Pusey Does Not Favor Education Tax Cut Bills

President Pusey said Wednesday he was "not in favor" of a proposal of Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to allow a $1,200 personal income tax exemption to persons paying college or graduate school tuition bills.

He claimed the measure would "touch only the relatively affluent groups in the society," and "did not help the institutions." Pointing to the "Treasury's point of view," he said there are "too many groups looking for tax advantages, and this is not in the interests of U.S. economic health."

Although Dodd has unsuccessfully introduced the bill for the past ten years, talk of tax reform in Congress has brought at least 20 similar bills into the Senate hopper this session. A few dozen bill calling for tax exemption or tax deductions on educational expenses have been introduced into the House.

Treasury Opposition Seen

Spokesmen for senators sponsoring the proposals said yesterday the bills had little chance of passing unless included in a general tax reform bill. Milton Wernstrom, Sen. Dodd's legislative assistant, was particularly pessimistic.

"The Treasury Department has opposed the bill in the past," he said, "and as far as I know they still oppose it." He said that the Department had promised last session to present a system of itemized deductions for educational expenses instead of a flat exemption, but noted he had not seen anything from the Department on the matter.

Dodd's bill (S-745) and other similar measures have been assigned to Sen. Harry Byrd's (D-Va.) Finance Committee. Byrd has not yet scheduled hearings on any of them, and it is known that he is generally suspicious of exemption plans.

Because both liberal and conservative senators have introduced exception plans this year, however, several senate offices were hopefull yesterday that some sort of bill would get through.

Senate majority whip Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) has not sponsored any of the bills, but a spokesman for the senator said Humphrey "is for them in principle." Humphrey, who has introduced several bills for student loans and merit and need grants, is "confident some aid for higher education will pass this year."

Another liberal senator and long-time supporter of Federal aid, Paul Douglas (D-III.), is opposed to the exemptions. Kenneth E. Gray, his legislative assistant, said Douglas feels the "tax system is riddled with loopholes and they are destroying it." Douglas, he said, "thinks taxes should be paid on the basis of income received, not income spent." The Illinois senator strongly supports direct Federal grants and loans, however.

Sen. Peter Dominick (R-Colo.), a conservative, sees his bill to provide 30 per cent tax credit up to $600 for costs of tuition and books for a college student as a "means for encouraging more effort at the private level." His administrative assistant, Walter Morgan, said Dominick does not view the bill as a replacement for the NDEA and noted that Dominick voted for NDEA as a congressman; he opposed a bill for grant aid to students.

Sens. William J. Fulbright (D-Ark.) and Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.) have introduced exemption bills previously, and both have bills in the hopper this year. They see exemptions as only one part of a general Federal aid program for education. Spokesmen for the senators stressed that grant and loan programs are essential.

McCarthy, who has bills in for both tax deductions and exemptions, admits that these proposals probably are of most use to upper-middle class families, and urges that separate measures be taken to help lower income brackets.

Emerson Hynes, McCarthy's legislative assistant, said the senator is not worried about adding another exemption to the books. "We have thousands already for businessmen," he pointed out, "and this one seems worthier than many of the ones we have, like oil depletion allowances."