The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 23

Missoulian, Friday, November 23, 1984 Page 23 3 By 8TEVE SHIRLEY Missoulian State Bureau sponded to surveys have said they would back a referendum. Fyfe said a higher drinking age is a bad idea for two key reasons: It would promote disrespect for the law, and it would encourage drug abuse. Fyfe argues that if young adults can't buy alcohol from legitimate sources, they'll get if from black marketers. "Raising the drinking age won't alter demand," he said, "it will just alter the supply. It would definitely encourage greater association between young adults and teen-agers and drug pushers." Fyfe also believes such a law would turn young adults against government and police who must enforce it.

the-drinking-age referendum last session. Similarly, proponents failed earlier thfs year to get enough voter signatures to put the issue on the ballot as an initiative. However, the legislation has a good chance of passing this session because of a new federal law that forces states to forfeit federal highway funds if they don't raise their drinking ages by 1986. Montana stands to lose $5.5 million in fiscal 1986 and $11 million each year after that if it doesn't raise its drinking age. Richard Fyfe, a 24-year-old Montana State University student who has led the opposition, admits he "wouldn't be real shocked to see it pass." He said most legislators who have re "For a small minority it will naturally be a state of war, like something we had in the 1960s or during Prohibition," he said.

"It creates a violent confrontation between students and police," Backers of the higher age limit counter that they want to reduce the violence that occurs on the highways when young adults drink and drive. "There's a tremendous number of teenagers killed each year," said O'Hara, who works as a guidance counselor at a Great Falls school. "Anything that saves lives I think we have to look at." O'Hara and others "also believe the measure will reduce drinking among young teens by making it tougher for them to get booze. It's not necessarily going to keep teenagers from drinking," O'Hara. said.

"But It will raise the bottom (age of teen drinkers up," If O'Hara and others can't get the necessary two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate to get a referendum on the ballot, they could turn to a proposal by House Speaker John Vincent, D-Bozeman, The measure that Vincent has said he will introduce in the upcoming session would prohibit youths 15, 16 and 17 years old from driving between midnight and a.m. The restriction is called a Cinderella law in other states that have adipted it. HELENA After two setbacks the past two years, those who want to raise the minimum legal drinking age in Montana from 19 to 21 are setting their sights on the 1085 Legislature. Four legislators have indicated by asking the Legislative Council staff to draft legislation that they plan to introduce referendums to raise the drinking age. The four are Sen.

James Shaw. R-Wi-baux; Rep. Joe Quilici. D-Butte; Jesse O'Hara, R-Great Falls; and Rep. Ber-nie Swift, R-Hamilton.

Swift unsuccessfully introduced a raise- Crime statistics kept by Montana attract attention Highway history3 Wallace hopes to keep stoplight on Interstate 90 i 0. V- A. m. tl? forcement agencies, while the state uses information and details taken directly from police incident reports to compile its statistics, Petersen said. "When you get it right off the offense report, it makes it much more useful and accurate," Petersen said.

The Montana crime reporting model, which has a nearly 100 percent participation rate from local jurisdictions, also includes statistics on class-three incidents such as serving warrants, traffic crime, missing persons and domestic problems. "Between 80 percent and 90 percent of police work falls into this category, which isn't covered in the federal reports," Petersen said. "Yet it is vital to planning, budgeting and manpower decisions by law enforcement." Only six other states gather information directly from incident reports, and Montana is the only state that collects class-three crime information, according to Petersen, who is chairman of the National Criminal Justice Statistics Association. i The consultants, working under a $1 million contract with Justice Department officials to analyze the federal Uniform Crime Reporting System have- worked closely with the crime statistics association. "I really think they are serious about this and want to make sure it works for us," he said.

The consultants are expected to offer a proposed final draft of their recommendations to the association for their input early next year. The FBI and the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics have fought over control of crime reporting in the past, but Petersen said "they seem very serious about getting it squared away." Lavin said government decisions involving millions of dollars are made almost every day based on federal crime reports. "For the astronomical amount of money they put into crime statistics, if they aren't accurate and reliable, it's a huge waste, of money," Lavin said. By TOM COOK Missoulian State Bureau HELENA Montanans experienced four more murders and ,2.501 more thefts last year than state officials knew about. That's only if you believe the FBI's 1983 crime index.

Fortunately for Montanans, the FBI statistics are wrong, according to Mike Lavin, head of the state Crime Control Division. The federal Justice Department is planning to study how national -crime statistics are gathered and is looking to Montana as a possible model for revamping its system, Lavin added. "We're very pleased they are finally taking a look at it." Lavin said. "We've been screaming for years about the inaccuracies of the federal statistics." The variance in crime statistics emerged as an issue in this year's campaign for state attorney general when unsuccessful Republican candidate Doug Kelley charged that the state figures were manipulated to make the crime situation look better than it is. "We were very upset by that because it hurts our credibility.

But there are differences in our statistics and the FBI's," said Larry Pe- tersen, who oversees crime report- ing in Lavin's office. The FBI report showed a 9.3 percent increase in major crimes in the state last, year, Lavin said. The state counts only a 1.4 percent increase an actual 1 percent decrease per 100,000 of population in the state. The discrepancies result from an outdated reporting system used by the FBI, and the use of estimates for many local jurisdictions that "don't make the federal deadline for 'submitting information, he said. Inaccurate crime statistics undermine public confidence and trust in law enforcement and hamper government as well as the criminal justice system in dealing with issues vital to public safety, Lavin skid.

1 The FBI bases its statistics on ninthly summaries from law en- WALLACE, Idaho (API Jim See, a Michigan native who lives at the end of Seventh Street on Wallace's south hill, gives simple directions to visitors from his home state: "Go west on 1-90 and take a left at the light." The stoplight in this northern Idaho mining town is the last one on Interstate 90 between Seattle, and Boston. And when the' last link of the interstate freeway is completed through Wallace in about five years, the light will come down. The city already has laid claim to the historic piece of equipment. "We'll be putting it in our museum as I see it," said Mayor Frank Morbeck. "I look at it as a historical item." That's fine with the Idaho Transporation Department, which owns the traffic-control fixture.

"It doesn't have a great deal of value as modern equipment." said Hugh Lydston, the Wallace freeway project manager at Boise. "We can work out something, no problem," added Jack Ross, district traffic supervisor at Coeur d'Alene. He said the light at the intersection of Bank and Seventh streets, or "courthouse corner," could just as well be removed now, Ross said. The Idaho city of Caldwell was involved in a similar situation when Interstate 80 was completed several years ago. said Lydston.

Officials in that southern Idaho city, many in costume, conducted a miniature play and buried the stoplight in a mock funeral, he said. Wallace's main arterial at one time had four stoplights, but three were removed 15 years ago because they caused traffic to back up. Ross said. The stoplight eventually will be replaced with stop signs on both sides of Bank Street, said Morbeck. 1-90 currently funnels onto old U.S.

Highway 10 and into west Wallace. After taking a 90-degree turn onto Bank Street, it continues three blocks to where the four-lane highway picks up again in east Wallace. The stretch of 1-90 through Wallace also has parking meters, and pedestrians have the right of way at intersections. After being delayed by a lawsuit by opponents of the relocation several years ago, construction has started on the 1.7-mile freeway project through town. Contracts are being let in increments to allow local contractors, hurt by the economic recession, to get part of the work.

A vacant Union Pacific Railroad depot has been razed, a power substation relocated and contractors currently are working on ramp, river and creek bridges on both ends of town. After more preparatory work in 1985, the actual elevated interstate on the town's north hillside will be constructed in 1986-87. The final paving contract will be let in 1988, with final wrap-up in 1989, highway officials said. And then the light will come down. BILL WILKECorretpondent Framed by trees Bockman Peak, a mountain in the Cabinet Range, is blanketed by snow and ready to settle down for a sleepy winter.

I Santa Fe police still probing priest mystery ment of the priest's bloody clothing near a well-traveled road and the timing of the crimes, within three weeks of being two years apart. He said it would appear that if the two crimes are related, they probably were the work of a drifter who has a psychological problem with priests. Ronan has a population of 1,500 people in the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. Kerrigan, a native of Butte, had moved to Ronan from Plains shortly before his disappearance and was not well known in the community. ing" the two crimes are related.

Rivera, 58, the rector of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, was called out to administer last rites to a dying man in a rural area southwest of Santa Fe. His body was found on Aug. 7 in a muddy field near the Waldo exit of Interstate 25.. He had, been shot once in the stomach.

Rivera's car was found at an Interstate 40 rest stop near Grants about a week after his murder. Kerrigan, also 58, a parish priest in Ronan, was last seen at a bakery there on July 20. He did not show up to celebrate 6: 30 a.m. mass the next day, authorities said. Bloodied clothing and the automobile belonging to Kerrigan were found near the town of Poison on July 29.

No body was ever found, law enforcement authorities said. "We don't even know if (Kerrigan) is dead. I wish we could say, 'Yes, it's the same person or, 'No, it Ulibarri said. Ulibarri said he was intrigued by Kerrigan's mysterious disappearance, which could i have been the result of a. sick call.

Other similarities include the discovery of his car several fniles away from his home, the place SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) The disappearance and possible murder of a Montana priest is still drawing the attention of New Mexico authorities investigating the 1982 death of a Santa Fe priest. Santa Fe Lt. Gilbert Ulibarri said Wednesday he is in frequent contact with the lake County Sheriff's Department in Montana, seeking some clues in the July 20 disap- rarance of Ronan's Rev. John Kerrigan.

Ulibarri said although the similarities are sjight between Kerrigan's apparent murder atid the Aug. 5, 1982, killing of the Rev. Rey-ijaldo Rivera of Santa Fe, he has a Vgut feel Missoulian State Bureau Quilici said he hasn't yet decided whether the proposed health-insurance plan would cover more than catastrophic illnesses and injuries, or how eligibility requirements would be written. He also said he doesn't know exactly how much it would cost the state. However, Quilici estimated that the program could cost $4.8 million over the biennium if 2,000 jobless Montanans were eligible and if the insurance cost $100 a month per person for minimum coverage.

Quilici said various means of financing the program are being studied. Funding wouldn't necessarily have to come from the state's strapped general fund, he said. Legislator plans insurance fund for unemployed HELENA A proposal to have the state pay health-insurance benefits of long-term unemployed workers is being developed by Butte Rep. Joe Quilici. recently elected Democratic House whip, said his plan would prevent jobless Montanans from losing their homes or other property because they were hit by illness or injury at a time they didn't have health insurance.

"These people have a right not to Ioe their homes and things they've worked all their lives for," he said. "This is absolutely not welfare. This is for unemployed workers who have contributed to the system all their lives." Bate department seeks out new sources of revenue By GARRY J. MOES Associated Press ed programs totaling $69.8 million, according to the report by Senior Legislative Fiscal Analyst Peter Blouke. The report, presented to the Legislative Finance Committee last week, said the state general fund portion of the whole budget would rise 41.9 percent and federal and other contributions would rise 33.4 percent.

The agency has proposed $39.6 million worth of "revenue enhancements" which would increase social program budgets, sometimes at the expense of other state programs. For example, the agency is proposing to earmark liquor and cigarette taxes for Medicaid. This would take money currently designated for government con struction programs and funds now deposited into the general fund. SRS is asking for $33.5 million from li-. quor and cigarette taxes.

SRS is also proposing that the state replace an 8-cent cigarette tax dropped by the federal government on Oct. 1 and that one-third of the proceeds, an estimated $4.1 million, be used for SRS programs. Numerous other state programs are likely to vie for proceeds of that tax if the state reimposes it. In addition, SRS wants to add $25 to every fine for drunken driving to raise money for rehabilitation and indigent youth programs. But SRS Director John LaFaver said the agency's "serious" request is for about half that amount.

LaFaver said the legislative analysis is flawed because it understates the present cost of SRS programs, it anticipates more inflation during the next two years than SRS contemplates, and it includes low-priority items which even the agency knows it can't get and won't seriously request. In all, according to the legislative report, the agency has requested a budget of more than half a billion dollars. The cost of existing programs would rise 18.9 percent, and the department has proposed new or expand HELENA The state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services wants a bigger budget, and it plans to ask the 1985 Legislature to increase drunken-driving fines and vehicle registration fees and take over some liquor and cigarette taxes to help pay for it. According to a legislative analysis of the SRS budget request for the next two fiscal years, the cost of state government social programs under that agency will rise by 36.2 percent, or $145.7 million for fiscal 1986-87..