock estimated the bill could VenSh'oTo1n3ramie 7, wyming in certain save some" major companies as i ummis. R-l "eWs-largely supervisory or much as $6 million a year on taxes, MacMillan, R-Albany technical positions, like geology or but he said major companies oppose Marion. R-Johnson accounting. A business can receive a the bin because it brings new factors ichdi Uima break for, half the wages paid into their personnel decisions. MNier.k-BigHoni::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: those employees -UP to the A kesman for occidental Murphy, R-Natrona amount due for a 2 percent tax on however told the Oddc.

R-Frcmom the EOR production. Petroleum, however, told the loole, D-Carbon Companies with more thm hilf Revenue Committee his Parker, R-Uinta Companies wlttl more an a compan favors the bHI it in heir employees, or more than half mak'e a jifference t0 a decision on Plani Sweet waier" orship. yoming. also EOR in a field can. automatically qualify for the nearGillette "ITSs allowed companies The bin win also provide mi Ryckman.

D-Sweetwater start.ng EOR projects between July tax reduction for independent com- hwopeR 'f amie I 1. 1985, and July 1, 1990, to get Pan'es a readY ba here which Shree, R-Park r. 1 '5 rlpnde to invest in EOR Simons, R-Crook taxes on five years of production aeciae to invest in cvjk. Staufier, R-Lincoln from those projects reduced to 4 Casper Mar-Inbune publisher Sullivan, D-laramie percent The new bill allows the Hurless also testified in favor Thorns' Natrona same ta break on Production from of the bil1' saVing il wi" Preserve in Tibbs, projects started after July 1, 1990, Wyoming "the critical mass of the Tippets, R-Fremom f0r as long as the company can brains of the business." TPsdal" R-Wwon' show meets the employment or The Senate agreed Friday to ajD-CMbonEEEEEEEEEEEy ownership requirements. delete "production workers" from viaMos, R-Natrona Stroock told a Senate committee the categories of employees that ailis.

R-Campbell triat trie bill will encourage com- would make a company eligible for Vomey', Panies to keep employees in Wyo- the tax break. The change was pro- Vright', ming who are otherwise being mov- posed in committee to encourage Yordy. R-Laramie edout. companies to keep in Wyoming the z'unrfn tobrTr'a Ttle loss of suPervisory person- kind of employees Stroock and um runnen, to rara aj major cornpanjes centralize Hurless said the bill was designed to Toiai: KHes: -U no. their operations, has hurt Wyoming keep here.

Alcohol level bill revived, approved CHEYENNE (AP) A bill that would specify what constitutes driving while intoxicated was brought back to life and approved Monday by the House. Representatives, acting without debate, gave final approval to the bill by a 34-29 vote just a few hours after killing it by a 29-35 vote. The bill would change state law to specify that a person who drives with a blood-alcohol content of 0.1 percent is automatically considered to be driving while intoxicated. The bill was designed to eliminate a defense on the charge of driving while intoxicated that would allow a person who has 'had a blood-alcohol content of Oil percent or higher to argue he wasnot impaired and could operate a vehicle safely. The bill was initially defeated after Rep.

Eric Aldenj. R-Platte, argued it would make a defense of the charge too difficult. "This bill takes away the need to prove a driver is dangerous," he said. "Where did this magic number (0.1 percent) come from? Every study done has agreed that every person is different. Are we looking for a justice system that is easy or 'one that is fair?" Other representatives, however, argued that the change is needed to keep drunken drivers off of the road.

"Driving a car is an obligation as well as a privilege," said Rep. Fred Harrison, D-Carbon. "If you are really concerned about people on our highways, you will pass this Two-year tax funnel creates backup fund CHEYENNE (AP) Representatives reversed themselves Monday on how long part of the state's severance tax revenue should be diverted to a reserve fund, agreeing to a two-year diversion. Representatives gave final approval by a 43-21 vote to a measure calling for the portion of mineral severance taxes imposed by state law rather than by the constitution to be diverted to the Budget Reserve Account. The anticipated $28 million a year that would be diverted to the reserve account would be used when there is an unexpected shortfall of funding for general government operations.

The bill had originally called for the diversion to continue for two.