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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1981)
CETA workers lament employment losses By DAWN GARCIA 01 the Emerald More than 70 Eugene residents found the real mean ing of federal budget surgery this month when their jobs dis appeared — some with only two weeks notification. These workers, along with thousands of others across the country, were employed under the Comprehensive Em ployment and Training Act, a $3.7 billion-a-year federal pro gram founded in 1973. CETA was designed to help train people for jobs in the private sector. The program has been help ing support many private, non profit agencies in Lane County by paying the salaries of some of their employees. CETA saw the beginning of the end when one category of CETA workers was terminated on March 31. Another group will follow on April 15. "I was real angry about this,” says Gail Weimer, crisis pro gram manager at the Rape Cri sis Network in Eugene, one of the many private, non-profit agencies affected by the CETA cuts. "We had only two weeks notice we were going to lose our jobs.” Weimer was one of six CETA workers at RCN. Unlike the others, Weimer will continue Non-profit organizations take brunt of federal budget cuts working because the agency is scraping together enough mon ey to pay her part-time salary. “Somebody needs to do the job,” Weimer says of her work coordinating the agency’s 35 volunteers. “Especially in such stressful situations.” Another CETA worker, who was in charge of a community education program at RCN, was on welfare before getting her CETA position last January. Now that her CETA job is cut, she says she is forced to go back on welfare. "It's ludicrous,” she says. “It’s the lower-income people and students who are being hurt. It doesn’t look like pro gress to me.” A 30-year-old sociology graduate of the University and mother of two, she says welfare is the only way she can support her two children with the tight job situation in Eugene. But she doesn’t like having to be a “welfare mother." "With all the connotations, it's really hard being a welfare recipient. I have a college de gree, I’m intelligent, I have tons of energy. It’s not like I just want to hang out.’ ’’ “With the CETA job, I was a real person for a while," she says. ‘‘On welfare, you don’t feel like a real person." The drop in her income doesn't help those frustrated feelings. "I was getting $580 per month with my CETA job, and now I am supporting myself and my kids on $320 per month." "I wrote home telling my par ents I’d been dropped to $320 per month, and they said, ‘You must mean $320 per week.' ” Eugene’s job market doesn't look much better than CETA’s, according to officials in the Eugene employment office. Lane County’s unemployment rate of 11 percent is traditionally higher than the 7-percent state or 6-percent national figures, but the rate hasn’t dropped as it usually does at certain times of the year. "We re not expecting things to improve, and we have 5,000 people collecting unem ployment in Lane County every week," says John Moore, man ager of the Eugene employment office. “The CETA cuts are go ng to effect us badly, and we are anticipating stringent cuts in regular jobs in Eugene also.” There is hope for the future of the Rape Crisis Network, how ever, if it can hang on until the beginning of the fiscal year in July. Weimer expects to get some revenue-sharing funds and state mental-health money. Grant backlog holds up aid distribution By GABRIEL BOEHMER Of lh« Emerald University students should be notified of their 1981-82 finan cial aid awards by May 1, ac cording to Ed Vignoul, Univer sity student financial aid direc tor. But only if the Department of Education is able to process its backlog of 2 million financial aid applications this month. Vignoul says his staff will work the April 25-26 weekend to process students’ applications if the education department sends his office a list of the University’s financial aid ap plicants. The education department’s backlog resulted from a dispute in Congress over the Reagan Administration's proposed cuts in the Basic Educational Op portunity Grant program. The outcome was a $600-million cut from the grant program, Vignoul says. The students with the "greatest" need will get full support, while students alloted smaller grants will receive less money. Vignoul estimates University students will receive $300,000-$500,000 less in basic grants next academic year. But the student financial aid office will attempt to compensate ap plicants who are denied basic grants with other forms of aid, Vignoul says. Still, he only can guess how much aid the University will have to give students until the federal budget is completed. "All the information we have now is garbage," Vignoul says. Vignoul estimates financial need for 4,550 University students at $15.8 million. But he says the student financial aid office only has $14.1 million. Who will that more than $1 million disparity affect? Student financial aid will not be cut across the board, but some students may be cut off entirely, Vignoul says. The student financial aid office’s policy is to meet the students’ needs entirely or not at all. In reality, the University can award students only about $9 million in financial aid, but Vig noul estimates 25 percent of the students receiving aid will not accept the University’s offer. Vignouls says his office over commits aid in each financial aid program, counting on attri tion of a portion of the ap plicants. Although this uncertain for mula results in some students getting different kinds of aid than they requested, Vignoul says the books always balance in the end. ‘ I’ve been guessing right for 12 years,” he says. Student financial aid reduc tions may result in more student applications for University Internal Revenue Service wants federal returns mailed by midnight WASHINGTON (AP)-The final countdown is under way for Americans to file their 1980 federal individual income tax returns with the Internal Reven ue Service. The deadlline is midnight to night. The IRS expects about 13 million tax returns in the last week of the filing season. It es timates about 94 million returns will be filed this year. Most large post offices that provide 24-hour service are ex pected to accept tax returns up to the deadline and affix a post mark so that it meets the dead line, says Jeanne O’Neill, media relations officer with the Postal Service. For those who can’t meet the deadline, the IRS provides a two-month automatic exten sion, to June 15, with the filing of Form 4868, “Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U S. Individual Tax Re turns’’ That should be filed by midnight tonight along with a check for at least 90 percent of the estimated taxes owed If a taxpayer owes more than 10 percent of his or her taxes when the completed return is filed, the IRS can levy an “un derestimated tax penalty" and possibly a late filing penalty of 5 percent for each month it is overdue, says IRS spokes woman Ellen Murphy. Extensions are not given to taxpayers filing the single-page 1040A short form or those who want the IRS to compute their taxes. The IRS also has advice for those who have completed their returns but do not now have the money to pay their tax liabilities: Mail the return by midnight tonight and include any amount possible. Also enclose a letter telling the tax agency you don’t have all the money now. The IRS CASH For Textbooks Mon.-Fri. Smith Family Bookstore 768 E. 13th 1 Bl. From Campus Ph. 34S-1651 scholarships, says University assistant admissions director Maryan Anderson. University scholarships are divided into two groups — those based on need and those in dependent of need. The scholarships range from $300 to $3,300 for an academic year. Although University admis sions are 8 percent higher now than last year, Anderson says financial-aid cutbacks could af feet future enrollment. University enrollment relies heavily on out-of-state students who are faced with much higher tuition than resident students. But because of rising out-of state tuition, the admissions of fice may have to concentrate harder on recruiting Oregon re sidents, she says. “Costs will force folks to look closer to home,” for a college education, Anderson says. jo.mu Fishbowl DELI located in the Fishbowl Peppered Beef Ham Raft Salami Pastrami (turkey) Salami (turkey) Ham Stick (turkey) Ham (turkey) BREADS Cracked Wheat Onion Rolls Light & Dark Rye Wheat Berry CHEESES • Cheddar • Provalone • Swiss • Jack SALADS • Bean • Macaroni • Potato • Cole Slaw BAGELS Make your own sandwiches from a variety of meats and cheeses, salads available too Open 11-7 Mon-Sat 12-6 Sun Page 7 Section A
