The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 3

Thursday, May 21, 1981 Part I 3 Cos Angcleg Slmcs Panel OKs Speedup of Tax Collections, Restores Candy Levy By DOUGLAS SHUIT, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO The Democrat-dominated Assembly Ways and Means Committee Wednesday overrode objections that it was approving a thinly disguised tax increase and approved a two-year $645 million package of accelerated tax payments for business. In the same vote, the committee decided to repeal a 6 sales tax exemp Senate Unit Rejects Sales Tax Proposal Radiance in tha night A full moon shines through a break in THOMAS KELSEY Lot Angela Timet the Queen Mary at Long Beach. Assembly Panel OKs Home Loans With Freely Varying Interest Rates By BILL BILLITER, Times Staff Writer Bill on College Entry Exam Answers Gains By WILLIAM TROMBLEY, Times Staff Writer California high school seniors will be able to obtain answers to their college aptitude tescs under terms of legislation approved Wednesday by the state Senate Education Committee. A modified "truth-in-testing" bill, sponsored by Sen. Milton Marks (R-San Francisco) passed the committee by a 7-2 vote and was sent to the Senate floor, despite strong opposition from test makers and sponsors.

The bill requires testing organizations to make available to students and parents the answers to the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing Program (ACT) within 90 days of the release of scores. These are standardized, multiple-choice tests that Please see ANSWERS, Page 17 SACRAMENTO-A key Assembly committee Wednesday easily passed a bill that would allow state-chartered banks and savings and loan companies to make home mortgage loans whose interest rates could fluctuate freely. Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), the sponsor of the measure, said the bill may be up for a full Assembly vote as soon as Friday. Noting that the legislation has broad support, including Gov. Edmund G.

Brown Bane said he believes the bill will pass easily in the Assembly. The bill, in essence, hastens the end of fixed-rate mortgage loans. Since the federal government permitted the end of fixed-rate loans for federally chartered institutions earlier this year, it has been expect tion on candy and gum, a move that could increase the price of both, while approving sales tax exemptions on a variety of other products, including home heating fuel and vitamin and dietary supplements. The complicated package of revenue increases and tax cuts was introduced by Assemblyman Bill Lockyer (D-San Leandro). It was approved in a 12-8 vote that split along party lines, with Democrats on the winning side.

The measure now goes' to the full Assembly. Opposed by Administration Gov. Edmund G. Brown Department of Finance considered the package a tax increase and opposed it The department maintained the state could get through the fiscal crunch without increases in those taxes. Business groups and Republicans strongly opposed the legislation in a sometimes -acrimonious hearing, claiming the Lockyer bill was an attempt to disguise a tax increase through an accounting sleight of hand.

Opponents also charged that while the measure would raise hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to get out of current budget difficulties, most of it would be one-time-only money raised through an accounting changeover and would be an illusory budget balancing device. Lockyer and other Democrats, including Assemblyman John Vas-concellos (D-San Jose), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, strongly denied that the bill involved a tax increase. They said that by pushing ahead the dates on which businesses turned over tax collections to the state they were just collecting money they would receive anyway. They said the money didn't belong to businesses that collected it, and should be used to serve the public. The bill would bring the state in conformance with federal tax collecting procedures by requiring large businesses to turn over in-Please see TAXES, Page 18 Details of a temple column Automatic Shutoff re1 JEjjV La 4 By JERRY GILLAM, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO-A ballot proposal to ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase with $500 million annual proceeds earmarked for improved police and fire services was rejected "Wednesday by a Senate committee.

A 3-4 vote, two short of the five required for approval, was cast on the measure, introduced by Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord). He served notice that he will seek reconsideration. The defeated legislation was a rival ballot proposition to another backed by Gov.

Edmund G. Brown Jr. calling for a similar sales tax increase to fight crime. The vote split on party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. The GOP wants the governor to obtain the money for crime -fighting purposes by cutting the proposed $24 billion state budget without a tax increase.

Sieroty Abstains A fourth Democrat, Sen. Alan Sieroty of Los Angeles, was present but abstained from voting. The fifth Democrat on the committee, Sen. Ruben S. Ayala of San Bernardino, was absent because he was giving a speech in Santa Cruz.

A potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor next year, Boatwright said that from 1975 to 1980, the state's population increased 9, crimes against persons increased Please see SALES LEVY, Page 17 The temple replica shows signs of weathering from years of open-air exposure on the Castaways grounds. The fenced-off art object and a nearby wishing well for tourists' coins had been at the Castaways well before the late billionaire Howard Hughes bought the Strip hotel-casino in 1967. But American Jains became aware of the replica's existence only in the last year. They are now pressing the Castaways and the parent Summa Corp. to donate the model, having recently asked help from the Indian diplomatic corps in this country.

Appraisal Sought It was learned that Summa officials are willing to part with the temple and are seeking a qualified appraiser to estimate its worth. The matter is complicated because it is part of the Hughes estate, whose heirs are uncertain. Will it be donated to the Jain Center? "No chance of it," Casta Please see TEMPLE, Page 17 Gas Tank Trigger I I the clouds; right, the lights of Bane said he will offer some index later. One example, he said, might be the index now published semiannually by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. He said that index might be published monthly and used as a fluctuating ceiling for changes in the variable interest rate.

He said the public seems to understand that California state-chartered institutions have no choice but to follow the lead of the federally chartered loan firms. Bane said his office has received little opposition to the bill, "but there is some confusion with my bill and the one that would overturn the Wellenkamp decision." He referred to a bill that would overturn a 1978 court ruling, known as the Wellenkamp decision. The Please see MORTGAGE, Page 19 Panel Scuttles Plans to Buy Site for Prison By TRACY WOOD, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO Legislators, meeting in a highly unusual closed-door session, scuttled the proposed $4 million purchase of land for a new state prison Wednesday after learning that one of the property owners was linked in court records to organized crime. The action occurred when an Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee abruptly broke off a public hearing went behind closed doors to discuss the proposal and later emerged to turn it down. It came against the backdrop of an appeal on behalf of San Diego city and county officials who urged the purchase of property owned by Development for a state prison site on San Diego's Otay Mesa.

The state Department of Corrections almost entered into an agreement last year to buy about 320 acres of the tract, but backed out when officials learned that court records tied one of the owners, Vincent Alba-nese, to organized crime figures. Deddeh Makes Appeal Assemblyman Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Bonita), who made the appeal on behalf of San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, other local officials and San Diego area legislators, said the city and county were willing to buy the land on behalf of the state and resell it to the department at cost, if necessary. Local officials want the state to sell a prison site that it currently owns on Otay Mesa. They have complained that the state land is too close to a proposed second crossing point on the Mexican border and is in the middle of a planned industrial complex.

The site is about four miles farther from the border than the state-owned land. But Corrections Director Ruth Rushen told the subcommittee she was adamantly opposed to buying the site. "We are very clear and I will say it very specifically. I am not willing to build on property," Rushen said. "We are in the Department of Corrections and we may know a little more about the ownership of this property than Mr.

Deddeh." Rushen then Joined the committee in. a rare closed session, and Please see PRISON, Page 19 ed that state chartered institutions would be allowed to follow suit. Because Bane's bill would allow state banks and the same freedom with interest rates as federally-chartered financial institutions, the measure is frequently called a "parity bill." The bill had previously been debated extensively by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which Wednesday voted on it without allowing more debate. It passed 18-2. In an interview after his bill passed, Bane said "some kind of controls or guidelines" will be placed in the measure before it attains final passage.

As presently written, the bill puts no ceiling whatsoever on how much a bank or may vary, the interest throughout the life of a mortgage loan. Anti-recircuiation Valve i Underground Tank I I i' nil 1 1 1 1 However, the OPW "balance system" nozzle did fail 22.5 of the tests conducted by another agency, the state Division of Measurement Standards, which used a device to simulate a vehicle fuel tank instead of testing actual refueling practices. An ARB spokesman said the Measurement Standards test was overly stringent because it placed abnormally heavy back pressures on the nozzle's safety valves. He said a new test is being devised to be conducted jointly by the ARB and the Division of Measurement Standards. Meanwhile, no new OPW balance system nozzles may be installed pending outcome of the new testing, but existing nozzles may remain in use, Sessa said.

The nozzle is manufactured by the OPW Division of Dover Corp. of Cincinnati. Both Sessa and the man in charge of the Measurement Standards test, Clifton Smith, emphasized that in no Please tec TANK, Page 17 GEORGE ROSE Los Angeles Tunes Tourists in Las Vegas pose for snapshot, using as background the teakwood replica of a temple. Sect Asks Casino to Give Up 'Shrine' Replica of Sacred Temple Displayed as Tourist Attraction JAMES FRANCAVEXA Los Angela Times Vapor Nozzle Problem Described 'Topping Off -You Pay for Gas You Don't Receive By RICHARD O'REILLY, Times Staff Writer By JOHN DART, Times Religion Writer Los Angeles members of the ancient Jain religion of India are pressuring a Las Vegas hotel-casino to turn over to them a teakwood replica of a sacred temple, which is now being used as a tourist attraction. The temple replica, which sits outdoors behind the casino of the Castaways Hotel and is dubbed the "Gateway to Luck," is being sought by the Jains as a "national religious shrine." "We believe the display of the temple this way is an insult," said Lalit Shah, vice president of the Jain Center of Southern California.

Sacred to Members The original marble temple of Palitana in western India is very sacred to members of the to faith, added Dinesh Gala, another Los Angeles Jain. The 35-foot-high scale model has hand-carved statuary, a winding staircase and balcony. It was originally made for the 1903-04 St. Louis Exposition. Motorists can avoid being charged for gasoline they do not receive when using vapor recovery nozzles if they refrain from "topping off their tanks after the automatic shutoff valve on the nozzle trips, state officials said Wednesday.

The advice came amidst a growing controversy over one type of nozzle that theoretically can malfunction and cause gasoline to be pumped through a motorist's gas tank right back into the underground storage tank from where it came. On Monday, the state Air Resources Board suspended certification of the nozzle, an OPW brand used on about 60 of the vapor recovery systems installed in Southern California. However, an ARB spokesman, Bill Sessa, emphasized Wednesday that the nozzle has never malfunctioned in several hundred tests of actual vehicle refuelings. I.