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Oregon daily
emerald
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 26
Monday, October 10, 1983
'The time has come:' Watt resigns post
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary
James Watt, embattled for nearly three
weeks over his remark about a federal ad
visory panel, resigned Sunday but will re
main in office until Pres. Ronald Reagan
names his successor.
Watt made the announcement in a cow
pasture at a ranch where he has been vaca
tioning near Santa Barbara, Calif., telling
reporters "the time has come" to step
down.
Reagan accepted the resignation with
reluctance and said Watt had done "an
outstanding job as a member of my Cabinet
and in his stewardship of the natural
resources of the nation."
He said Watt "has initiated a careful
balance between the needs of people and
the importance of protecting the environ
ment. His dedication to public service and
his accomplishments as secretary of the in
terior will long be remembered."
Reagan said Watt informed him of his
decision to resign during a telephone call
shortly after 5 p.m. EDT.
Watt said he resigned because "our
usefulness.. has come to an end." His let
ter of resignation was hand-delivered to the
president at 6 p.m. EDT.
There was no immediate word on Watt's
successor. But White House aides have said
for the past several days that candidates in
cluded former Sen. Clifford Hansen, R
Wyoming; J.J. Simmons, a black Democrat,
who works at Interior; and Energy Secretary
Donald Hodel, a former Interior Depart
ment official.
See related story Page 3
The controversy was touched off Sept. 21
when Watt told a Chamber of Commerce
breakfast that an Interior Department ad
visory committee contained a "a black .. .a
women, two Jews and a cripple.”
The remark prompted several Republican
senators to demand his resignation and led
Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd,
D-W.Va., to propose a formal resolution
calling for Watt to resign.
As recently as last Wednesday, Reagan
was defending Watt, declaring that his
statement was a "stupid" remark but was
not an impeachable offense.
Legislator says higher ed
needs sales tax revenue
By Doug. Nash
Of the Emerald
A local legislator is criticizing his col
leagues for not improving higher education
funding through the sales tax proposal, a
proposal he says is doomed to failure
anyway.
State Rep. Carl Hosticka, D-Eugene, says
legislators singled out higher education as
an area that would not receive additional
funding from the 4 percent tax plan.
"The sales tax proposal is specifically
designed to make sure that no sales tax
money goes to higher education," says
Hostica, a University public affairs pro
fessor who serves on the House Revenue
Committee .
Included in the resolution are two sec
tions that would make it impossible for
higher education to benefit from the plan,
he says. One section stipulates that "Ap
propriations to the Basic School Support
Fund or for community college aid for the
1985-87 biennium shall not exceed the ap
propriations for the 1983-85 biennium."
The second section says any excess
money received by the tax "shall be applied
to reduce income tax rates proportionally in
the 1985-87 biennium."
Hosticka says a strong lobbying effort by
the business community prevented the ex
cess funds from going to higher education.
The sales tax proposal is
specifically designed to
make sure that no sales tax
money goes to higher
education. The students
aren't going to get any
relief'
— Carl Hosticka
"They claim that our income tax inhibits
business in the state," he says.
In addition, Hosticka says many students
will not receive the designed benefit of the
sales tax — property tax relief, which is
available only to renters and property
owners.
"The students aren’t going to get any
relief. You're not defined as a renter in a
dormitory."
Carl Hosticka
In general, Hosticka says legislators miss
ed an opportunity to use the sales tax to
solve the higher education funding pro
blem, which he defines as a competition for
resources between higher education and
elementary and secondary schools. Very
few legislators are as politically connected
to state universities and colleges as they are
to their local school districts, he adds.
"Either you should expand the sources of
revenue for higher education or come up
with some exclusive funding source for K
thru 12 (elementary and secondary educa
tion) that doesn't compete," Hosticka says.
"Politically, when higher education and K
through 12 get into conflict, higher educa
tion suffers."
Hosticka says he voted for the sales tax,
but only because he believes the final deci
sion should be left to the voters. Ideally, he
like to see a "menu approach" to the pro
blem, in which the public is confronted
with a number of tax alternatives. One of
those alternatives is a "more progressive"
income tax plan proposed by Hosticka and
Sen. Margie Hendrickson, D-Eugene, that
would add more tax brackets at the upper
end of the income scale.
"I said, 'Why put all your eggs in the sales
tax basket?' They're not going to accept it."
Hosticka says voters may be turned off by
the $1 million the legislature allotted to
publicize the plan.
"I would predict that the amount of
money that might be spent to promote it
could backfire."
But Watt's support continued to
deteriorate in the Republican-controlled
Senate. Majority Leader Howard Baker, R
Tenn., said he could not prevent a vote on
Byrd's resolution. Most observers expected
it to pass easily in what would have been a
humiliating repudiation of one of Reagan's
cabinet officials.
Watt, public enemy No. 1 to the en
vironmentalists, was also in many respects
their best ally. In the two and a half years
since he took office, they have seen their
membership roles swell as the issues of
concern to them were debated as never
before in the news media.
As Watt's decision to quit drew nearer,
several environmentalists said they would
not celebrate his departure.
“I will be sorry to see |im Watt go," said
Russell Peterson, president of the National
Audubon Society. "It is likely that Reagan
will replace Watt with a more subtle interior
secretary who could do more damage in a
shorter time."
Peterson said that Reagan "is the real
James Watt."
"Watt was hired by the president to lead
an ideological crusade to weaken en
vironmental regulations and to transfer
public lands and other public resources in
to private hands/' he said.
Some environmentalists saw Watt as such
a political liability to the Reagan administra
tion that they believed his remaining in the
Cabinet would make it easier to defeat anti
environmental Republican congressional
candidates in 1984.
When leaders of 10 environmental
groups met in Washington last week to plot
strategy, there was open debate over
whether Watt should resign.
They also said recent congressional votes
to slap a moratorium on Watt's coal leasing
program and impose restrictions on his off
shore oil and gas leasing activities showed
he had been rendered ineffective.
"He is sitting there as a political liability
with no power," said Rafe Pomerance,
president of Friends of the Earth.
However, Pomerance and other en
vironmental leaders decided they would
work to get Watt out of office, doing most
of it quietly to prevent a backlash from con
servative supporters.
The final touches
The finishing dabs of paint were put on the new mural at the Wesley
Center during the Fiesta de la Paz. Painted by Chilean artist Poncho Letelier
and Nicaraguan artist Alegandro Canales, the mural's message is one of
peace from the people of Central and South America to the people of
Eugene, according to Stuart Shaw, the United Methodist campus minister.
Photo by Dave Kao