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J
eA Prize-Winning
Newspaper
1974
Better Newspaper
Contests
Griffin lawmakers get in swing of the 1975 General Assembly
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Rep. John Carlisle, the senior member of the local legislative delegation, listens as Rep. John Mostiler of Griffin watches the action in the Georgia House as the 1975 session got Sen. Virginia Shapard of Griffin, a new member of the Georgia Senate, talks with another
proceedings began in the House. He to the only Griffin legislator with experience in the under way yesterday. He to a new member of the House. lawmaker as the 1975 session opened yesterday.
' lawmaking process.
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HEW bans students
from Pike, Lamar
Beginning in September,
students who live in Pike and
Lamar Counties no longer may
attend Griffin-Spalding County
Schools.
The school board voted
last night to
comply with a demand from
HEW that the system stop
, receiving tuition students from
the two counties after Supt. D.
B. Christie read a letter from
William H. Thomas, director of
* the Region IV Office for Civil
Rights.
The letter stated that the
transfers reduce the non-minor
ity enrollments of the counties,
which is contrary to the 1964
Civil Rights Act.
* Mr. Christie said he did not
like it, but he had talked with
County Atty. Jim Owen who
advised that the system has no
’ choice but to comply.
The issue already has been
decided in the courts, he ex
plained.
Two cases tried in the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals were
cited in which the court ruled
* that if the schools permit trans
fers of students who live outside
the district, it “shall do so on a
non-discriminatory basis,
except that it shall not consent
to transfers where the cumula
tive effect will reduce
* desegregation in either district
or reinforce the dual school
system.”
The letter stated that even
* though both minority and non
minority students are permitted
to transfer to Griffin-Spalding
. from Pike and Lamar Counties,
the transfers are discrimina
tory because the transfer of
non-minority students “reduces
» desegregation or reinforces the
dual school system in the
districts from which the
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Mrs. Yvonne Langford and Mrs. Mary Stinson (both in foreground) were welcomed as new
members of the Griffin-Spalding school board as It met for the first time in 1975 last night.
Seated next to Mrs. Stinson are Ed Stallings and Dr. Tom Hunt. Bill Westmoreland is at the
* right On the rear row are Homer Williams and W.G. Blakeney.
students transfer.”
Eighty-one students who live
in five nearby counties
currently attend the Griffin-
Spalding Schools. They pay $25
each per month tuition.
Eighteen of the transfers are
black. Forty-nine are from
Lamar County; 18 from Pike.
The demand did not include
Clayton, Henry and Butts
Counties, the homes of around
14 transferring students.
In discussing the matter, Dr.
Tom Hunt wondered how the
system could refuse admittance
of students from Pike and
Lamar but continue to accept
students who live in other
nearby counties.
Mr. Christie said he would
recommend the board meet
only what was requested and
nothing more.
The system is not under a
court order to comply, he
stated, but will lose federal
money if it doesn’t.
He explained the system has
not discriminated and accepts
both black and white transfers.
“Some of our finest students
live outside. Their families pay
more taxes (in Spalding) than
many residents”, he continued.
The letter requested the
board reply within 30 days,
submitting an assurance to the
district HEW office that the
demand be implemented not
later than the beginning of the
next school year.
An HEW official shall check
from time to time to see
whether the board is complying,
the letter stated.
Mr. Christie explained that
the loss of the transfer students
next year also will result in the
loss of at least $50,000 in school
monies.
The system will lose three
GRIFFIN
DAIEvIpNEWS
Vol. 103 No. 11
teachers with conservative
salary estimates of around
$27,000, tuition fees of some
$15,000, and other monies, in
cluding maintenance and in
structional media funds.
Russell Smith, vice-chair
man, presided over the meeting
in the absence of Henry Walker,
who was out of town because of
his mother-in-law’s death.
The same officers were
reelected to a new term. Mr.
Walker was reelected chair
man, Mr. Smith, vice-chair
man, and Mr. Christie, secre
tary and treasurer.
Mrs. Yvonne Langford and
Mrs. Mary Stinson, two new
board members, who were
elected in November, were
welcomed to their first meeting.
Mrs. Vickie Ricketts, director
of the system’s reading and
State of the city
Goldstein: let the sunshine in
Mayor Louis Goldstein said
today he favored public busi
ness’ being conducted in the
open.
In a state of the city report to
the Griffin Exchange Club, the
chairman of the board of com
missioners said, “. . . Let me
openly state that I favor the
news media and the public flow
ing into all public meetings, the
same as the sunshine flows into
your window on a bright sunny
day. This should apply to all
branches of government,
particularly the ones responsi
ble for passing the law — your
legislature.”
(The Georgia Senate voted
unanimously yesterday for open
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, January 14,1975
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staff development programs
reviewed five staff development
programs being conducted to
help retrain and give teachers
new ideas.
She invited board members
and parents to teacher work
shops on Jan. 30 at 9 a.m. and
12:30 p.m. at North Side School,
during which teachers share
their ideas.
The board approved $4,000
from the Hunt Fund for lunches
for underprivileged children.
The following teachers were
elected:
Blaine McElfresh, EMR,
Spalding II; Joseph Grubbs,
Jr., physical education, Cres
cent; and Mrs. Mary Russell,
fourth grade, Crescent.
The resignation of Mrs. Jessie
Chang Tan, EMR at Anne Street
School was accepted.
committee meetings but the
House voted against the same
proposal, 122-52.)
Chairman Goldstein’s state
ment came near the end of his
remarks, prepared for delivery
today at the club’s noon
meeting.
A theme of optimism ran
throughout the report. He
challenged the audience to
“talk good about the present
and future.”
Rising unemployment and
IVo new circuit judgship
Council recommends expansion
of Spalding State Court
x
Rather than add a superior
court judge to the Griffin
Judicial Circuit at this time, the
Judicial Council of Georgia has
recommended the State Court
of Spalding County be expanded
to a full time court to reduce the
number of civil cases pending.
The council also recom
mended a circuit-wide juvenile
court judgeship.
It suggested that judicial
manpower be made available
through the use of a judge
emeritus, manpower from
adjacent circuits or assistance
from other external sources.
The council suggested use of
auxiliary staff such as a law
clerk.
The council did not recom
mend an additonal judgeship
for the circuit at this time. That
possibility had been under
study.
“I wish everybody could have
as much as they want —without
taking from somebody else.”
Clinics
scheduled
There will be a free diabetic
and blood pressure screening
clinic Thursday at the Spalding
County Health Center. The time
is 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
42, low today 19, high yesterday
39, low yesterday 27, high
tomorrow in low 40s, low tonight
in low 20s. Sunrise tomorrow
7:44, sunset tomorrow 5:49.
rising prices are important
concerns, Goldstein said, but he
said he thought things would be
better in a few months.
He reviewed a proposal under
which some 49 Georgia cities
which operate electric systems
would buy into Georgia Power
operations. The joint effort
would be some SSOO-million
under the present plan, he
continued.
It would be a move similar to
that of electric co-ops which got
“Due to the increasing
caseload, subjective ob
servations and analysis of
judicial workload should be
maintained regarding this
circuit so that future needs may
be appropriately addressed,”
the council said.
The council was set up to
study circuit needs in the state
and recommend ways judicial
services could be strengthened.
The council recommended to
the governor and the General
Assembly that additional
judgeships be created in Cobb
and Southern Judicial Circuits.
Judge Andrew Whalen, Jr., of
Griffin is the Griffin Judicial
Circuit Judge. Ben Miller of
Thomaston is the district at
torney.
The circuit serves the
counties of Spalding, Fayette,
Pike and Upson.
Daily Since 1872
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Ford proposes tax rebate,
import barriers on crude
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
Scrapping much of his go-easy
economic program, President
Ford will seek tough new anti
recession measures: a 12 per
cent rebate on 1974 personal
income taxes, import barriers
that will lead to higher gasoline
prices and a lid on most federal
spending.
“We are in trouble,” the
President told a national
television audience Monday in a
speech from the White House
library that previewed Wednes
day’s State of the Union
message.
Ford said the country is not
on the brink of a 1930-style
depression. He indicated WIN
buttons are no longer enough
and said the government must
take strong measures to coun
ter unemployment and reces
sion as well as inflation. Among
them:
—A 12 per cent rebate on last
year’s federal income taxes, up
such an idea into action only
last week.
Griffin officials are taking a
leading role in moving for
General Assembly approval of
enabling legislation so the cities
can make the same move as the
co-ops.
The end result, Goldstein
said, would be electric rates for
municipal customers that would
be lower than Georgia Power
(Continued on page 2)
Judge John Goddard is judge
of the State Courts of Spalding
County and Tom Lewis is the
prosecutor.
The council did not recom
mend an additional judgeship
for the Flint Circuit, either.
It is made up of Butts, Henry,
Lamar and Monroe Counties.
The circuit, like the Griffin
Judicial unit, had been in
terested in getting an additional
judgeship.
The council recommended
that the Flint Circuit make use
of a judge emeritus to help with
habeas corpus cases in Jackson.
The council also suggested
the circuit use additional
manpower from adjacent
circuits or from external
sources.
It suggested the circuit make
use of an auxiliary staff,
primarily a law clerk.
to SI,OOO per tax return, that
would release sl2 billion of
potential purchasing power to
consumers. An average family
of four earning $12,000 in 1974
and paying $1,228 in taxes
would get $147.36 in two equal
payments in May and Septem
ber.
—A $4 billion in investment
tax incentives for business.
—A S3O billion increase in
energy taxes and tariffs de
signed to make Americans cut
down on the use of gasoline and
fuel oil. This will likely mean a
sudden price hike of about 7
cents a gallon in retail gasoline
with even higher prices to
come.
—A one-year moratorium on
new federal spending programs
and a clear threat to veto any
new money measures passed by
Congress.
—A temporary 5 per cent
ceiling on federal pay increases
and a similar lid on automatic
boosts in Social Security
benefits and government and
military retirement.
Ford said he would use his
emergency powers to raise the
tariff, or import fee, on
petroleum by $3 a barrel within
90 days. The idea is to
encourage conservation and
development of alternative
sources of energy to high-priced
Middle East crude oil.
Most of the program will
require Congress’ approval, and
early reaction showed Ford’s
desire to give even wealthy
taxpayers a slice of the 1974
rebate was in for tough
sledding.
“Any credit for 1974 taxes
would have to be given to the
low and moderate income
group to be acceptable to
Congress in my judgment,”
said Al Ullman, D-Ore., acting
chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee, the
panel that must clear all tax
bills.
Ullman agreed with Ford on
the amount of money needed to
stimulate the slumping econo
my —s43 billion that is likely to
leave Ford, an avowed fiscal
conservative, sporting the big
gest budget deficit since the
free-spending New Deal ad
ministration of Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
Most of that sum derives
from energy tax revenues that
Ford said should be passed
through to consumers, busi
nesses and local governments
in the form of payments and
credits. This includes a cash
payment to the poorest Ameri
cans who pay no income tax at
all.
Ford chose the informal
setting of the basement library,
at times standing near a
blazing fireplace, to convey his
stem message to the country.
“Americans are at their very
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best when the going is rough,”
he said at the outset. “Right
now the going is rough and it
may get rougher. But if we do
what must be done, we will be
well on our way to better
days.”
A few hours earlier, House
Democratic leaders laid down
their remedies for the nation’s
ills including limited wage-price
controls on the biggest indus
tries, allocation of credit to
housing and small business,
more public service jobs and
tax cuts of more than $lO
billion.
Ford, on the other hand,
continued to shun wage-price
controls. He asked labor and
management to show voluntary
restraint. “No one will be
allowed to prosper from the
temporary hardships most of us
bear willingly,” he added.
But the emphasis on volun
teerism and inflation as “public
enemy No. 1” —so much a
theme of Ford’s earlier eco
nomic policy —was missing.
“The reason is that the
situation has changed,” he said.
“You know it and I know it.
“What we need most urgently
today is more spending money
in your pockets rather than in
the Treasury in Washington.”
Tax relief
first order
of business
ATLANTA (UPI) - Property
tax relief became the first
order of business in the Georgia
House Monday with House Bill
1 calling for S7O million in tax
rebates to lower and middle
income homeowners, farmers
and renters.
The plan was introduced by
the House leadership, including
Speaker Tom Murphy . of
Bremen, Speaker Pro Tem Al
Burrus of Marietta and Majori
ty Leader Clarence Vaughn of
Conyers.
It was twice the $35 million in
tax relief recommended by
Gov.-Elect George Busbee.
The bill is dubbed a “circuit
breaker” measure because it
would rebate all ad valorem
property taxes—except those
paid on cars—in excess of a
taxpayer’sdisposable income.
Both Busbee and Lieutenant
Governor-Elect Zell Miller have
said they favor the “circuit
breaker” concept.
The measure would bring in
those renting their homes for
the first time, and it would fix
the percentage of rent paid
which might be considered ad
valorem tax.