The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-03-19
LEGISLATURE HEADING INTO FINAL 4 DAYS
By JIM HUTCHINSON

| Alaska's 20th Legislature starts down the four-day home stretch l today
 Thursday will be it's Goth and final legal day but by the law of
 averages it probably will carry into
 Friday.
 One of the big remaining ques- tions is what new taxes, if any,
 may be enacted. The House is still considering the Senate-approved i boost in the canned salmon tax and the increase to five cents a pack
 in the cigarette tax. Warning Sounded Rep. Glenn Franklin D-Bound- | ary), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sounded a
 warning Saturday, however, that some new revenue measure might have to be rushed through in the final hours to balance the budget
 which presently shows signs of a deficit exceeding $2,000,000. An increase in the Territorial in-
 come tax, possibly to 12 per cent
 of Federal income payments from the present 10 per cent, has been
 mentioned by some legislators as
 one possibility.
 Defense Bill Up Major bills still awaiting action include the $1,100,000 civilian de- fense bill, to undergo it's first legis- lative scrutiny in the Senate today. Evan it's supporters are predicting the appropriations probably will be less than $500,000.
 The House-approved Government
 Reorganization Bill is on the Senate
 calendar today. The s18,300,000 Gen. eral Appropriations Bill is also in the Senate after having passed the i, House with record speed but some extensive overhauling is expected. Another major bill hanging fire is the lengthy banking code revision 1 which passed the House once but ! was returned to it with many | amendments by the Senate. The Wage-Hour Bill also is still in free conference committee and both
 Houses must act on the final re-
 port.
 Tables Property Tax Bill i The Senate tabled on 7-6 vote l Saturday night House-approved bill by Amelia Gundersen to ex- tend the general property tax ex-
 emption for new industry to five
 years, from the present three. The exemptions were proposed primarily as an incentive for the projected
 Ketchikan pulp mill.
 Dr. R. M. Mackenzie. Ketchikan l Democrat, said he moved to table because the property tax law IS
 presently involved in court test. 1 Members of the Senate Finance
 Committee have predicted the civil 1 ian defense appropriation proposal
 will be cut drastically. Col. Joseph Alexander, acting ad- iutant general of the Alaska Ma tional Guard and civilian defense head. on the Senate stand, Satur- day night, emphasized the military l didn't want to be involved in a major civilian protection problem in case of hostilities, which would keep it occupied.
 i! Martial Law Maybe 1 Senator Howard Lyng, Nome l Democrat, tried to bring out that in case of attack the military would probably declare martial law and l take over anyhow.
 "If we are not attacked. we won't need civilian defense anyhow, will we?" Lyng asked
 Alexander replied: T think we
 are in the path of flights to the | United States. I think an enemy would drop bombs at key spots in ! Alaska"
 Amendments to the Civilian De- fense Bill adopted by the Senate
 included one to exempt newspapers | and news services from seizure at the governors order in case of ene- my action against Alaska. Lyng questioned Colonel Alex ander closely about civilian defense
 needs, and said he would have | amendments to offer today 1 If we had no civilian defense or
 ganization at all what would we do?" he asked the colonel.
 ''The military can't properly do
 these other things" Alexander re- ! piled. "In case of an emergency, it would be engaged in winning a war The aid of civilians is needed be-
 cause wars are becoming more and more peoples wars"
 Evacuation Maybe He said a decision had been made