European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 27, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Page 11 Arm Landers Ann Landers is on vacation. The following column is a rerun. Her regular column will resume sep tember 3. Dew readers Well there is Hope for the world. Do you remember the letter from old timer who complained because they did t write songs like they used to i agreed and suggested that perhaps his is Why teen agers Don t dance to Gether anymore. I bemoaned the hyperthyroid leaping and shed a few tears for the boy who must stand riveted to the floor while his partner hops around like a beheaded Hen. I expected a barrage of brickbats from the teens but the mail indicated that for the most part they agree with me. Here Are some comments pro and con dear Ann Landers so old timer is unhappy because they Don t write songs like they used to. Well if he can Tell me what a Flat foot flood Gie with a Floy Floy is i la keep my Mouth shut forever. And while he s at it can he explain the meaning of to do do de of do and Boop Boop a Doop also Jada Jada Jada Jada Jing Jingjing. Thanks a great big Bunch. Class of 64. From port Huron Mich the teens in our crowd would love to dump the Rock n Roll junk and really dance like our parents did. It took Grace and rhythm to Cut a Rug in those Days. Today anybody with a Nail in his shoe can win first pri2c. Lima Ohio this is from a High school senior male who agrees with you and old timer. I would Welcome the return of the minuet in  at least a fellow could move around some. I feel like a Cigar store Indian on the dance poor. This is dancing Phoenix Ariz you must have a Bumble Bee in your car trumpet Granny Landers. At least you Ain t Scarin so Good. The dance music today is great and the kids dance with a solid beat. Today s dancing is tame compare with the shimmy the Black Bottom the shag the big Apple and the , . You Are perfectly right about teen age dancing. My Boyfriend and 1 were practising some new Steps the other evening when my father came Home. He is Little deaf and the Battery must have gone dead in his hearing Aid. He could t hear the music and he threw my Boyfriend out of the House before i could explain. Dear Ann Landers my husband has been in business for himself for 10 years. He hires extra help whenever he needs it and 1 work for him when he asks me to. The question we would both like settled is this is it proper for a Man to pay his wife wages my husband says no. He claims it s an insult to the relationship. I have three Young children and 1 hesitate to take a full time Job outside the House but it s humiliating not to have a dime to Call my own. I feel that so Long As i work for him and do a Job that he would have to pay an outsider for he should pay me. Who is right free labor dear free in my opinion it is an insult to the relationship to pay wife wages. It s an even greater insult to the relationship however to expect a wife to walk around without a dime in her pocket. A woman should help her husband in every Way she can because she s part of the team. A Man should give his wife an allowance for the same reason whether she works in his business or not. Reason for tax Relief charge discussed i am very much aware that we in Europe arc doing our part in helping balance the budget not Only our National budget but also our in House non appropriated fund one fund budget. As recently As december 1988, we found for exam ple that the 14 percent tax Relief was being done basically for free by mar. We paid a $ 1 fee at the Bank for the Check to defray processing costs but the paper work associated with the 14 percent value added tax Relief was typed and presented to the customer free of charge. I always assumed the reason the service was provided free was because it is part of the support package provided soldiers and their families in accordance with Usa eur Reg 600-700, similar to issuing of id cards Dodds schools medical and dental care issuing ration cards Pov inspection and licensing and so Forth. On March i customers started paying $4 to defray the costs of doing the paperwork associated with tax Relief. Since there is no alternative but to pay the entire amount to the Vendor i have difficulty understanding having to pay for authorized benefits. Whenever i requested tax Relief i found in every Case the person who typed the paperwork was either the installation coordinator s Secretary an additional duty or a gs-3 or gs-4 tax Relief clerk. In my years in Europe i have never had an Naf employee do my tax Relief paperwork. My Point is having appropriated fund employees do Naf work is waste fraud and abuse. When i Sec appropriated fund employees typing tax Relief paperwork and with the $4 going to mar which by the Way says it is doing the paperwork i am led to believe the data acquired from any Survey done which generated the fee decision was inaccurate skewed the Popula Tion samples were not pure and that there was not across sectional or longitudinal study done. Work counts were not determined and neither was there i ther an Meo or an ms-3 study done. I guess someone just said Well in . Military Community activity Germany All tax Relief clerks arc Naf let s charge $4 and get More Money into the mar coffers. There s a lot of tax Relief being requested Here s a Chance to generate More income. Tomor Row Well charge to do id cards passports ration cards medical cards. Heck we be already raised the prices at arc we be raised the licensing fees for automobiles and registration fees for personal weapons. We be even gone As far As to charge children membership dues to the local  the benefits for the Soldier and his her family Mem Bers have diminished greatly during the past few years. Mar is gradually developing a Large overhead which it must pay at the Cost of providing adequate uniforms for youth sports Soldier sports recreation program Sand Barracks Quality of life programs. Whatever happened to taking care of the Soldier and his family David Gonazales Stuttgart West Germany this letter is in response to an article americans in West Germany to get Utility  this program appears to be basically nothing new. I be taken my Utility Bills to the local tax Relief office for years to get the German tax taken off. The Only new parts arc l it will be done Community wide and could be made mandatory. Great another couple of useless red tape civilian positions to be paid for out of my tax dollars More wasted manpower and another forced wait in line with my Utility Bill All to do what the tax office has been doing for years. 2 we May lose some cola because of it. Just what i need another Cost saving program which ends up costing me Money. And Don i Tell me that i la breakeven because of the reduced Bills. As i said. I veal ready had the tax taken off my Bills with the cola As it is. This new program will end up costing me Money. Another problem this program will encounter is our sofa allows vendors to refuse to participate in Theta Relief program. Recently our electric company   stopped accepting tax Relief checks. They claim the program costs them Money in clerical time spent on processing the paper work. These Guys arc serious about cutting wasteful paperwork their ownership of the biblis nuclear Power Plant is costing them Bucks. So i would Hope that the Usa eur commander in chief will re Tomk this proposal. Apparently no one is giving him the whole truth. Or maybe someone is feeding him a line. Are you Reading this sir we Don t make enough Money As it is Don t ruin one of the few monetarily a cupful programs tax Relief we be got staff sgt. John Youngblood Worms West Germany editor s note John Allred mar staff offi cer. Community and family support Agency ill we appreciate your interest in the value added tax vat Relief program. It is certainly one of our most important Means of enhancing the Quality of life . Forces personnel and their families stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany. As your letters indicate there have been several significant developments in the program in recent months. The first was the introduction of a new standardized utilities tax savings program. In the past few local Utility companies were willing to Grant vat Relief because of a number of special Legal considerations. The new pro Gram resolves these difficulties so that everyone can Benefit from savings on Utility Bills. We re still working out the exact procedures but we Hope that the new service will save our customers both time and Money. Certainly the last thing we want to do is create an unnecessary Burden. The second development was the implementation of a$4 sen ice charge on tax Relief transactions. Everyone involved was reluctant to begin charging a fee for a service that had been free previously but circumstances dictated otherwise. Increased fiscal constraints coupled with rising administrative and personnel costs forced commanders of the Usa eur major commands to recommend unanimously that the current service charge be implemented. We Are continuing our efforts to improve service to the customer. Converting vat Relief offices to one Stop operations and installing automation and Cash Register equipment to shorten processing time Are just a couple of the ways we Are upgrading our services. Pen pals Pimm Plaza my name in the pan pal column. I am a 22-year-old christian.1 i d 1iu to lava pen mends from All Over the world. Aneika Strieker Gogek Katar Hau put. S3 8500 a Romberg 30. Wast Germany i am 3d Yeara old and i would eke to have pan pals. My hobbies Are scuba diving dancing outdoor a and Una loads. Gregory Morrison pobox34641 fort Buchanan puerto Rico 00934-0841 please place my name in the pen pal column. I am 30 years old and i am danish. I enjoy gymnastics aim mag and Reading. Stemo Assel 900 Augsburg. West Germany european edition col Jeffrey m. Cook. Usa commander editor in cruel it col Suzanne l Phillips Usa Deputy commander editor in chief Marie komihick1 Mert Proctor Deane b. Mcdermott production manager managing editor circulation manager this newspaper la an authorized unofficial publication Lor members of the Miary services overseas. Contents of the stars and stripes Are not necessarily the official Slewa of or endorsed by Trie . 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