Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 26

I1 "5' DAILY XEWS James M. Cox. Publisher 1898-1957 James M. Cox Publisher 1957-1974 Dennis Shere, president; Arnold Rosenfeld, editor; Hap Cawood, editor of the editorial pages; Joe Fenley, managing editor, news; Brad Tillson, managing editor, features. UEOKURNAME HESUREIPOKS PAGE 6-B SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1983 It nfewMib.

iv, it i i Issue 3 could backfire on .1 ll taxpayers of this region Jut Gov. Dick Celeste has been more attentive to the needs and wishes of this area than any governor in memory, and neither taxpayers nor state institutions here have been shortchanged by the tax rr-rm-s 1 nl JfllW.WI Forbidden hops Issue 1 won't solve the problem If you are earning more than $100,000 a year and not particularly civic-minded and want to pay a lot less in Ohio income taxes, Issue 3 might be for you. If you have a middle-class income, or less, beware. Before you play Russian roulette by voting for Issue 3, consider, how you might come out. Those pushing Issue 3 keep pounding on the "90 percent tax Increase." Remember that 50 percent had been imposed last year under a "temporary" label.

Remember, too, that the lower your income is, the lower the percentage of tax on your wages. Rather than get misled by all the "high tax" ballyhoo, compare your state deduction on a recent paycheck with a pay-'check from November 1982. "Next consider what you are getting for your taxes. The money is not going for The governor, who controls only 12 pejc ent of the budget, has slashed spending by- nearly a quarter billion dollars and is targeting other savings, particularly in health care costs. Most of the state money goes for such basics as education, prisons, aid to the jobless and local governments.

Some $800 million a year goes to paying interest on the bond debts inherited from previous administrations. vCov. Dick Celeste may have miscalculated politically when he pushed for action to caver the looming half-billion dollar debt. It would have been better to be able to prepare voters for his hard decisions. It might have been more expedient to call some of the tax hikes "temporary" even though most experts know that Ohio has been so hard hit by the recession that the "temporary" taxes would have had to stay around a very long time, and the "permanent" status helps the state's bond rating, thereby saving taxpayers money.

But to his credit and pain Gov. Ce- leste was straightforward. He refused to play the deceptive games of his predecessor. He asked the legislature to put the state on a sound footing so it could get on job development and aggressive recovery. Having heard voters say they wanted their schools to be shaped up, having seen so many schools have to resort to ever higher property taxes, the governor and the legislature saw to it that education got strong und-ing for the first time in years.

School districts aren't rolling in the gravy by any means, and Ohio still aids schools less than most other states, but the state contribution is better now, and that helps. The legislature could have solved much of the problem by ending property tax rollbacks. Instead, it chose to sustain that relief, to seek revenues in the more equitable income tax and begin to phase out other onerous business taxes. So it is unfair to assume that everyone's burden is 90 percent heavier. Ohio has a frugal but responsive leadership.

Gov. Celeste has been more attentive to the needs and wishes of this area than any governor in memory. Neither taxpayers nor state-supported institutions or programs here have been shortchanged by the tax increase. Voters here should take a sober view of their gains, and the risk of playing Russian roulette with those gains and this region's-proven political friends. The best response to Issue 3 is a "No" vote.

crash caused by some senseless jerk filled with booze. Issue 1 probably won't fix that. The same people who get sloshed in cars now will be the same ones who'll do it if Issue 1 passes. It's not that big a deal, but I think Issue 1 probably steps on a few minor rights. It's a way of making the law do our work for us as parents, who should have raised kids who know when enough's enough.

Issue 1 is an earnest idea, earnestly proposed, that probably can't work the newest reform that helter-skelter becomes the newest abuse. We need to deal with alcoholism, just as we need to deal with smoking, which kills even more. It would be interesting some day to study the psychic and moral weight people portion out to different kinds of pathological self-destruction. Billions are spent compassionately on research to cure smokers. For the sickness of alcoholism, the law is employed for punishment rather than cure.

The cost, ultimately, is as high, spent not in research, but in prison guards. Passing a law that even-handedly penal; izes both the guilty and the Innocent isn't the way to handle it. Forbidden fruit, you might recall, was one of our first problems. We took my daughter down to Cincinnati to a Reds game for her 19th birthday last summer, and, while there, treated her to her first legal beer. Beer tastes great' at a baseball game.

I washed mine down with a couple of hot dogs. Hot dogs taste great at baseball games. I have never been able to figure out what happens to hot dogs when cooked at home. They never taste as good as they do at a ball park, even when they're the very same brand. I had just about everything they had to offer at the ball park that night.

Beer. Hot dogs. Some kind of chocolate frozen stuff on a stick. A bag of peanuts, although I am not entirely fond of the heavy dose of salt they manage to get beyond the shells and onto the peanuts at Riverfront Stadium. THIS WAS TO HAVE been about beer.

My daughter seemed to enjoy hers. She had only one. She seemed to have some familiarity with the stuff. At least she did not seem surprised at the taste. Beer is one of the major rites of passage when you go to college.

I suspect it was not unknown to her. I did not ask. Beer drinking, or too much of it, can be grimly dangerous to other people, as proponents of Issue 1 on next Tuesday's state ballot accurately insist. Beer is a chemical and a dangerous one at that, and a drunk kid behind a wheel can be just as deadly as a grenade in Lebanon. Knowing all that and with regret, I won't vote for Issue onj Tuesday.

In the first place, I think a ban on beer and liquor sales before the age of 21 is simply unenforceable. The police already have enough to do without creating a new class of petty criminal. We don't need to train a whole generation of young people in disrespect for and evasion of the law. Prohibition didn't work in the Twenties. It almost surely won't now, particularly when selectively enforced and targeted at a certain age group.

There are already laws on the books that presumably take care of drunk drivers. If they aren't tough enough, we ought to do something about that. I'd vote for it. The University of Dayton, which will acquire legal liabilities if Issue 1 passes, last week announced it is setting up a special task force on alcohol abuse. That would have been all for the good, in any case, but I suspect UD has something more in mind, like looking legally responsible in court the day somebody sues.

It's too bad. I just don't think the university ought to be put in the position of making sure its kids get tucked into bed cold sober every night. Who will do that for the rest of us? Universities are for teaching, which is tough enough. MOSTLY, I THINK, I'm against Issue 1 for other reasons. We ask a lot of young people these days.

We want them to be educated. We insist they pay taxes. We call on them to fight and die In our wars. We solicit their votes, each of which counts for just as much, say, as an archdeacon's. I would have a hard time telling some young Marine just home from Beirut or Grenada he couldn't have a beer at a ball game.

Drinking is certainly a danger, and that young Marine could come home safely from Lebanon only to die tragically in a car and Issue 2 would be as bad Arnold Rosenfeld Rosenfeld is editor of. The Dayton Daily News. Constitutional amendment Issue 3 would be risk for Wright State Some factions would just love to have the of wheeler-dealer authority that approval of Issue 2 would hand to them on a platter. gain of those factions, though, could come at the expense of Greater Dayton area voters. 't-Issue 2 would require a three-fifths vote of both houses to approve any money-raising bill.

On the surface it sounds nice: The more Votes a bill requires, the less likely taxes will te' raised unless there is a strong consensus. But any constitutional amendment that changes the equation of power has other political consequences. Requiring more yes votes gives splinter factions greater power to "obstruct a bill or trade votes for something 6'nTtheir own agenda, and some agendas can get downright kinky and greedy. With Issue 2 in effect, voters would have less power to change the direction of state politics by voting for a particular party since party power would likely be diluted. For voters of the Greater Dayton area, this 'could be a loss.

The Dayton area probably By giving outsized power to legislative factions, voters here could lose the consider-able clout they have. has never had as much legislative influence as it has now. On the Democratic side, Dayton's state Sen. Neal Zimmers Jr. is second in command in the Senate; Rep.

Ed Orlett has committee power and the close confidence of the House Speaker, Rep. McLin Jr. is a power in his own right. On the Republican side, Rep. Robert Corbin is a respected negotiator with growing influence.

Rather than running the risk of handing more power to a faction over whom there is no local control, Dayton area voters ought to defend traditional majority rule in the legislature where this area's delegation now has authority. If area voters don't like what their legislators are doing, they can vote against them. No politically savvy constituency gambles away its advantage. This area would be wise to say "No" to Issue 2. Letters to the Editor must carry the name and address of the writer and should be under 200 words.

All are subject to condensation. The letters are Individual opinions, and the accuracy of their statements has not been checked by the Daily News. Letters may be phoned in to 225-2290 any time. at this time, pending final state and county level decisions, it appears clear that community mental-health services stand to be substantially reduced if these issues pass. While mental health benefitted only minimally from the l'ew taxes, it is estimated that cuts required if Issue 2 and Issue 3 pass could be severe.

Our board feels that it is very important that we and the public consider the realistic effect of these issues on the people we serve. Mental-health problems know no economic or partisan boundaries. People who need mental-health services do not deserve to be the unintended victims of Ohio's struggle to resolve its taxation issues. We would, therefore, urge you to vote No on Issue 2 and Issue 3. 9 MARSHALL KAPP.

Chairman of the Board, Kettering. 'Don't let them get away with it' chances the average taxpayer has to better his or her standard of living, especially considering Ohio's impending state gasoline tax increase and Dayton's proposed wage tax rate increase, etc. A parting thought for election day: Place your hand on your wallet as you vote, because if you vote the wrong way, you may find little need for it in the future. Passage of Issue 3 Will reduce subsidies by nearly $10 million for Wright State University next fiscal year, according to the Ohio Board of Regents. Such a cut is equivalent to (1) a 35 percent reduction in faculty compensation, (2) a 43 percent increase in student tuition, or (3) an elimination of plant maintenance and intercollegiate athletics.

None of these alternatives is compatible with the continued viability of the university, and the combinations of cutbacks are equally devastating. For this reason, among others, Issue 3 should be soundly defeated. THOMAS J. SERNKA. Beavercreek.

Taxes won't do it i The Ohio bureaucrats would have us think that taxes make Ohio work and that taxes create jobs and provide for a healthy economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only private citizens and companies can make Ohio create jobs and provide a healthy economy through investments and productive activity. If we are taxed excessively we have less capital to do this. Working capital is much better spent in the private sector than being wasted on inefficient, ineffective government programs.

Governments cannot produce wealth, they can only take it from productive elements of society. If the state government is in a bind it should do what every household must do when faced with economic problems. That is, budget and economize. Too bad Ohio citizens cannot double their incomes whenever financial needs arise. In November we will be able to do what the politicians themselves would never do, that is reduce their control over our pocket-books and our actions.

I urge everyone to vote YES on Issue 2 and Issue 3 to repeal the state income tax increase. CASIMER K. SALYS. Centervilie. Trying saving plan Most people are in total support of our schools but don't want anyone creating more giveaway programs just because there are a few extra dollars left and it is typical of our system that if there is something left at the end of one year, in order to get that much the next, we have to find a place for it.

Has anyone ever thought of saving the extra to fight inflation? I will revote a tax back but not on a permanent basis. If we don't need it, let's save it. M. K. JACKSON.

Dayton. Abner Orick's campaign ads are as slippery with the facts as he is. Mr. Orick is as slippery with his positions as he is with his facts. His slide on the residency Issue was merely the most controversial example.

By contrast, incumbent Pat Roach and challenger Mark Henry have been consistent. Both opposed a change in the residency rule even though it hurt their cause among some city employees who might prefer to move out of the city. They are trying to assess the city's financial position and, like the mayor, present it clearly to voters. Daytonians need leaders who are as dependable as they are Independent: Pat Roach and Mark Henry. Issues ould hurt The Board of Trustees of South Community Mental Health Center at its Nov.

1 meeting voted unanimously to take a position in opposition to Issue 2 and Issue 3. Although the impact on our services at the local community level can only be projected Abner Orick, bless his heart, can be a lot of but the con he is trying to pull on Dayton voters through his little ads is transparent. His ads say that "they" want to get Mr. Orick off the commission because "they" want to raise voters' taxes. Concludes the )radio ad, "Don't let them get away with it." Don't let the Orick campaign get by with jft.

The truth is simple: 'They" on the commission or wherever can't raise taxes, the only "theys" who can raise city taxes are Dayton Renewals or increases have to be approved by ballot As for the ad's claim that Mr. Orick asks the "hard questions" and saves tax money, look at the record. -It was Abner Orick who opposed the city-eounty jail merger that will pay for itself in five years and save taxpayers a bundle thereon out. Pat Roach helped lead this money-saving effort It was Abner Orick who opposed the city's Fire Master Plan which was designed to give better fire coverage for less money. Pat Roach took the lead in getting this efficient plan approved.

It was Abner Orick who opposed the cost-saving, streamlining of the police command. It is Abner Orick who, while claiming to ask "hard questions," mostly nitpicks and has the administration spending time and money getting data which he often misuses and misrepresents. Anti-repeal cry is wolf talk KERRY CARLOS. Other endorsements Dayton Wolf, wolf that's what Dick Celeste and his tax forces are yelling. Bunk.

Issue 2 and Issue 3 deserve to pass. About the same time that the 90 percent tax bill was passed, another bill which gives public employees the right to strike also was passed, but with no indication where the money would come from to pay higher wages. Already it is rumored that administrators, department heads and their lieutenants need more money. If they don't raise their salaries first, the flunkies will make more than they do. State employees never strike.

They will get what they want There goes the 90 percent tax increase. Next job, Dick. However schools, city and non-state public employes will strike and I don't have any idea where the money will come from for their demands. Issue 2 which requires 35 majority to pass a tax levy legislation deserves a yes. For a matter of fact 55 would be better yet The best would be a vote by the public on all taxes and legislation that require money to implement Wake up, you don't send money to Columbus and Washington and get it back.

We would do just as well to give our money to a flim-flam man to take to Las Vegas for a bit of roulette. JAMES CRUSE. Piqua. The Daily News recommends a vote on all three state issues on the ballot The choices for Dayton City Commission are Mark Henry and Pat Roach. The picks for the Dayton school board are the incumbents Susan Sibbing, Leo Lucas and Mason Bagwell.

In the contested Kettering council races, veteran councilwoman Norma Keister is the choice for Ward 3, Tom Lessis for Ward 1. Hold your wallet I read with particular interest the recent Dayton Daily News article describing the massive amounts contributed by special-interest groups to defeat Issues 2 and 3. The figures clearly (how the magnitude of future benefits these groups plan to reap in return, benefits which will obviously be financed by the taxpayer. These events leave one to wonder what.