Music Conference
Under way
See Page 8
Oregon daily
emerald
Thursday, July 12, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 8
Students skeptical of federal legislation
By Mike Sims
Of the Emerald
Pres. Ronald Reagan’s call for legisla
tion withholding federal highway funds
from states with minumum legal drink
ing ages below 21 years has been
answered by Congress.
HR 4616 witholds 5 percent of a state’s
highway construction money if it does
not enact a minimum drinking age of 21
by Oct. 1, 1986. This penalty will in
crease by 5 percent in 1988. The bill is
now in the president’s hands, awaiting
his signature.
And University student Bill Snyder
says that when the bill is signed, there
will be “some screaming and hollering’’
from the United States Student Associa
tion. Snyder, who is the national
veterans’ representative to the USSA. ex
pects the issue to surface at the USSA
convention, Aug. 4-9 at the University.
“Eighteen-year-olds can drink
anyway, regardless of the law,” Snyder
says. “All this law will do is create legal
hassles and clog our courtrooms.”
Snyder also asserts that holding back
highway money from states will not hurt
the 18-to-20-year-olds of those states as
much as it will prove a detriment to com
merce and industry through poorly
maintained roads.
HR 4616 will have no effect on
Oregon, one of 23 states with a minimum
legal drinking age of 21. Oregon has for
bidden the sale of alcholic beverages to
persons below that age since the repeal
of Prohibition in 1933.
However, Snyder says statistics show
that Oregonians under the age of 21 suf
fer most of the state’s traffic fatalities,
despite the state’s higher legal drinking
age.
Snyder also sees the bill as an attempt
to appease conservative voters. “If you
can’t get an abortion bill through Con
gress, you can still keep conservatives
and fundamentalists happy by socking it
to 18-through-20-year-olds, ” he
explains.
Snyder, who will represent veterans at
the USSA convention, says he expects a
resolution opposing HR 4616 to be in
troduced at the meeting.
Katherine Ozer, USSA legislative
director, said last week that the associa
tion believes that there are better alter
natives to dealing with alcohol abuse
than what she calls a “Band-Aid” ap
proach of raising the legal drinking age.
Some of those alternatives include
alcohol awareness programs, tougher en
forcement of existing laws prohibiting
the sale of alcohol to minors, and the
elimination of plea bargaining for drunk
driving offenses. Ozer’s remarks ap
peared in the July 5 issue of The Chroni
cle for Higher Education.
ASUO Pres. Julie Davis says that she
has no basic objection to a minimum
drinking age of 21 — “Alcohol abuse is
definitely a problem in our society
today.”
But Davis says she considers it strange
that a person can be drafted into the arm
ed forces and sent to war “at the ripe
old-age of 18,” yet cannot buy a glass of
beer.
State may repeal tax
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
Gov. Vic Atiyeh announced Tuesday he will call
a special leglistative session to repeal the state’s
unitary method of taxing corporations, but no dates
for the session have been set.
Both Senate Pres. Ed Fadeley, D-Eugene, and
House Speaker Grattan Kerans, D-Eugene, have
assured the governor that the votes are there to pass
the measure. But the special session will be limited
to dealing with the unitary tax and the dispute bet
ween Washington and Oregon over taxing of non
residents working in the state.
The governor has proposed changing the tax
method to what is called the “federal base ap
proach.” A corporation’s income for tax purposes
would be based on federal income figures, and in
come of foreign subsidaries would not be considered
in determining tax liability.
"It does not mean that any specific corporation
would have higher or lower taxes,” says Jim Scherz
inger, legislative revenue officer. “But generally it
would mean lower taxes for most corporations.”
Repeal of the unitary method will encourage
both foreign and domestic corporations to invest in
Oregon, thus creating jobs for Oregonians, says Den
ny Miles, the governor’s press secretary.
The unitary system “is not a tax at all,” says Gil
Wright of the state Economic Development Commis
sion, but a complex accounting formula to deter
mine a corporation’s tax liability in Oregon.
Essentially, the unitary method takes into ac
count a corporation’s worldwide activities, using a
formula that considers the company’s property,
payroll and sales. The method uses these three fac
tors to determine the proportion of the company’s
activities in Oregon compared to its worldwide
activities.
“What it does is even out the whole thing, ’ ’ says
Gary Mollgaard, auditor for the state Revenue
Department.
The method also considers groups of related
companies, such as corporations with an overlapp
ing directorship or a parent company and its sub
sidiaries, as a single unit.
“It’s a very complex tax,” says Miles. Though
originally designed to prevent corporations from
manipulating their bookkeeping to ensure a
favorable tax rate, many corporations have said they
will not locate in states with such a system.
The change in tax accounting will cause a yet
undetermined drop in state revenues in the short
run, but in the long run it will increase income and
create jobs as more companies locate in Oregon,
Miles says.
In the short run, a drop in state revenues may be
offset by increased business by companies who may
perceive the change in the tax system as an indica
tion that Oregon is taking a more pro-business
stance, Miles says.
“There are people making decisions right now
for plant locations,” he says. “And they are not go
ing to wait until January.”
Country Fair has blossomed
This year’s Oregon Country Fair will showcase 300
food and crafts booths, continuous entertainment on
eight stages, and an exhibition of renewable energy
sources called the Energy Park.
Meanwhile, The Community Village, a gathering
place for givers and receivers of various services
munity school. In spring of 1970, the fair moved to it’s
current location and attracted a “totally unexpected”
6,000 people, says Barbara Stern, the fair’s publicity
coordinator.
Attendance at the fair has grown to 20,000 for the
three day period. In 1982 the fair organizers purchased
Emerald photo
A juggler is just one type of entertainment fairgoers are sure to spot at the Oregon Country Fair this weekend.
available in the community, debuts this year.
The fair, which starts Friday and will run through
Sunday, is located on Highway 126 just west of Elmira.
Free buses to the fair will leave the Eugene Mall
every half hour beginning at 10:15 a.m., and return
trips will run until about 8 p.m.
Entertainment begins Friday at noon and will run
continuously. Featured artists include folk musicians
Bryan Bowers and Utah Phillips, the Flying Karamozov
Brothers, jazz pianist Scott Cossu, as well as a variety of
local acts.
Bowers will perform Saturday at 3 p.m. On Sun
day, Cossu will perform at 1 p.m. and Phillips will per
form at 2 p.m. The Karamozov Brothers will perform as
part of the fair’s circus at noon and 3 p.m. each day.
The fair originated in 1969 as the “Renaissance
Pleasure Fair,’’ staged as a benefit for a children’s com
the site, allowing the fairgrounds to be improved and
used for other entertainment throughout the year.
“When I first started my involvement in the fair, in
1977, we had three stages for entertainment. Now there
are eight,’’ says Stern. “Most of the entertainment at
that time was just your local folks. Then, we started get
ting interest from some of the national recording artists.
“Anyone who enjoys spending time outside the ci
ty, anyone who enjoys seeing crafts and arts, anyone
who likes to taste a variety of exotic foods that are
prepared, and anyone who is interested in folk, jazz,
rock, blues . . . music” will enjoy the fair, says Stern.
The fair is open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Admis
sion is $4 on Friday and $5 on Saturday and Sunday.
Children under 14 may enter for free and those 55 or
older may enter for half price.
For more information, call 345-1163.