Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 52

Thursday, May 22, 1980 THE BAXTER BULLETIN Page 2 Section Gov. Clinion opposed again by elderly farmer hydroelectric plants should be built on 1' 1 'i BILL CLINTON MON ROE SCHW ARZLOSE Bill Clinton, 33, is serving his first term as Arkansas governor, and previously served a two-year term as attorney general of Arkansas. He is a former law professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and also taught a course in New Haven, for police officers. He is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in international relations, and he is a graduate of Yale Law School. He was a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at Oxford University in England, he was an employee of former U.S.

Senator J. William Fulbright, and he was President Carter's campaign chairman in Arkansas in 1976. ISSUES DISCUSSED: On a recent appearance in Mountain Home, Gov. Clinton listed several accomplishments of his administration for Twin Lakes Area audiences, TAXES: Gov. Clinton said he had worked for two years to find a way to keep the Arkansas Supreme Court-mandated property tax reappraisal from bringing explosive tax increases for Arkansans, and he said voters will have a chance in November to approve of one method to keep property taxes from skyrocketing as a result of the court decision.

He recommended that voters evaluate the amendment put forth by the legislature, called SJR-1; and the Constitutional Convention's proposal which is not yet final, and back one of those to control property tax increases. He said to help the elderly in the state, the Homestead Property Tax Exemption was extended last year. It provides an income tax credit to elderly persons who own and reside in their own homes. UTILITIES: The governor said he had worked with Arkansas Power and Light Company to begin a program, among the first in the nation, that will let Arkansans finance home improvements for energy savings with interest-free loans through the utility. He said, too, that the legislation passed in a special session of the General Assembly this year would make sure that ratepayers are not penalized when the state's Public Service Commission fails to rule on a rate request by a utility within a specified length of time.

The state has a "very active weatherization" program, he told area residents. HOUSING: The governor said the state had made housing available to working people of Arkansans by selling bonds. He said the state was trying to get $600 million in additional bond money the Arkansas River both to provide immediate employment for Arkansans, and to provide a new source of electricity. "It is lucky for Arkansas that Sens. McClelland and Kerr got the locks and dams of the Arkansas River, but they should have gone ahead and gotten hydroelectric plants, too.

That would give us ample electricity, and help get industry and conserve gasoline and oil." Schwarzlose envisions a future with electric cars manufactured in the state and driven by Arkansans to work, where the cars could be plugged in for recharging, then driven home. "That's another reason I want cheap electricity," he said. He believes the state should encourage the use of solar energy in homes by giving tax credits, and he says he is afraid of nuclear power "until we find a method to dispose of that waste." He says nuclear plants are targets for attack, and that the wastes are dangerous. ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENT: Schwarzlose believes "There isn't a state in the union with the potential of Arkansas," and says if he were elected governor, "I intend to get the top industry leaders" to work for him, and put Arkansas in the right perspective. WOOD: Schwarzlose says he has "the most famous woodpile in Arkansas" stemming from an advertisement he purchased in his home county newspaper that compared the price of a pile of wood he cut $20) to the price of three cords of wood cut with federal grants in the shortlived SAWER program The SAWER program was funded to teach unemployed persons how to cut wood, and to make the wood available to low-income persons.

Administrative problems caused the termination of the program at the state level in April after $62,000 had been spent and three cords of wood cut. Schwarzlose said that even though Gov. Clinton ordered the program terminated, "He is responsible for it. If you want to keep a tight rein on the people's money, you ought not to get involved with federal programs." GIFT TO SHERIFFS Schwarzlose announced early this spring that he is willing his farm to the Arkansas Sheriffs' Boys and Girls Ranches and if he is elected governor, the land he owns in Cleveland County will go immediately to the Sheriffs' Ranch organization that provides homes for homeless children in the state. authorized so that 10,000 more units of housing could be financed in Arkansas.

JOBS: The governor said there had been 13,000 jobs created through industrial development in the past year, an increase of 66 percent over the previous year, and he said the state's foreign trade office is actively seeking to market Arkansas-made products abroad now. TOURISM: Gov. Clinton allocated $50,000 in his discretionary emergency funds to kick off a new travel campaign for Arkansans in Arkansas for this summer. ECONOMY: Gov. Clinton said here that he did not favor using high interest rates to control inflation, since that hurts small businesses and farmers who must operate on credit.

He said he preferred controlling inflation by restricting the money supply and trying to reduce indebtedness. CAR LICENSE FEES: The governor defended the state Highway Department's package passed by the legislature last year, which he supported, to raise driver's license fees and automobile title transfer fees to provide funds for state roads. He said he would push for a change in the way fees are figured for licenses, though, so that the fee is charged according to the value of the automobile, not just on its size, as is now the case. ADMINISTRATION: In answering charges from his opponent that he has increased the size of his staff 50 percent, Gov. Clinton has said that the only increase of employees paid by the state are 10 employees in the new Washington office of the governor.

Outside of those positions, Gov. Clinton says his staff is actually smaller than former Gov. David Pryor's. The governor also said here that out of every $1 of state revenues, eight cents goes for administrative expenditures in his administration. Schwarzlose BACKGROUND: Schwarzlose is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor for the second time.

He ran unsuccessfully in 1978, also against Bill Clinton. He is 77, and a retired farmer who lives in Kingsland (Cleveland County). Schwarzlose said his interest in politics, "and all the ills of the state" drew him into the gubernatorial race. ISSUES DISCUSSED: Economy in government: Schwarzlose stated that Gov. Clinton "doesn't know the value of a dollar" and he criticized his allocation of $20 million in a special legislative session this year for state universities.

The candidate says money should be spent to "get people jobs" in this time of economic depression. ENERGY: The candidate says new Lieutenant governor's job draws six contenders ISSUES DISCUSSED: "I think there is one important factor to consider in this race. The factor I'm talking about is experience in government. I have about 12 years' experience at the local, state and federal levels of government. "When I ran for secretary of state, I promised to make that office open, ao-cesible and responsive.

I believe that my record indicates that Iupheld that promise. "Inflation is double digit we don't know whether or not it's going to go up before it comes down. Interest rates are at an historic high in this state since the adoption of the 1874 Constitution. In South Arkansas and West Arkansas the timber industry is down. We have unemployment in this state and it's rising.

Yet, up until a week or two ago, the federal government apparently did not know because they officially informed us we're in a recession. They had the gall to tell us something we've already known for a number of months. "One of the problems is spending and spending and spending. And some people BACKGROUND: Winston Brvant. Bryant, 41, a native of Donaldson, served as Arkansas secretary of state from 1976 through 1978.

He has a business degree from Ouachita Baptist University and law degrees from the University of Arkansas and George Washington University at Washington, D.C. He has been an attorney since 1963. He served in the U. S. Army infantry from 1963 through 1965.

He was the Arkansas Insurance Commission attorney in 1966 and became assistant U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 1967. From 1968 through 1971, Bryant was a legislative assistant to Sen. John L.

McClellan. He was deputy prosecuting attorney of Hot Spring County and a part-time political science instructor at Ouachita from 1971 to 1973. He became a part-time instructor at Henderson State University from 1973 until 1975. He was elected state representative for Hot Spring County for two terms from 1973 through 1976. In 1976 he was elected secretary of state.

In 1978, Bryant served as a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. say well, what in the world can you do in the office of lieutenant governor to combat inflation? That's a good question. What can you do in any office? The federal offices haven't dealt with the problem. What we need is candidates for every office, whether it be at the local level or federal level or the state level who will do what they can in the position they're in to combat inflation, to try to turn our economic situation around. Because if you really analyze it, unless we get our economic mess turned around in this country, all the other issues are going to be secondary anyway.

"I have a record regarding fiscal responsibility. As secretary of state, I returned $218,000 to the Arkansas treasury. I think that speaks for itself. As a member of the Arkansas Constitutional Convention, I sponsored a measure you'll on this November that will prohibit deficit spending by the state. We've had statutory provisions prohibiting deficit spending in Arkansas for a number of years.

If the constitution passes, my provision will make it a constitutional provision and future legislatures will have to abide by that. "These are some of the things I want (voters) to consider. I want them to take all six candidates in the Democratic primary, stack the candidates side by side, go over their qualifications, their experience, their record and make a decision on who they think will best serve them in the office of lieutenant governor. "Because, after all, when you boil politics or any other public office down to its simplest terms, you're talking about service." John Giller BACKGROUND: Dr. John Giller.

Giller, 41, a graduate of the University of Arkansas Medical School and a delegate to the 1979 Arkansas Constitutional Convention where he was chairman of the finance and taxation committee. He is a native of El Dorado, a real estate broker, bank director and colonel in the U. S. Air Force Reserve. He has served on the El Dorado Airport Commission (Continued on next page.).