Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - January 9, 1977, Waterloo, Iowa Sunday January 9 1977 Waterloo Iowa 86 pages sections 35 cents New look old problems as legislature convenes By BOB CASE Courier Staff Writer DES Iowa General Assembly convenes Monday with at least a partial new look a potentially explosive new issue and some of the same old problems Highlights of the first week will be two appearances by Gov Robert Ray before joint sessions of the House and Senate The governor will deliver his annual state of the state message Tuesday and present his proposed budget for the two- year period starting July 1 Friday THE REST of the week will be devoted mainly to organizational activities Topping virtually every priority list is an old legislative property taxes It is an issue which occupied a great deal of the legislature's time in 1976 but the question of how to keep property taxes from skyrocketing and still provide quate funding for local government re- mains unresolved The new issue also relates to the state's corporate income tax law Polk County District Judge Anthony Critelli last ruled the tax un- constitutional ONLY IOWA taxes corporate income solely on the basis of sales within the state so-called single-factor method Other states use the three-factor method averaging in payroll and ty in addition to sales There was fear the ruling left the state without a corporate income tax but Critelli ruled Friday only the portion dealing with gross sales in the state is unconstitutional His new ruling allows the state revenue director to decide how to tax corporations net sales in the state and out-of-state corporations are expected to push for a three-factor method THE STATE will continue to appeal to the state Supreme Court about the ruling on the earlier suit brought by an Illinois manufacturer The question before the legislature be whether to wait for the Supreme Court to decide or to move immediately to revise the The decision adds impetus to the con- by many Democrats that Iowa should adopt the three-factor move opposed in the past by the governor and Republican lawmakers Tied in with the property tax question this year is a concerted move by the League of Iowa Municipalities for local option taxation The league insists cities and Bounties must have an alternative source of re- venue as a partial replacement for perty taxes ALSO AFTER additional state funding are local school districts and city and county governments Hit by inflation and declining Your Iowa legislators 5 Ray Taylor R-Stearaboat Rock 7 Milo Merritt 8 Rolf Craft 9 Dale L Tieden 16 James Gallagher 17 Fred W Nolting 18 Willard R Hansen Falls 19 Clifford E Burroughs 20 Elizabeth R Miller 36 Joan Orr House 9 Delwyn Stromer 10 Richard Welden Falls 13 Rollin K Howell 14 William B Griffee 15 Donald D Avenson 16 Semor C Tofte 17 Roger Halvorson 18 Terry Dyrland 31 Russell L Wyckoff 32 Kenneth D Miller 33 Henry C 34 Albert 35 Diane Brandt Falls Mary O'Halloran Falls 37 Ray 38 Cooper Evans Center 40 James West Center 71 Emil Husak Keep in touch By mail or telephone it's easy to communicate with your representative and senator while the Iowa Legislature is in session Address him or her at the Statehouse Des Moines Iowa 50319 To reach a senator by telephone call 515 For a representative the number is 515 ment most school districts are facing severe financial problems and their budget growth is restricted by the state's school aid formula Some officials led by State Comptroller Marvin Selden believe the state also is facing serious financial problems two or three years down the road despite a healthy treasury balance of some million at the end of the last fiscal year June 30 Selden predicts the balance will be See LEGISLATURE Continued on page 2 col 3 THE POft WANTS TO SLEEP AT WHEN THE STACKS UP IN THE WITHIN WHEN EVEN YOUR SNOWMOBILE WONT STAAT WHEN FEELS WARM Pilot project proposed Consider recycling garbage city asked By DAVE BROWN Assistant City Editor Bruce Bottorff wants the city to spend to grind garbage into little chunks and he's convinced it wouldn't be money down the drain Bottorff superintendent of the Waterloo Water Pollution Control Plant at 3500 Easton Ave is proposing to begin a miniature program as a pilot project The would be used to buy a grinder and other equipment to get the project underway IF THE experiment is successful he says it could set the stage for a city decision on whether to get into waste recycling in a large way Even the small pilot project he has in mind should save the city money in two ways he says They saving of as much as per year in county landfill fees potential sale of a by-product methane gas to Iowa Public Service Co request for the extra is in the proposed budget for fiscal 78 now being considered as the city budget is put together The grinder he wants to purchase would cost about It has carbon steel teeth and chews up garbage even 2 by 4 lumber and nylon carpeting into quarter inch chunks THE CHOPPED garbage would then be fed into the six digesters where methane is generated The final end duct sludge is taken away and spread on the ground If his request is retained in the budget experiment would affect only one neighborhood in Waterloo perhaps 30 to 40 households These residents would have to teer to separate their refuse into organic and materials The organic wastes including paper would go through the pollution control plant grinder The waste such as glass plastic and metal would still be taken to the county landfill In the Botorff says I'd probably have to pick it up myself He says he doesn't foresee many in getting residents of a neighborhood to volunteer for the project I THINK people would like to get involved with recycling But if they think it's too much of a hassle we'd have to look at it the project again Bottorff says the experiment is feasible because his digesters usually operate at about 35 per cent of capacity The percentage of capacity rises during periods of peak use Plus the addition of two new digesters in 1970 gave the plant the estimated capacity to handle the city's wastes as far in the future as 1990 he says He believes the pollution control plant could handle up to three garbage truckloads of organic waste per week He points out that if that capacity were reached it would amount to a saving to the city of approximately per truckload per week what it would cost to dump it at the landfill That adds up to a landfill fee savings of per year TOE OTHER plus is that the added waste would produce more methane The pollution control plant uses methane it produces to heat all its ings and operate all its engines and two boilers Any excess has been sold to the Iowa Public Service Co which has a direct line to the plant The plant produces so much methane Bottorff says that We haven't bought any natural gas for the past five years But the plant uses so much of the gas sales to IPS have been spotty We haven't sold any since September 1975 Bottorff says he projected the city would realize from the sale of methane in a figure that may not be reached METHANE production has been down because Rath Packing Co which duces many of the solid wastes best turned into methane has been operating at less than full production But Rath is operating at higher tion levels now because of a better supply of hogs and methane production should rise again IPS pays the city the going rate for natural gas for its methane The price is currently per million British Thermal Units of methane In October of 1971 the plant sold million to At that time the price was about per million and the city netted That amount sold at today's prices would have netted the city just under And Bottorff notes that a few years the city sold about million in one month I'M CERTAIN in a year's time we could pay off the pump torff believes You're never going to make he says of the recycling project you're just going to offset some of your costs He also warns If it works in one city it may not work here Although it looks good on paper it's still more of an art than a science and I think engineers would tell you that If experiment is approved and he can arrange for the neighborhood volunteers here's what would happen to their organic It would be picked up taken to the pollution control plant and put down some type of hopper Then it would enter a pipe and be forced through the grinder into one of digesters A DIGESTER is basically a Bottorff says which operates at ranging from 90 to 118 degrees It creates an atmosphere for methane producing bacteria to live It's a natural reaction but we're controlling it in a tank The methane is pumped out of the digesters either for use by the pollution control plant or if there is enough into the IPS pipeline the city has had to wrestle with tight budgets in recent years torff says Mayor Leo Rooff was interested in the pilot project when he first proposed it about a year ago 1 told him I would ask for it at budget hearing time This could be a viable alternative to waste disposal It is worth trying I think Today's Quick Comment TIS THE season to clean up your driving act In this slushy and sloppy time of year motorists should be sure headlights and taillights are kept clean It's easy for street slush to put a grimy coating on lenses sometimes making it almost impossible for other drivers to see brake and turn signal lights And if when driving at night you've had the ing that your eyes are going bad look probably just dirty headlights So clean up Inside Are no return no deposit beverage containers on the way See page 17 Weather Continued very cold Monday with highs zero to five above Complete weather on page 2 Capitol quips There's a type of modern music called Punk Rock in case know there was any other kind
