Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 10

A10 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. Sunday, January 6, 1991 Gulf Somalia several severely wounded. Rebels sympathetic to those fighting in Mogadishu claimed attacks on government positions north of the capital. A rebel United Somali Congress spokesman on Saturday raised the estimate of the death toll in the fighting from 500 to 1,500 and said up to 4,500 people have been wounded. The government has not given a death toll.

The rebel group also claimed to have bolstered its troops with 10,000 reinforcements. The Bush administration had kept its rescue plans secret, but issued its brief statement after Italy, a former colonial ruler of Somalia, announced the operation. presidency. The meeting would have taken place a day after the talks scheduled in Geneva between Aziz and U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.

Iraq did not offer a reason for declining the invitation. But an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as criticizing the EC's cancellation of an earlier meeting with Aziz in Rome, according to the Iraqi agency, monitored in Nicosia. Aziz had accepted that invitation in early December, but the EC said that it would only meet with Aziz after he had seen President Bush. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said Aziz had told Poos that Iraq considered the EC's initial refusal to meet with him "inadequate" and showing "an inclination to the U.S policy." In a second development, the Bush administration has rebuked Israel for increasing its firepower during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators in the occupied territories. The number of protesters' deaths has grown in recent days as Israeli troops appear to have abandoned the more moderate tactics they adopted last summer.

They are trying to quell a three-year Palestinian uprising against Israel's 23-year occupation. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in clashes in the past week, most of them in the Gaza Strip, and hundreds wounded. "This week we raised again with the Israelis our concern over their use of lethal force and live fire in dealing with demonstrations by Palestinians," a State Department official said Saturday. Continued from Al De Cuellar is seeking behind-the-scenes remedies to resolve the Persian Gulf crisis. He said he wants world leaders to work diplomatically before the U.N.-imposed Jan.

15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw. Bush has said he saw no need for further U.N. action, but was anxious to hear what Perez de Cuellar might have to say on new peace initiatives. Bush said in the radio address that although he is sending Secretary of State James Baker to Geneva to meet Wednesday with his Iraqi counterpart, there will be no secret agenda. "This will not be secret diplomacy at work.

Secretary Baker will restate, in person, a message for Saddam Hussein: Withdraw from Kuwait unconditionally and immediately, or face the terrible consequences," Bush said, Also Saturday, the Iraqi News Agency reported that Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz has declined a European Community invitation for talks on the Persian Gulf crisis. On another diplomatic front. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein told a French parliamentarian that Iraq might be willing to make concessions to settle the gulf crisis in exchange for concessions from the West, according to a French diplomat. The invitation to Aziz, issued Friday, would have brought him to Luxembourg on Jan. 10 to meet with that country's foreign minister, Jacques Poos, whose country holds the EC's rotating presidency, or with Poos and the foreign ministers of Italy and the Netherlands the last and next holders of the Session Continued from Al a session, allows bills to go directly to third reading after passing com-mittee-of-the-whole debate.

The goal. Cross said, is to get less important bills through the House early to ensure that they do not die in the logjam in the final days of the session. The House also will be asked to adopt the Senate's rule on conflict of interest. Cross said. That rule requires the rules committee, comprised of legislative leaders, to decide whether a particular bill presents a conflict of interest for a legislator.

But the committee does not make any decision unless the particular legislator raises the question. "I think this will help a lot if we clarify rules on conflict of interest," Cross said, "for people in doubt who probably ought to vote but aren't sure." Cross also said he'd like to stress more work early in committees to cut down the number of amendments offered to bills on the floor. Cross said that when he first came to the Legislature an amendment presented on third reading was a rarity, but now is common. "I think the committees get rushed and are not weeding out the bills enough and so the committees kick out bills to keep them alive but a lot of work still needs to be done," Cross said. In some state legislatures, a bill that prompts more than two amendments from the floor is sent back to committee automatically, he pointed out.

Although the 30-member Senate has less trouble keeping bills moving than the 64-member House, True still plans further streamlining. He said the Senate will drop one day of committee-of-the-whole debate this year and will aim for a 38-day session. That means the general session would adjourn Feb. 28. True said his goal is to cut off Joint Conference Committee reports by about 4 p.m.

the last day of the session and to work through the evening, rather than recessing for dinner. Instead, he said, the senators will have a catered buffet brought in to keep them in the Capitol Building and working to move legislation along. True also said he and Cross are determined this session not to "cheat the bills" that is, sign only the covers of bills before the midnight adjournment. The technique has been a tradition to allow you take a downtown merchant and decrease his cost of capital (it's) going to allow that business to stay in business or increase its profitability," Mader adds. Mader and Donley also assert that such increased profits will automatically cause businessmen to expand their operations.

That. Donley claims, will boost state revenues more than the cost of the program. "I do not agree with the people who say we have to invest the money outside of Wyoming to enhance it," he says. Rep. Scott Ratliff, D-Fremont.

has a different perspective. He says the program thus far has involved "massive amounts of refinancing that's not new jobs." Also, he says, the program has enabled just a few businesses to obtain loans, giving them an unfair advantage over their competitors. That issue caused the Legislature to amend the program in 1 987 to allow businesses to protest link deposit applications. Now. to get a link loan, a business must publish two legal advertisements announcing its intention, then wait ID days to see if there is protest.

Donley says (hat requirement has greatly curbed the growth of the program, which has loaned only SI 40 million of $175 million allocated. Unless the requirement is changed, he says, there will be no need to expand the program. But Donley asserts that the protest provisions are unnecessary. I le says only one in 20 applications are protested, but the advertising requirements cause many potential borrowers to shy away from the program. Also, he says that since most businesses are competitors, eliminating one in 20 is, itself, unfair.

Gov. Mike Sullivan will support elimination of the procedures to allow competitors to protest, his legislative aide Scott Farris says. But, Farris adds, the governor wants to wait and see how the program does without those procedures before supporting more funds for it. Also, he says, Sullivan wants some sort of advertisement of loans. Donley predicts that eliminating the procedures on protests will quickly create a need for $300 million in the link program.

"Ultimately, we're looking at a $500 million program," he says. Such expansion, he asserts, will make the program more fair by making it available to all competitors, i Ratliff disagrees. "You're taking all of the taxpayers' money and giving it to just a select few" in business, he asserts. "You get away from the competitive argument if anyone who wants one can have one," says Scott. "Then you get down to the question, 'Is this the way the state wants to use its permanent Interest income on that $2.5 billion makes it possible for Wyoming to refrain from imposing an income tax and other taxes, Scott asserts.

Directing enough interest income to fund special loan programs, he adds, will create the need for such taxes. He suggests that, given the current size of the link deposit program, imposition of taxes on cigarettes and beer may well be required to pay for it, effectively transferring funds from drinkers and smokers to some small businessmen. He says "government should stick to governmental things, schools and the like." Treasurer Smith says the link deposit long has had its critics, but has twice been expanded by the Legislature. He predicts legislators won't go along with doing away with the provisions allowing competitors to protest applications for such loans. He also predicts the Legislature will wait to see the audit results before taking other action.

Salvador Continued from Al to investigate the circumstances in which the North American military men died," rebel spokesman Miguel Saenz said. The rebels declared a cease-fire beginning Jan. 1, saying they hoped to encourage U.N. -sponsored peace talks with the Salvado-run government. Prnnram kltmr HnAwnmrmWk Ball flu.

Indoor Playground GNaMOa Sunrise Center 577-7056 JANE'S SWEET TEMPTATIONS 237-2468 WKnnnvns t-. r. -y Continued from Al taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy and hoped to be evacuated by the U.S. military.

The statement did not say how many Soviets were involved, and it was unknown if any were left behind after the U.S. evacuation. The Soviet statement said the Soviet Union on Friday sent an evacuation plane to Somalia, but it turned back when fighting at the airport prevented a landing. In Rome, rebel spokesman Ab-dirahem Mohammed claimed government forces bombed a house in which opposition leaders, intellectuals and others were meeting to discuss the future of Somalia. He said two people were killed and Talks Continued from A I last only five minutes," a senior Iraqi official said Friday.

He warned the United States should concentrate on "real peace and not show business." Even so, the scheduling of the first high-level meeting between U.S. and Iraqi officials since the occupation of Kuwait in August raised some hopes of an alternative to a clash after Jan. 15 the deadline set by the U.N. Security Council for Iraq to withdraw its 500,000 troops. "If they totally comply they will not be attacked," Bush said.

The meeting in Geneva is the "one last attempt" to avoid a war in the Persian Gulf that Bush promised Congress and the American public. Iraq's acceptance was welcomed as encouraging and useful by the President and administration spokesmen. But there is no apparent give in the unwavering insistence that Iraq should not be permitted to benefit in any away from its annexation of Kuwait and takeover of its oilfields. Nor is the administration relenting in its threat to force the Iraqis out if they do not leave within six days of Baker's meeting with Aziz. Baker on Thursday, for instance, warned there would be "devastating consequences" if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by Jan.

1 5. He called the deadline a day of reckoning. And Bush said he would not send Baker on to Baghdad to see Saddam Hussein after the meeting Panel Continued from Al tion of 2,488 last year, according to preliminary census figures. This was a drop from 2,924 in 1980 for the state's least populous county. The bill will carry an intent clause, prepared by consulting lawyer Mark Braden, that defends the plan.

"Wyoming's consistent and nondiscriminatory policy of using county boundaries for representational districts avoids the evils of partisan, ethnic or racial gerrymandering," the statement says in part. A new committee member, Rep. Matilda Hansen, D-Albany, asked how the committee could account for the greater representation per population by the northern Republican counties and lesser representation by the southern Democratic counties. "I know this is historical, but isn't it gerrymandering?" Hansen asked. The plan gives Laramie, Albany, Carbon and Sweetwater Counties less representation than average, while Big Horn, Crook, Fremont, Hot Springs, Johnson and Teton Counties have greater than average representation.

But Sen. Charles Scott, R-Natrona, said the pattern is random and does not reflect an intent to carve out boundaries for a partisan goal which, he said, is the essence of gerrymandering. Braden said flatly a lawsuit is inevitable over any plan the Legislature adopts. Scott said 45 of 50 ODODOBOQ 2 ESTATE AUCTION TODAY 1 1 A.M. 3614 Salt Creek Casper 0 Dorothy M.

Harris Estate a Furniture, Household Antiques, etc. INSPECTION 10AM Auctioneer John Japp ODODODOD Back Afiain-TODAVS Put your dancinq shoes on fiND COME DUNCE TO YOUR FAVORITE BIO BAND JOIN THE WALTZ CONTEST. Have Lots of F(JNI DflNCE to CIMARRON" 6-10 JAM WITH THE BAND FREEhorsq-oeuvres ALL AFTERNOON Loans Continued from A I volatility of out-of-state prime (interest) rates," Mader asserts. Sen. Charles Seott.

R-Natrona, and a graduate of I larvard Business School, says he will support a bill drafted to terminate link loans as of July 1. "I don't think it's worth the money we spend on it." says Seott. lie says that many such loans go to businesses such as restaurants and gas wholesalers that merely compete against other Wyoming businesses, and fail to expand Wyoming's economic base. As to the ision of fellow conservatives Donley and Mader, Seott says. "It's funny, the 'less government' guys supporting a big government program." A fundamental and hotly debated issue is whether link deposits work to improve the state's economy.

Borrowers must state that they will use the low-interest funds to preserve or create jobs. Relying on those statements. State treasurer Stan Smith says $140 million in outstanding loans under the 1 75 million-ceiling program has resulted in 4.200 jobs. Skeptics say businesses often fudge their figures to get the low-interest money. Both the critics and the supporters of the link loan program hope that audits now being conducted by the Wyoming Department of Audit and the Legislativ Service Office ill shed light on the effectiveness of the loans.

The audits are expected to be completed during the next two months, in time for legislators to consider. Roger Dewey, director of the audit department, says that his department's examination of loans to about 320 businesses has found loans "all over the map" ith some "really good" and others "really bad." But Dewey would not quantify those findings. "This is really sensitive" since a whole state program is involved, said Richard Miller, director of the Legislative Service Office. He would not provide any details as to his audit's findings or its methodology. huck Pedersen.

former president of First Interstate Bank in Casper, told a legislative committee last September that the link deposit program has turned many borrowers and their bankers into "liars" by requiring vouchers that the loans are creating or preserving jobs. The program, he said in a later interview, "is abused" and "has no accountability." He estimated that as many as half the link loan borrowers make improper claims of creating and preserv ing jobs. In order to keep their customers, Pedersen said, many bankers are squeezed to make the link loans, often simply refinancing existing loans. Dick Scarlett, chairman of Jackson State Bank in Jackson, shares similar views. "It's a misused program.

It's not been satisfactorily controlled or monitored by the State of Wyoming, and that's from the very beginning." says Scarlett. Jackson State Bank, he says, is "not willing to bend the rules. We're willing to say. 'This is the spirit of it. You qualify or you don't But some other banks, he asserts, ill make link loans to practically any business.

"They are us ing it as a competitive advantage to steal customers." he says. Doug Crouse, president of Security State Bank, has a sharply different view. "Our county is depressed," Crouse says. "The 3 percent savings makes the borrower more economically viable. By making him more economically viable, you're saving jobs.

It isn't always an immediate, direct provable benefit." So, Crouse says, his bank does not attempt to closely analyze his customers' vouchers that the link loans will preserve or create jobs. "We think it's been an excellent program, the best one. the state has for economic development," he adds. In response to criticism. Treasurer Smith notes that rules adopted last summer require banks to produce more information supporting borrower's claims that link loans are simply preserving jobs.

As a result, he says, banks are being "more circumspect and careful" in making the loans. Mader and Donley believe that ideally there would be no requirement on businesses to vouch that they ill create or preserve jobs with link loans. "If I were drafting legislation, I don't think it should be in there," says Mader, adding that the requirement is too indefinite, too "subject to interpretation." "I don't think that it takes a Harvard economist to figure out that if SNOWMOKILEKS ff. Rivra in la mi El wehtw jor Uuioi Birr J0ZU7, ope tmb-N SNOW NACUIXI BENTIJ tt TOl'HS, Pf i vrn rnnuim-nrvSVT HTYI.K. Cjklt- Zl INK, CA, 01 HUT CCCM TO TRAIL ItsTEMs FRUa LUIH.E.

COME I'LAV 51 AY! 455-2225 8 with Aziz. The deadline was set by the U.N. Security Council in November at the urging of the Bush administration. Bush said he hoped Iraq's acceptance of his proposal for the Geneva meeting "indicates a growing awareness of the seriousness of the situation and a willingness to heed the international community's will." With Iraq jockeying to broaden the talks to include the Palestinians' dispute with Israel, Bush said Aziz obviously would be free to bring up whatever he wished. But, Bush said, "there can be no compromise or negotiations on the U.S.

objectives" of a total withdrawal and restoration of Kuwaiti sovereignty. "There will be no linkage on those two questions," he said, referring to any possible connection to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. "There will be no linkage on these other issues." He also all but ruled out another U.N. Security Council session. Iraq, on the other hand, wants a broad-gauged meeting between Baker and Aziz.

Ambassador Mohamed Sadiq al-Mashat said the situation in Kuwait is only one of several crises in the region. He cited the Palestinian issue, the situation in Lebanon and the proliferation of missiles and chemical and biological weapons. Even so, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said withdrawal from Kuwait must be unconditional. states defended lawsuits over their 1980 reapportionment plans. Rep.

Eli Bebout proposed a plan for single member districts to bring the population range closer to the ratio accepted by the courts. Rep. Patti MacMillan, R-Al-bany, the committee's chairman, said the committee had to act on the interim bill Saturday and suggested Bebout bring in his idea as an amendment later. Under Bebout's plan, Natrona and Converse Counties, for example, would combine into one House district with 1 0 representatives, as would Sweetwater and Fremont county with 10 representatives. Bebout said the representatives could be elected from subdistricts in the primary elections.

But MacMillan and other committee members said candidates would never run for office under such a system. Rep. Don Sullivan, D-Laramie. a proponent of single member districts, said parties have no difficulty filling slates in other states with single member districts. The committee adopted the bill on a 7-3 vote.

Scott, MacMillan. Miller; Reps. Dorothy Perkins, and Bruce Hinchey, both R-Natrona, Sen. Carl Maldonado, D-Sweetwa-ter, and Rep. John DeWitt, R-Park.

voted for it. Voting against it were Sullivan. Bebout and Sen. Delia llerbst. D-Sheridan.

CASPER ELKS "SUNDAY BRUNCH' 9AM 12 NOON BUFFET- 4 00 Senior Citizens (60) BUFFET Children Discounts Elks Bona Fide Guests Only! 7th Center "The Blue Ox: thanks everyone who gave us a try New Year's Eve. We're a little new at this, and we hope you'll all be back another evening when Murphy's Law isn't the order of business. Karen Woods 472-4913 adjournment before enrolled acts were printed just as legislators once stopped the clock and finished their work after the legal midnight deadline. True said there are concerns that the bill signing system is unconstitutional, although no lawsuits have been threatened. So this session he and Cross want to sign the specific enrolled acts before midnight the last night.

True said. True, who has served 14 years in the Senate and four years in the House, also said it would be helpful, though not necessary, to have a consent list for non-controversial bills to make the Senate consistent with House procedures. Senate Floor Leader Jerry Dixon, R-Crook-Weston, said he plans to give committees more time to work on bills although this probably will mean more bills will die on general file. Dixon, a 53-year-old Newcastle trucker, agrees with Cross that the ability of the committees to polish bills has declined in the past eight years he's been in the Senate. But Dixon attributed the change to the increase in bills being considered.

Cross and True said they expect the session to be relatively harmonious. "We had a few little fires when we caucused back in Njovember but they're all extinguished now," Cross said of the Republican legislative caucus. He said the spats were over who would get House leadership positions. This type of inner dispute is why the Republicans don't like to have open caucuses. Cross said.

Other House GOP leaders are Ron Micheli, Uinta County, speaker pro tern; Doug Chamberlain Goshen County, majority floor leader, and John Marton, Johnson County, majority whip. Cross also said he will depart somewhat from tradition in his speech when he takes the gavel as House Speaker. "Rather than, 'Rah, Rah, I was going to give some direction of what we ought to work on and do," Cross said. "From reapportionment to education funding to water development and health care." He said he will keep his talk general and short. Individual or Group Weight Loss Therapeutic Diets ellness Oriented Supervised by Registered Dietitian 242 So.

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