Seis Tax initiatives’ impact on WSC assage of the tax limitation proP-=: currently before Utah vot- The November ballot in Utah will contain three tax-limitation initiatives, ers would drastically hamper education in Utah and seriously jeopardize the quality of education offered at Weber two of which would limit property tax, as wellas income, gas and sales tax. The total loss to the budgets of state-run agencies State, WSC President Stephen D. Nadauld said. is estimated at $330 million, and that loss would have a drastic effect on the state’s Proponents of the initiatives argue, however, that lowering the tax rate would eventually result in more tax dollars for the state. “Tt is only sometimes true that tax cuts can stimulate a sagging economy,” Pres. school system, opponents say. “Tt would be a severe blow to education Nadauld said. “The problem in Utah is that 70 percent of state expenditures are on education so the sector that is most crucial for the state’s economic future is most severely af- fected,” he continued. © The WSC president noted that tax roll backs will result in 10,000 lost jobs in the state, which “will cause economic decline that will overwhelm the benefits of tax reduction.” Danny L. Blaylock, chairman of the Weber County tax limitation coalition, countered, “Over the past several years our in Utah,” Pres. Nadauld said. Faculty would leave, tuition will rise and academic programs would be canceled, he noted. But Blaylock said the effects would not be that drastic. The state would experience a short-term 5.6 percent reduction of state funds, but the economy would eventually rebound. “Tt would be painful medicine for a few months or for a year, but it’s better than what is happening now,” Blaylock said. What is happening now, he said, is a dramatic increase in bankruptcy rates for small business, “which is the backbone of our economy.” Those increases, he claimed, are the result of high taxes, which are higher than any other state in the west. economy has been going downhill and at But Roger Tew, commissioner with the the same time we have been raising tax Utah State Tax Commission, said that federal dollars cannot be used as part of the total state budget when figuring the net effect of a tax rollback. Thus the impact on Utah-run services is closer to rates, but we have not solved our economic problems. Is there anything to make us believe that if we continue with high tax rates we’re going to solve our problems?” Weber State The Weber State College Center for Aerospace Technology (CAST) has joined forces with Amateur Satellite Incorporated to produce ultra-compact satellites which promoters say will revolutionize the world of low-cost space technology. Developers of these new “Microsats,” which are satellites the size of a gallon milk carton and weigh only 20 pounds, say the first launches will come in early 1989 when at least four Microsats will fly aboard an Arianespace rocket owned by the European Space Agency. Three different satellite types are involved in the project. One focuses on twoway communication. Another provides the space shuttle. “Today’s typical commercial satellite can cost anywhere from $10 million to $200 million. But the costcan be cut down to less than $500,000 by using state-ofthe-art, miniature components and high Weber State $130,000 for construction of an altitude of 17,000 feet after which the the space But the more than lite. The nose section will jettison and parachute into the Atlantic Ocean. orbiter. WSC aerospace center is doing just designing a “video” satelcollege has become the manu- facturing center for the shells of all the satellites. “We will be doing much of the machine work with the new computer-aided design facilities at Weber State, and contributing student, local volunteer engineering and faculty labor to the construction of the four satellites,” said Weber State program manager, William G. Clapp. “Our payload is being designed by the Center for Aerospace Technology as a student project,” he said. “It will feature experiments using a low-resolution color decrease would give the average family Tew agrees that sales tax and income taxes are higher in Utah than in other $400 per year. That money would return “The college has had a history of hard times, and we have a pretty gritty group up here. But I don’t know how much longer we can expect them to hang on. Their dedication is really being put to the test.” Pres. Stephen Nadauld to the state’s economy and help reduce a bankruptcy rate that increased 83 percent in 1987 and is up 25 percent in the first quarter of 1988. “TI have a feel for business along the Wasatch front. I really have some strong feelings about a businessman being able to open business in this state and make a living at it. The chances of being able to do that anymore is just about zero,” Blaylock said. Tew admits to economic difficulties in Utah, but said the problem is region wide, and not caused by the state’s tax rate. “In the 1970’s the intermountain west was the fastest growing area of the United States in economic terms. In the 1980’s it’s the slowest. western states, “but we have 50 percent more kids than surrounding states, and we spend more on public education than any other state.” Utah ranks highest in the number of children under 5, highest in the 5 to 17 year old age group, but lowest in the 18-64 age group, he said. “Tt doesn’t take much mathematics to see that with fewer working adults you have to draw a larger amount from them,” Tew said. Tax roll back proponents say a tax the area. Bankruptcy is a trend of Despite that the state of Utah has performed near the top in the intermountain area for the past few years. The notion that Utah is an island of despair in a sea of prosperity that is all around us is simply not true,” Tew said. He added, “The tax initiative people are engaged in an ideological debate. Facts and figures are really quite meaningless to them. They’ll say, ‘I won’t tell you where the cuts should come, I’ll just tell you taxes are too high.” seeTAX on page 4 there is an awful lot you can do witha few dozen pounds and a cubic foot or two of spacecraft.” Government and industry leaders have been calling for reduced launch costs and enhanced access to space. Those directing WSC students part build computer for first commercial space flight programmed in any of several languages. A third type, being developed by Weber State’s satellite center, investigates video photography from space. The Utah Business and Economic Development Board recently awarded using a voice synthesizer 13 percent, he said. signs satellite construction contract Weber State College students will again be part of space history when the first totally commercial U.S. space launch lifts off this month from Cape Canaveral, Fla. E Prime Aerospace Corp. of Titusville, Fla., will launch its first commercial rocket, LOFT-1, on Oct. 6 from the Cape with a number of experiments on boardtwo from universities, one from Morton Thiokol and a WSC-built computer. The rocket is 12 feet long and six inches in diameter, and is expected to climb to information “serious” “The computer will activate an experiment performed by Morton Thiokol and take measurements of the flight,” said Robert Twiggs, director of the Center for Aerospace Technology at Weber State. tion, altitude, temperature, and the stress experienced by the rocket. The electronic components at the center of the project were supplied by QSI, a space company located in Logan. QSI hopes to sell the finished computer to companies that ship sensitive high-technology equipment and need to monitor those shipmerts. But the four Weber State students don’t see the project as a business venture. For them it is a chance to get into space. “We're excited to see how it does,” said Mildenberger. The students started a year ago designing the small computer. Originally E Prime had hoped to launch last October, and that gave students just six weeks to complete the package. Butler designed a plexiglas cylinder that Four WSC students, Cathy Mildenberger, Clint Lewis, Ralph Butler andJohn Lund, built the computer for the flight and designed the system to measure accelera- contained the small computer. The outside efficiency devices,” said Jan King, chairman of the amateur satellite organization which has headquarters in Washington the nation’s Space Defense Initiative program, commonly referred to as “Star video camera and is primarily an exercise DG. King added, “We’ve pioneered low- for students,” Clapp said. cost spacecraft for the past 20 years. Now CAST is the developer of NUSAT I, with the dearth of launch opporuunities, the which in 1985 became the first collegebuilt satellite to be sent into space aboard world is coming to learn what we’ve appreciated these past two decades—that Ultra-compact satellites, or Microsats, will be the mainstay of the orbiters the college will construct as part of an agreement with Amateur Satellite Incorporated. shell was no problem, he said, but figuring out a way to keep the electronic equipment see SPACE on page 4 Wars,” have set a goal of reducing launch costs ten fold. These new satellites built at Weber State will contribute to those endeavors, King said. “With advances in microelectronics, solar cells and radio amplifiers, we found away to packagea very functional payload in a surprisingly compact structure,” he said. Developers say that since the new class of satellites is so small, they can be included on launches where larger satellites can’t be accommodated. Besides development of the “video” satellite, Weber State students and faculty are also working with the amateur satellite group to develop a radio communications satellite which will blanket every inch of the earth up to eight times per day, including the North and South Poles. In the past the poles have been too isolated to be covered by traditional communications satellites. Two such satellites will be built—one for an amateur satellite group in North America and another for a group in Argentina. see AMSAT on page 2 |