THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wcdncsdav and Friday by the
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NOME. ALASKA
Telephone 443-2381 $1.50 PER MONTH
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E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered at second class matter October 14. 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
SLOW-DOWN IN THE CEMETERY
BUSINESS LICENSE TAX HEARINGS COMING UP
The Sit kit Sentinel
JTiHE ALASKA BUSINESS LICENSE TAX, the one you pay on
gross receipts whether you make any money or not, is on the
agenda for a revamping when the legislature convenes next year,
starting in January. The Legislative Council, created by the legis
lature to study various legislative proposals and come up with
recommendations when the legislature is in session, is going to
hold some public hearings on the business license tax as instructed
to do bv the last legislature. They will be conducted in most of
business communities during October and November with actual
dates yet to be set.
The business license tax is overdue for some revision.
Enacted in 1949 as sort of a stop-gap in an effort to raise some
quick money for the then Territory, its inequities have been re
vealed during the ensuing years. Actually, it is a gross receipts
tax and as the Legislative Council points out, a gross receipts tax
makes no reference to a profit. Whether a business is making
money or losing money the tax liability is the same. The gross
revenue receipts tax base also works to the disadvantage of
businesses that cannot shift the tax, and those businesses handling !
a large volume of goods with low mark-ups. j
The low rates of the tax are somewhat misleading. When
they are convened to equivalent tax rates on net income, actual
impact can be seen more clearly. The rate structure of the Alaska
tax imposes a heavy comparative burden on the small business
man earning between S20.000 and Si00,000 in annual gross <
receipts. On a percentage basis, the tax on such a businessman
is usually higher than the tax on a business earning less than
$20,000 in gross receipts, and also higher than the levy on a j
business of over $100,000 in gross receipts. A business earning ■
$10,000 also pays a higher percentage tax than a business earning ]
$19,000.
The council makes the interesting point that about 9,000 bus- 3
nesses are licensed each year, and more than half have annual
gross receipts of below $20,000 a year.
Most Nome businesses are in the low bracket and should
start now preparing for the hearing.
Haitian Troops Crush
Rebel Invaders
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti W —
Haitian troops have crushed a
small force of rebel invaders on
the north coast, official sources
said today.
A formal announcement of the
defeat of the insurgents was ex
pected later in the day.
There were indications from
other sources that the invasion at
tempt had failed.
Experts say that colors rank in
popularity in this order: blue, red,
green, orange, violet and yellow.
TEST BAN TREATY TO BE
SENT TO SENATE THIS WEEK
WASHINGTON — Senate
Democratic Leader Mike Mans
field said President Kennedy
! plans to send the nuclear test ban
treaty to the Senate this week,
probably Thursday, and hearings
on it will begin Monday.
Mansfield said the plan is for
the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee to hear State Department
witnesses Monday, Defense De
partment witnesses Tuesday and
Atomic Energy Commission wit
nesses Wednesday.
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Senate Okays
Hefty Pay Hike
« •
For the Services
WASHINGTON W — The Sen
ate overwhelmingly passed Tues
day a bill for hefty pay boosts for
mast of the persons now serving
in the nation’s fighting forces.
Only recruits and lowest rank
ing privates and apprentice sea
men with less than two years ser
vice would fail to benefit from the
first general military pay boost
since 1958.
Reservists, National Guardsmen,
and those already drawing mili
tary retirement would share in the
increases which are estimated to
cost taxpayers $1,238,526,000 addi
tional annually.
Sen. Howard Cannon. D - New,
floor manager for the complex
measure said it is designed to
make military careers more at
tractive to the skilled and younger
officers, both commissioned and
non - commissioned, among the
more than 2.6 million on active
duty with the Army, Navy, Air
Force and Marines.
The measure now goes back to
the House which in May approved
a similar bill. Several differences
are expected to be reconciled later.
The larger pay would become
effective Oct. 1 under the Senate
version.
Both bills provide for a new
hostile fire pay, similar to the war
time extra combat pay. It would
be $55 extra a month for those
exposed to death or injury, such
as the fighting now underway in
South Viet Nam.
The House had voted to make
this extra pay retroactive to Jan.
1, 1961 but the Senate eliminated
I this.
In an effort to retain more doc
tors and dentists in the military
services, the Senate would increase
their present extra pay at 6 and
10-vear points by $50 and $100.
The House had no such provision.
The Senate bill would give the
Secretary of Defense authority to
decide about “foreign duty pay”
which now ranges from $8 to
$22.50 a month for enlisted per
sonnel.
The House had eliminated such
pay for duty in Hawaii, now part
of the union, but retained it for
Alaska, the Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico.
Army first lieutenants and Navy
junior grade lieutenants would get
the biggest boosts under the Sen
ate proposal, amounting to 25.7 per
cent. Captains in the Army and
Navy lieutenants would gain 24
per cent.
Increases for most men in the
Warrant Officer and higher eche
lon non-commissioned officer clas
sifications would run from around
10 per cent to nearly 17 per cent.
Corporals and petty officers 3/c
would get a 20.6 per cent boost.
Colonels and Navy captains
would receive 10.2 per cent more
but higher grade officers would be
raised only a little more than 5
per cent.
Letter-size and Legal File Holders
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Traffic Over Alaska's
Marine Highway System
Exceeds All Predictions
JUNEAU l/P* — The three fer
ries of the Alaska Division of Mar
ine Transportation are continuing
to pile up record passenger hauls
with 11,277 passengers carried
during the last two weeks of July.
This brings the total number of
passengers carried by the ferries
to 46.052 since the inaugural voy
age of the Malaspina late in Jan
uary.
Vehicle hauling also continued
on the rise the last half of July
with 2,117 vehicles carried to bring
the total amount of vehicle traffic
over the system to 8,166.
The Marine Highway System is
continuing to surpass all estimates
for passenger carrying and is now
expected to reach the projected
vehicular traffic estimate of 13,156
before the end of the first season
of operation. This estimate, hand
ed down by the W.C. Gilman Co.,
traffic analysts, was projected for
the fourth year of ferry operation.
At the other end of the Alaska
Marine Highway System, the little
M/V Chilkat, nmning between
Cordova and Valdez is also living
up to expectations.
Regulations on Absentee
Voting in State
Borough Elections
JUNEAU LP — An emergency
regulation on absentee voting in
borough elections has been issued
by Secretary of State Hugh Wade.
Applications for absentee bal
lots may be made in person from
15 days to the day before the
election itself.
If an application is made in
writing it can be postmarked as
early as 90 days before the elec
tion but not less than 3 days.
Absentee ballots in borough el
ections will be counted five days
after the voting is held.
Applications for absentee bal
lots may be made to the office of
any state magistrate within the
proposed borough or to the office
of the Secretary of State, Box 971,
Juneau.
Mailman Charged With Stabbing
12-Year-Old Seattle Girl
SEATTLE (J*> — A substitute
mailman facing first - degree as
sault charges in the stabbing of a
girl will be arraigned Friday.
The man is Bruce Eng, 22. He
is charged with the attack on Jill
Marie Patten. 12, last week. Hos
pital spokesmen report the child
is in critical condition.
The girl identified Eng out of a
lineup.
Arctic Sanitary
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Office Open Daily 4-6 pan.
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lolh Anniversary
I Of First A-Bomb
On Hiroshima
By JOHN RODERICK
HIROSHIMA, Japan </?> — The
people of Hiroshima paused to
mourn the victims of history’s first
atom bomb attack, made on their
city 18 years ago yesterday. But
they took heart from the signing
of the partial nuclear test ban
treaty in Moscow.
At 8:15 a.m. — the exact time
that the American B29 “Enola
Gay” dropped the bomb on Aug.
6, 1945—a swarm of doves wheeled
into the air and the Hiroshima
Peace Bell began its sorrowful toll.
A crowd of 15,000 stood with
bowed heads for a minute of sil
ence before the simple, arched
memorial to the city’s atomic dead.
Mayor Shinzo Hamai, dressed in
black, referred to the Moscow
treaty in his memorial address,
expressing “great gratification
that at long last a pact for the
partial banning of nuclear wea
pons has been concluded by the
United States, the United King
dom and the Soviet Union.”
The memorial ceremony was
brief and restrained, in marked
contrast to the confusion and pol
itical bickering which broke up
the opening Monday night of the
Communist - dominated 9th World
Conference Against Hydrogen and
Atom Bombs.
Anchorage and Fairbanks
City Council May Meet to
Discuss Rampart Dam
FAIRBANKS UP) — Anchorage
and Fairbanks city councils may
hold a joint meeting in mid-Sep
tember to discuss the proposed
Rampart Dam project on the Yu
kon River.
The meeting, in the tentative
stage, was mentioned here Mon
day night to other councilmen by
Mayor Darrell V. Brewington.
Brewington said he had been in
contact with Anchorage’s mayor,
George Sharrock, and talked about
the conference, possibly to be held
at Mt. McKinley Lodge.
The meeting’s purpose, declared
Brewington, would be to work
over mutual power problems be
tween the two cities and how Ram
part Dam might solve them.
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