Harvard Administrators Laud Threat to Veto Tax Credit Bill

College officials said last night they agreed with President Carter's plans to veto legislation giving income tax credits to families of college students.

Joseph A. Califano Jr., secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, said Monday Carter will veto the legislation because it would fuel inflation, increase government regulation of education, and would not be based on financial need.

"We were delighted," R. Jerrold Gibson '51, director of the Office of Fiscal Services, said yesterday.

Gibson said that with the threatened veto, the tuition tax credit bill will probably be defeated. Gibson said Carter's own plan for increased financial aid is much more likely to be enacted into law because of the veto threat.

The tuition tax credit bill would give tax credits of $250 to all families with college students, regardless of need. Carter's proposal, already passed by the Senate and soon to face the full House, would expand current financial aid programs with emphasis on families in the $10-25,000 income brackets.

"It was a simple case of good and bad financial aid bills," Gibson said. "The tuition tax credit bill is a bad bill, in that it is too costly and gives money to the wrong people."

Gibson Goes to Washington

Gibson, who returned from Washington last night, said he is concerned that the Senate may not pass an appropriation bill to accompany Carter's financial aid package.

"We're in 'iffy' territory now," Gibson said. "It's a question of passing the bills before Congress adjourns in the next couple of weeks."

Robin Schmidt, vice president for government and community affairs, agreed that the Carter proposal is much better than the tax credit bill, and noted that the College has supported Carter on the issue all along.

Carter's threatened veto of tax credit legislation will not be overridden, Tom Wolanin, staff director of the House Subcommittee on Post-Secondary Education, said yesterday.

Too Late

Wolanin said, however, that the bills containing Carter's proposals probably will be enacted into law, but a spokesman for Sen. Claiborne Pell, (D-R.I.), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, doubts that the bills could be passed this session.

If Carter's proposals are approved, they will become effective in the 1979-80 academic year. The package would increase eligibility and benefits under the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program, the Supplementary Opportunity Education Grant Program, the College Work-Study Loan Program, and the Guaranteed Student Loan Program.

Gibson said that the legislation would have no effect on the amount of financial aid the College itself offers, but would make more students eligible for federal financial aid.