Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - December 4, 1996, Waterloo, Iowa Special Section Check out the new gift guide for holiday shopping ideas Metro Deere worker dies from injuries sustained in foundry blast Page Cl WATERLOO CEDAR FALLS Sports New faces spark Iowa past Drake Page Bl 50 cents 54 pages 7 sections Wednesday December 41996 Waterloo Cedar Falls Iowa Mortgage plans expansion Growth will produce 100 to 200 jobs within two years at Hammond Avenue facility By PAT KINNEY Courier Business Editor WATERLOO Mortgage Corp plans to embark on the largest capital project in its 11 years in Waterloo in an expansion that will make it the citys fourth largest private employer The national mortgage servicing operation would undergo a million interior renovation project over the next six to nine months at its facility at 3451 Hammond Ave The project has been recommended by the top executives in Horsham Pa and is awaiting approval by Mortgages board of directors in Detroit said George executive vice dent and general manager of Mortgages Waterloo operation The expansion will make way for the creation of 100 to 200 new full and parttime jobs over the next one to two years We do really anticipate adding staff Wessel said and the interior renovation will make room for that It shows the commitment Mortgage has made to the Waterloo area Mortgage currently employees about 860 people in Waterloo about twothirds of which are full time The new jobs would put at around the 1000 mark making it the citys fourthlargest pri vate employer behind John Deere IBP and according to recent Cedar Valley Economic Development Corp employment fig ures Mortgage will be purchas ing newer smaller work stations and upgrading computer equipment The size of work stations will be reduced because less storage area will be required for paperwork with the new personal computer equipment The See page A5 COURIER PHOTO George Wessel general manager for Mortgage In Waterloo said added staff is anticipated Taking a shot at Mars The path of a Delta rocket Is shown in a time exposure as it lifts off from Cape Canaveral Fla early today carrying Mars Pathfinder probe This exposure shows the rocket passing In front of the rising moon at left DETAILS A2 Gay marriage allowed in Hawaii court ruling The Washington Post A judge in Hawaii ruled Tuesday that the state may not prohibit same sex marriages the first legal decision in American history allowing men to marry men and women to marry women By conferring on gay men and les bians the same marriage right enjoyed by heterosexuals the judge gave new visibility to an emotional issue that has reverberated across the and prompted a federal law designed to limit the decisions impact State officials said late Tuesday that they will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court Circuit Judge Kevin SC Chang wrote that the state had failed to pre sent sufficient credible evidence that the public interest in the well being of children and families or the optimal development of children would be adversely affected by same sex marriages He said state officials had failed to prove that a statute pro marriages furthers a compelling state interest as is required by the Hawaii constitution for any law that classifies people by sex This is a historic moment for les bians and gay men said Evan Wolf son director of the Lambda Marriage Project one of the lawyers represent ing three couples who were denied marriage licenses by Hawaii health See GAY RULING page A5 AP PHOTO Baehr left and Genora Dancel were plaintiffs in the lawsuit A Hawaiian judge had denied them a marriage license Friends contradict Simpsons testimony GOP drafting million tax cut plan AP A Cowlings was a reluctant wit ness but damaging to Simpson Most damaging 0 Js pal A Cowlings details taking a bruised Nicole Simpson to the hospital after a fight News Service SANTA MONICA Calif Con trary to OJ Simpsons insistence that he never once struck his wife during their marriage two eyewitnesses Tuesday testified that they saw him slap Nicole Brown Simpson in the face in two separate incidents during the 80s But perhaps even more damaging to Simpsons credibility was the tes timony from Simpsons best friend Allen AC monosyllabic responses that under scored his reluctance to contradict his friends testimony Cowlings reluctantly told the jury he drove Nicole to the hospital on New Years Day 1989 fearing she had suffered a concussion after a fight with her hus band He said she told him that Simpson had hit her On the first day of court since Simpson testified in a wrongful death civil suit against him plain tiffs attorneys did their utmost to suggest to the jury that Simpson lied under oath during 212 days on the witness stand before Thanksgiving The families of Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman hope to persuade the jury Simpson was responsible for their 1994 murders Area lawmakers say figure is affordable for upcoming session of the Legislature By CARI NOGA Courier Staff Writer and The Associated Press DES MOINES Northeast lowans in the Republi state Legislature say million in tax cuts is an afford able goal for the upcoming tive session That number emerged from a day long private meeting Tuesday GOP members of both chambers met together and with Republican Gov Terry Branstad to discuss strategy for the session that starts Jan 13 In last months elections Republi cans took control of the Senate giv ing them both chambers for the first time in 14 years Tney now hold a 29 21 margin in the Senate and a 5446 edge in the House State Sen Jim Lind of Waterloo said tax reduction and simplification aimed at inheritance and property tax es as well as getting investment and value out of government emerged out of the meeting Its not going to be a situation where we simply take an ax and start cutting government out of our lives Lind said The million mark is kind of out there as what we think is affordable wed love to lower taxes million this year but thatd be I going too far f State Rep Chuck Gipp of Decorah agreed that the consensus Tuesday was to aim cuts at the inheritance tax and fully funding property tax credits to homeowners veterans and the elderly Lowering top income tax rates which the GOP believes keep businesses and their jobs out of Iowa is also a goal he said I suspect when push comes to show its going to be more than that but we didnt hammer out any details yet he said We can do at least million of tax relief State Sen Don Redfern of Cedar Falls said it is premature to pin down a but that million may be close to the range that is established during the session The consensus was were not sure what the number will be but that we need more property tax relief and we need to work in a component for both income and inheritance tax Redfern said GOP leaders said tricky bargaining lies ahead as they struggle to put together a taxcut plan But they made it clear theyll get a deal We already have a common agen da We all think along the same lines Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iver son of Dows said Were pretty much on common ground ideologically Our philosophies are pretty much the same You can be assured that our num ber one priority is to reduce taxes House Speaker Ron Corbett of Cedar Rapids said Corbett said there was broad agree ment to eliminate the states inheri tance tax and to finance property tax credits I think its safe to say that with the inheritance and the property tax cred its were already over million Corbett said Corbett and House Majority Leader Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs said they also want an income tax cut I would expect at some point we will look at an reduction of the rates said Siegrist who also said many in the GOP favor targeted income tax cuts There were also clear signs of bat See TAX CUT page A5 Adjusting inflation measure will cost retirees a year and so he should be made to pay mil lions Testimony began two hours late after Simpsons lawyer moved for a mistrial arguing the jury was diced after hearing a plaintiffs lawyer suggest he flunked a lie detector test two days after the mur ders Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki denied the motion but read an unusually long instruction to the jury to disregard the lawyers refer ences to the results which were not backed up by any evidence Even with some of Simpsons old est friends golfing partners and busi ness associates taking the stand Tuesday Simpsons testimony was See COWLINGS page A5 WASHINGTON AP plan to revise the way inflation is measured could cost millions of retired Ameri cans about a year in benefits and force some taxpayers into higher brackets Political maneuvering over the pro posal began even before the plan to prune the inflation index was announced Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said before Republicans go along with the proposed revision Pres ident Clinton must endorse the change that would adjust the benefit checks of 60 million retired Americans Lott reelected majority leader by GOP senators Tuesday called on Clinton to clarify the administrations position on sharply changing the way the government calculates its main inflation gauge the Consumer Price Index commission headed by Stanford University economist and former Bush administration adviser Michael Boskin is scheduled today to recommend a li percentage point trim in the CPi to the Senate Finance Committee according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity The average monthly Social Securi ty check next year is due to rise by to based on an inflation rate of 29 percent If the rate were lated at 18 percent instead a reduction of 11 percentage points the benefit would be or less each month Many senators both Democrats and Republicans are expressing a willing ness to at least consider the proposal to trim the CPI But Lott said Clinton first must embrace the politically explosive plan which would lower Social Security benefits and raise tax es We probably would not do it alone he said I think its something we need to do together if its going to be done So far the administration has sounded skeptical about the CPI changes Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said the administration would only support reductions in the CPI recommended by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Weather Low tonight Teens wgh tomorrow 30s Thursdays Forecast Mostly cloudy Page Dl Bridge D4 B6 Classified Comics C7 Crossword D6 C2 D4 OM Ci4 A2 C2 Opinion A6 Sports theaters TV BM C6
