4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, December 1, 1993 "Vy he Dallas Post Harveys Lake must justify amusement tax Harveys Lake mayor-elect Richard Boice has opened the “door to an amusement tax a crack, and who knows how wide it will swing. Boice suggested that the borough council consider placing a 4 percent levy on amusements, including the amphi- theater operated by music promoter Thom Greco. The Lake- : Lehman School District proposed a 10 percent tax in 1992, just before the amphitheater opened, but that idea didn’t go far since state law forbids a school district from applying a tax that doesn’t exist in its member municipalities. If more revenue is necessary, an amusement tax is a tempting source. Applied only to live performances—especially at the amphitheater—it would fall most heavily on people who don't live in the borough, or in the school district, for that matter. A broader application—to jukeboxes, boat rentals and video games for example—would extract a higher percentage of revenue from residents. What isn't yet clear is Boice's reason for the suggestion. Does he think Harveys Lake government needs more money for important projects, or is this just a ploy to curry favor with amphitheater opponents who have felt neglected by their public officials? If the former is his motive, he owes the people a full explanation of how much tax money is needed and how it will be spent. If it's the latter, adding a tax won't provide much comfort to people who object to the noise that comes from the amphitheater, Tijuana Bar and associated businesses. One thing is certain; if Harveys Lake adopts an amusement = tax, the school district will be sorely tempted to again consider the.idea, especially in these days of declining state and federal funding and soaring teacher salary costs. It's past time to raise the minimum wage Speaking of salaries, the minimum wage is again a subject of discussion in some state legislatures, if not in Washington. The reason is simple: Accounting for inflation, workers at ‘minimum wage are falling further behind the rest of the economy. According to a study in New York state, in 1979 a full- time minimum wage earner had annual income about $700 above the poverty level for a family of three. By last year, the minimum wage earned him or her a salary nearly $3,000 below the poverty level for a three-person family. Meanwhile, the percentage of the nation’s wealth and in- | come going to the highest wage earners continues to climb. While rate increases of 3 percent or less (if any at all) are the norm for lower and middle level employees, top management averages about twice that, continuing a trend that has been in place for nearly two decades. - There may be ideological support among arch conservatives for this disparity, but if continued it will cost us dearly. The engine of the American economy is consumption, but those who don't earn a living wage aren't going to consume much. At the other end of the scale, consumption as a share of income “declines with rising salaries, as excess income is directed into gate investments rather than yet another unnecessary car or ome. Henry Ford understood this principle, and despite the nearly unanimous outrage of his peers raised the salary of his assembly line employees to $5 per day in the 1920s. The result was a pickup in auto sales, particularly to people who previ- ously couldn't afford one. A new minimum wage is especially important in this part of the nation, where pay levels at or close to the minimum are common, and unemployment is high. Critics will claim that raising the minimum will cost jobs, but that has never been proven true. The reverse is more likely, as people who formerly lacked disposable income begin to support more local busi- nesses. Since the minimum wage is at this point further below a true living wage than at almost any time in its existence, it is past time to raise it. But we must go one step further, and index the minimum to some recognizable standard, such as the inflation rate, or the increase in the average of all wages in our society. Then, it will take care of itself and we won't again have to go through the ludicrous process of convincing a majority in Congress that people who work a full week should be able to support their families in something above abject poverty. Do you agree? Disagree? Editorials are the opinion of the management of The Dallas Post. We welcome your opinion on contemporary issues in the form of letters to the editor. If you don't write, the community may never hear a contrasting point of view. Send letters to: The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612. Please include your name, address and a daytime phone number so that we may verify authenticity. We do not publish anonymous letters, but will consider withholding the name in exceptional circumstances. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar. The Dallas Post Published Weekly by Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 Telephone: 717-675-5211 Ronald A. Bartizek Charlotte E. Bartizek Editor and Publisher Associate Publisher Peggy Young Grace R. Dove ,Advertising Acct. Exec. Reporter Paul Rismiller Production Manager Olga Kostrobala : Classified/typesettin Jill Urbanas ype g Office Manager MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION AND THE PENNSYLVANIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER'S ASSOCIATION ! \ wit [I nn pd Sih ry v. 8 al i @ @ hh 7! J. Letters Fishing licenses worth their cost, and more Editor: No ‘doubt there ' are fisher(wo)men between the ages of12 and 16 who will have some difficulty digging up the proposed $4.50 for an annual (that's12 full months) Pennsylvania state fish- ing license. And provisions should be made to allow for their partici- pation in this great outdoor activ- ity. ButI find it somewhat laugh- able that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is being criticized for suggesting this small license fee when registration costs for youth sports like baseball, football, and soccer average $25 to $40 per child, and that's only for part of the year. It's even funnier when you compare the price of movies (about $5.), video games (average expen- diture per short afternoon about $5), sneakers (about $105), audio and video tapes, cd's, haircuts, clothes, and on and on ad nau- seam. And lest we forget, some- one is purchasing the fishing rods, reels, hip boots/waders, bait, lures, flies, and transportation for those young fisherkids today. Call me a scrooge, but several years ago when the PF&BC pro- posed the $5 Trout/Salmon stamp, 1 proposed that it be paid by any and all, resident trout/ salmon fishers of Pennsylvania regardless of age. You can just imagine the criticism, complain- ing and crying I heard from that. Well folks, I'm still of the opinion that ifyou want to play you should have to pay. Maybe in this way you'll be more inclined to buy into the need for conservation of the resource. What most of us get for$17 with today's license is worth at least 10 times that amount to me. John P. Bergevin Dallas Pastor says thanks for food bank 'miracle’ Editor: Each of the New Testament Gospels contains a wonderful story about caring for people who are hungry. Some of the details vary, but in general Jesus is con- fronted with 5,000 people who have come to hear Him teach. Itis suppertime and the disciples suggest that they be sent home to eat, But Jesus says, “No, you feed them.” They are confounded with such arequest. They look around and see a young boy with five loaves of bread and two fish, “This is all we have,” they say. Jesus tells them to distribute it and miraculously all are fed with baskets of food left over. I have sometimes wondered how such a miracle could hap- pen, but I saw visible evidence of it last Friday when students from a Dallas Senior High sociology class arrived at our church with hundreds of boxes of food. They had challenged their fellow stu- dents to give food to the needy and had set out to collect 4,000 items for the Back Mountain Food Bank administered by our church, They could never have guessed the outcome of their childlike offer-. ing. Ct last count, 15,626 food items, 23 turkeys, 3 oven stuffer roast- ers, 2 Cornish hens, 5 hams and $940 were carried into our church, sorted and then transferred to the Food Bank storage area. What a marvelous outpouring of generosity and care by these students and their families, the teachers and staff. As I worked along side them I could see the great pride they had in their ac- complishment and I could see wonder and awe in their eyes. What a wonderful experience for them to have at this precious stage of their life. On behalf of our church and the Back Mountain Food Bank staff of Walter Meade, George Gaylord and Kathy Barlow, I ex- tend heartfelt thanks to these students and the Back Mountain community for supporting them. Thanksgiving boxes of food have already been distributed and the remaining food will keep the food bank well supplied for many months to come, I'm glad I was here to see this “miracle” unfold. W. Charles Naugle, Pastor Trucksville United Methodist Church J W.J. Tread lightly with health care reform By J.W. JOHNSON Interest rates are down. Are interest rates going up? Bond market is up. Are stocks going down? It all boils down to dollars and cents, to purchase goods, serv- ices, luxuries and the time to enjoy them, versus who has more of the former, so as to be able to acquire more of the latter. This endless financial game which is the life- blood of capitalism, can be seen in headlines, and heard in sound- bites daily. And at the heart (no pun in- tended) of the health care reform movement is the cost of that serv- ice, vis a vis lack of access to it. That's why the rich are nervous. They own the companies which provide health care. And nomatter how you slice it, the rich are going to be subsidizing the poor, and all of us will then have a mediocre health care, as opposed to the quality health care for most, and no health care for some, that we have now. Health care reform has been on the citizen collective mind for some time now. It was responsible for Sen. Harris Wofford's defeat of Richard Thornburgh. Seeing that, and hearing all the pollsters say that health care was at the top of the citizen concern list, the Clin- ton Administration decided laws were needed to change the method, payment for, and acces- sibility to, health care. Of course, what the pollsters didn't discriminate between were those persons who responded by saying a primary concern was losing health care if they became unemployed. The issue then is not health care; rather, the basic economy. But the Clinton Administration seized upon the (I believe) deliber- ately misinterpreted polls, as an excuse to promote the real left- wing agenda. Like the social re- formers of the 1960's and the Great Society's attempt to redis- tribute income, the health care reformers of today want to redis- tribute government spending...and so Congress, is now considering monumental legislation to do just that with health care. “We in America suffer from a greatdelusion,” thelate (and made by Watergate famous) U.S. Sena- tor Sam Ervin once said. “We think we can pass a law and eve- rything will be cured.”...again, no pun intended. The attitude noted by Ervin includes just about everyone: laborer, government employees, electronics technicians, florists...the list includes virtu- ally all of us, and could go on forever. And of immeasurable length seems to be the list of special benefits wanted by virtu- ally everyone from the ‘govern- ment.’ So a law is passed, a bureauc- racy formed, and regulation prom- ulgated until the bureaucracy now numbers more than 3,000,000 in Washington alone, with a corre- sponding Federal tax bite. And it's estimated that it will take 100,000 to a quarter million more bureaucrats to run to so-called better health care system being envisioned. Can anyone in the universe point to a government managed and staffed anything, and dem- onstrate that it is run more effec- tively and at less cost than a comparable anything in the pri- vate sector? We are floundering in regula- tions we don't understand, taxes we cannot afford, but more im- portantly, moving forward with a ‘help-me-government' attitude, an attitude which is causing the death of self respect, a character trait which, more than any other, made this country great. Every time we ask the govern- ment for help instead of doing it ourselves we lose self respect and gain more governmental control over lives. Recall the Pilgrims. What guarantees did they have? They provided food, shelter, transpor- tation and other necessities...or they did not survive. And it's because of their survival, and their example, that this country was preserved for future generations. It would be ludicrous to advo- cate a return to pure survival; it is also no doubt true that self re- spect is more difficult to compre- hend and/or to see the need for maintaining, when humans are once, twice and three times re- moved from an immediate sur- vival threat. But that does not mean the knight should hang up his armor for lack of dragons to slay? Instead of self respect, the predominant character traits in Americatoday are, to name a few:] —demanding more money for less work. —putting immediate security above self respect. —and generations of welfare recipients now with no grasp of the notion of taking care of one's self, that idea having been sup- planted by the myth of ‘entitle- ments.’ It is true that in an age (New York City excepted) where sur- vival is not paramount, self re- spect becomes more an idealistic symbol than a realistic response. But what better symbol to pass along and insure future genera- tions? To be sure, access to health care by Americans, at something less than a $10 per aspirin cost, is long overdue. But turning the entire mess over to yet another bureaucracy would be, indeed, throwing the baby out with the bath water. yesterday 60 Years Ago - Dec. 8, 1933, 0 id | LIQUOR PROHIBITION; Only ds OFFICIALLY ENDS The Civil Works Board of Har: - risburg this week approved the construction of an 18-foot road- way on Cemetery Street, Dallas, 450 feet from Rice Street to Foster Avenue including a stone bridge ’ uak as the first thing of the borough's share in the Civil Works appro- priation for the county. It is ex-: pected about 20 men will: 2 1 employed on the project. John Barleycorn came back last. Tuesday after a 14-year vacation" / but he was a ghost of his former self. Compared with the rousing return of legal beer, the calmness which marked the death of Prohi- bition was as a popcornina wind« ' storm. ? ron could get - Chickens, 176. ; chuck roast, 12¢ lb.; eggs,” = ¢doz.; ; Eight O'Clock coffee 15¢ welcome this section gave the Ib.: bread, 20-0z. loaf 9¢. of is £] 50 Years Ago - Dec. 3, 1943 , DALLAS NATIVE NAMED -. ' WARD'S VICE-PRES ~~ R. S. Stevens, born and raised in Dallas, today is vice president and general merchandise mari- ager of Montgomery Ward & Co." the giant mail order and retail. organization which employs’ 80,000. His father managed . Raub's Hotel in Dallas for many | years and later a hardware store * ; in that community. Lehman Township schools have’ ! been awarded the grand prize of $20 for the highest per capita collection of waste paper during the drive sponsored by the Dallas. - Woman's Club. Lehman's pupils averaged 79 1/2 lbs. of paper per student while their nearest com- * petitor Dallas Borough schools - averaged 61 lbs, per student, - - ~~ il “ ~~ 40 Years Ago - Dec. 4, 1953 BORO COUNCIL MEETS . IN NEW BUILDING Dallas Borough Council held: ough Building Tuesday night, There was considerable discus- sion of plans for remodeling the. , building, contingent upon whether - the State Liquor Control Board 7 signs a lease for a part of i ' building for a State Liquor ‘Stere. No changes will be made until the '. Board makes its decision, Bali Rate increases totaling $11,335" a year for some 1,507 users of. Dallas Water Co, and Shavertown Water Co. were approved Wednes- « day by the Public Utility Commis: sion. Rate boosts which went into .-; effect Monday means increased revenue of at least $6,440 for Dallas Water Co. and $4,895 Hon the Shavertown Co. Yiy 30 Years Ago - Dec. 5, 1983, NEW RTE. 309 WORK _. ON SCHEDULE densi With the last laying of concrete -* this year for the new Memorial Highway to be completed in the. week near Duke Isaacs “inh Trucksville, all major work with+ the exception of digging at the ¢ Birch Grove stretch is complete. “.’ Bridge work will also continlie+- during the winter according to. ©. Fred Dietz field office manager for’. H.J. Williams Co. contractor for: the job. Dallas Rotary Club at theirs * meeting at Irem Country Club: voted in favor of joining other clubs" and civic organizations in discour-+, aging the erection of billboards.’ along the newly modified Luzerne-*+ Dallas Highway. Py Rev. Andrew Pillarella, pastor * of Trinity Presbyterian ChurcHin’ Dallas announced plans foria campaign to build a church andis asking parishioners to Suppo: al the building campaign . comjunction with the 3 ; Every Member Canvass on Dec.- 15. No monetary goal has been’ established but it is hoped that pledges made over a three year-.: period will enable the construc- tion of one or more units as planned on the seven acres owned by the church adjacent to Dallas Township Junior High School. 20 Years Ago - Dec. 6, 1973 AREA GAS STATIONS SHUT DOWN Nearly all gasoline station owners in the area followed Presi- dent Nixon's request and locked up their pumps Sunday. Sgt. Gilbert Hanna of the State Police | at Dunmore said the volume of * Sunday traffic was down about 25% in his area and was even . lighter on major highways. After * a while people will get used to the « shortage and adjust their habits | accordingly. x You could get - Turkeys, 22-26 - lbs. avg., 59¢ Ib.; Lobster Tails, 2- 4 oz. avg. weight $3.99 lb.; apple pie, 22-0z. 59¢; Keebler Vanilla Wafers, 12-oz. pkg. 39¢ g Be Sr Be AR t i ar 1 its first meeting in the new Bor- re a 3 / jt” H
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers