Kingsport News (Newspaper) - January 7, 1977, Kingsport, Tennessee Blanton For Billion Budget NASHVILLE UPI Gov Kay lon asked the Tennessee legislature Thursday night to approve a record billion budget for state government and a stale income tax that could put an tional million bite on taxpayers within the next few years The governor proposed million in additional spending including million to provide teachers and state employees with a 7 per cent pay raise and a million construction program for ways bridges and buildings asked for a increase in drivers license fees a million increase in state funding for the mushrooming program and money to hire 425 additional teachers to lower ratios in the lower grades of public schools Other budget highlights included funds for three additional regional prisons including one previously announced a million bridge building program and million to increase by per student appropriations for textbooks and materials Blanton told the lawmakers that either the present tax base or a graduated in- come tax would support the budget and endorsed a revamped income tax designed to draw support from local governments by providing them with an additional million Although the budget is based on a projected 8.2 per cent revenue growth and maintaining the 4.5 per cent stale sales lax rale said stale could quickly adjust if his lax reform package were The lax reform package would roll the sales tax rale back lo 3 per cent and im- pose a graduated income tax effective Jan money advisors said lax base and the governor's tax reform package would produce the same of money the first year But they acknowledged the switch could increase the tax bite by million to million within the next two or three years The alternative they said is a 12 to IS per cent increase in the sales tax who failed lo gel anywhere with his income lax proposal lasl year again lhal his lax reform package would in facl lower of slale laxes paid by of Once again I am going to fight hammer and tongs and anvil lo see thai people in state pay a just share of the saiu The lax modernization and reform commission has shown us lhal in 1974 a person wilh an income of a year paid an overall lax of 13 per cenl while a person wilh an annual income of paid an overall rale That is not fair In addition lo rolling sales lax rale back lo 3 per cenl reform package would give a credit for the sales lax paid on food from the in- come tax and repeal the stale lax on stocks and bonds I realize it takes lime and much dis- cussion and much for public to understand that my tax reform proposal is not a plan lo dig deeper in the pockets of the working Blanton said On the contrary il would reduce taxes of the majority of our citizens and it would reduce the slale sales lax rale lo 3 per cenl I sincerely believe we are going lo have to go the lax reform roule if we're lo mcel need for essential stale services and keep our budgel balanced We cannol possibly go on relying on sales laxes year afler year The budgel is based on B in slale for fiscal year beginning July 1 up from billion for fiscal year The million highway program includes million for bridge tion million for interstate highways and million for the Appalachia highway system An million for tion of buildings at includes million for education million for conservation million for regional prisons and to build stale safely facilities at Nashville port and Memphis Blanton proposed raising the drivers license fee from to to raise More On Page Col 1 Friday January 7 1977 Year Kingsport Tennessee 37662 Phone 36 Pages 15 Cents AREA LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR NEW TV STATION NASHVILLE The Tri-Cities may have a new educational television station before long if two Upper Easl Tennessee legislators have their way wilh state's new budget Rep Clarence Blackburn and Hep Bob Good City said Thursday they are drafting legislation thai would amend the general appropriations to finance a tional television slation in Johnson Cily lhal would in lo area's only other educational The new slation would be able lo produce local programming in lo carrying Public programs already seen on Channel The would on Channel 41 originally was founded with two sister studios one in Johnson City on the East Tennessee State University campus and the in Knoxville al of Tennessee Since the the studio has been given total control of the Sneedville trans- miller and has limited the Johnson City studio to producing a maximum of three half-hour public vice programs per month Last year the of under which attempted to eliminate the Johnson City operation by cutting it out of the state budget Through the efforts of Blackburn Good and other legislators a appropriation was added to the budgel al the last minute giving the Johnson City studio funds to operate for another year Under legislators proposal the Johnson City stalion would become a full sisler to Knoxville's than its step-child More On Page IDA Col 4 Only the beginning It was only an indication of more to come as snow outlined the branches of this tree Thursday evening highlighting them against the facade of St Luke's Methodist Church on Center St photo Charges Dropped Against 3 As Fails To Show By DAVID OSTERHOUT Staff Writer Several bootleg cases were dismissed Thursday in Kingsport General Sessions Court because the undercover officer who put the evidence together failed to show up believe the agent former Sullivan County Sheriff's Department narcotics investigator Mike Davis has left the state and is somewhere in Virginia They say they don't know why he left nor whether he'll return to prosecute the defendants al the grand jury level The state still has that option Even though it chose not to prosecute the cases in sessions court Thursday the same charges could still be filed by a grand jury If Davis ever reappears So for the moment at least the threat of fines and jail terms has dissipated for three Fred Roberts 1731 Warrick Dn Cecil Ward 516 Burleson St and Benny Frazier 1756 Jared Dr Roberts was charged with selling beer without a license on Sept 24 The same charge was filed against Frazier Ward's charges possession of beer for resale carrying arms sion of a controlled drug selling beer without a license and two counts of selling liquor without a license on Sept 25 In each case Davis allegedly made the alcohol buys with money from the prior sheriffs drug fund Under that administration John Bishop's untruthful uncooperative and apparently inefficient undercover agents cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars with little results Early last year 10 drug cases were dis- missed when an agent failed to show up to prosecute them and then later admitted he had lied to a grand jury In December 1975 25 drug sale cases were dismissed because of untruthful evidence another narc allegedly gave And Davis who worked five months drawing a salary of plus about for expenses each week only made six minor drug buys Davis is the same narcotics agent who was arrested in September at King's Department Store where he worked time as a security guard on two possession of marijuana and carrying arms A spokesman for the sheriff's ment told the court that Davis had both items in his possession as a result of his undercover duties He had picked up the pot from a person he was investigating in connection with drug sales the spokesman The marijuana charge was dismissed hut since the sheriffs department said it inadvertently let his bond elapse the gun charge stuck He was given a suspended jail term on that In late November Davis filed a lawsuit against King's damages inflicted as the result of false arrest false imprisonment malicious prosecution and A trial date on the suit has not been set Carter Ponders Tax Cut Both Ways PLAINS Ga UPI Jimmy Carter said Thursday ho is considering both a permanent and temporary tax reduction in the first stages of his economic recovery program lie and his budget chief also said there would be a deficit of up lo billion inherited from President Ford's budget but little could he done about it Carter certified by Congress Thursday as the president-elect talked with reporters after meeting with his economic advisers He said he would announce the outlines of the package Friday after meeting in Plains with Democratic congressional leaders The president-elect said he was con- a permanent tax reduction which would be compatible with range reform plus the possibility of tax stimulus for only one year He also said that although sive tax reform would take until at next fall ho was considering including one to two small elements for his initial package Only Carter talked to reporters outside his mother's Pond House where the three-hour meeting took place Remaining Indoors were Treasury W Michael Blumenthal Commerce nate Juanita Kreps Labor designate Hay Marshall chief economic adviser Charles and others Carter refused to offer specific figures cither on the total size of the package or on the breakdown between jobs creation which he has said is his first priority and a tax cut We tried to make sure in our sions that we make the temporary or manent stimulus package whatever the More On Page IDA Col 1 Snowfall Spreads Across South U.S By United Press International The third snowstorm of the week churned across the nation Thursday tying traffic into great snarls from Albuquerque to Nashville Kentucky offices closed early and hundreds of schools called off classes in Mississippi Tennessee Kentucky and New Mexico Thunderstorms lashed Southern California Yet another storm boiled up on the border Nashville police counted 75 separate accidents on the streets during a one-hour period Eight school buses ran off the road or were stranded Thirty-seven cars were involved in one pileup on U.S 31 near Louisville The storm caught millions of Tennessee residents and the National Service by surprise II developed so fasl in Memphis lhal forecast was changed between the lime some children left home and the time they arrived for school Some pupils were placed back on their buses as soon as they arrived Others were left stranded when parents dropped them off for classes knowing that classes would be canceled Operation Snow was placed in in ville and Gov Thelma Slovall state workers home in Frankfort Officials of the lucky Bureau of Highways ordered in a new ply of salt sand and other abrasives to prevent a threatened shortage Motorists in New Mexico slipped and skidded to work in up lo six inches of snow Their woes were compounded by a fog that cut sharply on icy highways Many schools and some businesses in and Mexico cilies closed for day Albuquerque's freeway system and In- 40 were closed for a lime Wednesday night The people are just sliding through the inter- a police official said They're nol used lo driving ice Snow hit most of Kansas and Missouri and spread eastward across the Mississippi River inlo Illinois Kansas City put its emergency snow into effect The snow cover at Salina Kan rose to eight inches Five inches fell at Jetmore in southwest Kansas and one northwest Arkansas community received nearly thai much by Snow sleel and freezing rain glazed many Oklahoma highways Some New Mexico ski areas received up lo 25 inches of new snow Buy Buzz Bainbridge of Ski New Mexico was Everybody's in greal shape all of a he said and shiny All schools closed in Mississippi's Alcorn More On Page Col 4 City Woman Charged In Husband's Death Bound To Grand Jury By DAVID OSTERHOUT Staff Writer Elmer Rhca clad only in his underwear was lying face down on the bathroom floor his head against the tiled wall About two feet above the body were three dark spots bullet holes the officers said Near his toilet articles were scattered as if knocked from a shelf By his hand was a can of shaving cream The police photograph introduced Thursday in Kingsport General Sessions Court during the preliminary hearing of his alleged murderer his wife Pauline did not show the fatal wounds Elmer Rhea 44 a Kingsport firefighter died at about Nov 28 from five shots fired from a 9 nun automatic pistol according to a preliminary autopsy report Police feel he was shot at least twice while sprawled on the floor His wife according lo Kingsport Sgl Melvin Doty admitted to firing the fatal shots She was bound lo the grand jury Thursday on a charge of murder Mrs was released shortly after the fairly brief hearing on a bond More On Pace Col 1 As the thermometer fell Kingsport's rain turned to snow day and continued into the night covering the area with another blanket of snow Schools in Sullivan Scott Lee and Hawkins Counties were closed for today by p.m last night Area sheriff's departments reported slick conditions with several accidents curing in Kingsport No injuries were reported City and area road crews were out salting the streets Friday's Weather Travelers advisory continuing through early today with snow ending during the day Accumulations of one to three Inches may be expected Mostly cloudy today and tonight partly cloudy on Saturday High today In the mid 30s low tonight In the low 20s Saturday's high In the upper 30s Winds today southwesterly 5 to 10 miles per hour Possibility of precipitation Is 60 per cent Thursday's high was 39 low Thursday morning was 32 PAULINE RHEA free on bond
