News in Brief

A tax-reform task force appointed by Gov. Guy Hunt of Alabama has issued a wide-ranging set of recommendations that includes calls for nearly $500 million a year in new tax revenues and a requirement that local school superintendents be appointed rather than elected.

The proposals, which reflect compromises among the 33 education, business, and community leaders on the panel, are intended to be implemented as a whole in fiscal year 1994. "All of these things have to be linked together as a package," explained David C. Rickey, a spokesman for the task force.

The recommendations would require counties to impose a minimum tax of 20 mills on the assessed value of property or lose their state funding. Some counties currently tax at a higher rate, while others now are as low as 8.5...