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Professor lives
MORE JOB CUTS through storms
on mountain
By Doug Davis this week in e-mail inter-
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com views.
Even before Sean Ireton Ireton made it to the snow-
started his solo ascent of El packed summit; a photo he
Mulhacén, Spain’s second took suggests a crisp, clear
highest peak, his 11-year-old day. But on his descent, a sud-
son, Aidan, sensed something den storm forced him to find
might go wrong. shelter in what he described
In fact, Aidan was worried as a small refuge 1,000 feet
“even before Sean left, and he below the summit.
became very upset even after Back at the tent, his wife
Sean had only been gone after and son waited in the dark
a few hours cold for him
— which to appear.
seemed odd “Suddenly I was rolling At one point,
to me since they went
I’m usually down the slope and into the vil-
the one who
worries,” said
bouncing off the rocks lage to con-
tact police.
Aidan’s moth- below until I finally Finding no
er, Megan one who could
McKinstry. came to a stop.” help, they
Two days Sean Ireton returned to
later, Ireton, MU professor who attempted a solo the tent and
an associ- ascent of El Mulhacén waited anx-
ate professor iously.
of German A i d a n
at MU, returned to his fam- slept fitfully, but McKinstry
ANJALI PINTO/Missourian ily after a harrowing descent stayed awake. “I was terri-
through winter storms. He fied, and with every passing
Gov. Jay Nixon calls for more budget cuts and job creation in this annual address to Missourians. had broken a leg, endured hour, I became more fright-
two freezing days and nights ened,” she recalled. “The

Nixon calls for cuts Jobs a top priority and hobbled on ski poles for
more than 12 hours.
Ireton, 44, is on leave this
storms were formidable, and
I knew that the fact that Sean
hadn’t yet returned meant

of $253 million for Nixon, Missouri academic year at the Phil-

osophisches Institut at the
University of Düsseldorf in
that he had suffered some
sort of injury.”
Still, they tried to keep
By Ben Wieder unnecessarily bloated. By Rebecca Berg The recommendation was Germany. His wife, McKin- up each other’s spirits. “We
news@ColumbiaMissourian. “This is more about news@ColumbiaMissourian. met by mixed reactions stry, 39, is an adjunct instruc- were both trying to keep pos-
com demanding more from com from legislators, some wor- tor of German education at itive while Sean was miss-
JEFFERSON CITY — people left behind,” Lueb- JEFFERSON CITY ried that the move could MU. The family had camped ing,” McKinstry said.
Gov. Jay Nixon called job bering said. — Facing a state budget jeopardize the state’s reve- out in a tent near the ski vil- On the morning of Jan. 4,
growth his top legislative The Department of crisis and high unemploy- nue and burden taxpayers. lage of Pradollano as part of Ireton began his descent to
priority in his State of the Social Services would be ment numbers, Gov. Jay Meanwhile, state business a short vacation. a ridge that he knew “would
State address Wednesday, hardest hit by job cuts, but Nixon made clear Wednes- leaders largely expressed On the afternoon of Jan. 3, lead me back to the ski area
but his budget recommen- Luebbering said many of day in his State of the State support for the initiative. Ireton, an experienced moun- and my waiting family.” But
dation for next year calls these reductions would be address that he means busi- In his remarks to state taineer, began climbing the just before he reached it,
for a reduction of 544 state positions already vacant — ness — and wants to bring lawmakers, Nixon said 11,423-foot peak in the Sierra a second, far more severe
jobs. although increases in wel- more of it to Missouri. efforts by the government Nevada mountains. He and storm struck.
With more than 1,000 job fare programs would give In his annual speech to in the past year have cre- his wife shared their stories Please see spain, page 6A
cuts slated for the current the agency one of the larg- a joint session of the leg- ated jobs, helped small
fiscal year, the addition- est percentage increases

UM to survey employees
islature, Nixon called his businesses and attracted
al reduction would mean among the state’s depart- plan to bring more jobs to companies to the state.
Nixon had cut almost 1,800 ments. the state his “top legisla- “It’s clear that our key
state positions in his first Nixon’s budget recom- tive priority.”

about benefits, value

business incentives and
two years. mendation calls for $253 A primary facet of Nix- workforce investments
State Budget Director million in cuts, $121 mil- on’s proposed plan is to are bearing fruit,” he said.
Linda Luebbering said the lion of which is to come increase tax credits offered “But much more needs to
reductions do not mean from Medicaid. by the state to attract new be done.” By KOURTNEY GEERS cal insurance and less on life
Missouri’s payroll is Please see budget, page 6a businesses to Missouri. Please see TAX, page 6A news@columbiamissourian.com insurance. Other employees
University of Missouri Sys- may prefer that benefit dol-
tem employees will soon be lars are directed toward sal-
Go to ColumbiaMissourian.com for GOP response to governor’s message asked to analyze their cur-
rent pay and benefits pack-
ary,” Rodriguez said.
Hewitt Associates, a human
age. resources consulting firm,
System President Gary will be conducting and ana-
Forsee wrote in an e-mail to lyzing the results of the “Pay

Tax form mistake has MU students concerned employees that a confiden-

The Social Security
numbers were visible
on mailed forms.
By Katy Bergen
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
About 100 people respond-
ed to an e-mail sent Tuesday
afternoon notifying students
that their Social Security num-
bers may have been visible in
the envelope window of a tax
form sent by the University of
Missouri System, said Nikki
Krawitz, UM vice president of
finance and administration.
More than 75,000 Form 1098-
Ts were mailed at the end of
last week. The four-campus
system has no way of access-
ing how many envelopes dis-
played the numbers. Form
1098-T is an Internal Revenue
Service form that reports
tuition billed and paid.
“People are concerned, as
everyone would expect them
to be,” Krawitz said. “They
are expressing their frustra-
tion and asking for guidance.”
Campus Mail Services com-
mitted the folding errors but
Krawitz said the system is
reviewing the entire process.
She said concerned students
and parents should look into
credit monitoring services,
such as Experian, that offers
a reduced monthly rate of
$3.46 to faculty, staff, retir-
ees and students in the sys-
tem. The UM System also has
consistently encouraged stu-
dents and employees to take
advantage of a free service at
www.annualcreditreport.com,
Krawitz said.
Columbia resident Rex
Cone received Form 1098-T
in the mail Friday for taking
a class fall semester. He said
his Social Security number
was printed above his name
and could be seen through the
envelope window.
“I was originally stunned,”
Cone said. “It was so blatant
— Student Social Security
Number — boom!”
Cone’s calls to the Universi-
ty of Missouri Taxpayer Relief
Hotline did not go through on
Friday. He made three more
calls the next day that did not
go through. A cashier’s office
representative told him that
the problem was a folding
error. An accounting services
representative told Cone that a
supervisor would be notified.
Cone, who already monitors
his credit, is not concerned
but still felt the error needed
to be reported.
Cone said a friend’s form
was sent to the friend’s par-
ents’ former residence, which
could place his friend at a
higher risk for identity theft.
Krawitz said the UM Sys-
tem Social Security Number
Remediation Project will help
ensure that this problem does
not happen again. The project
was formed more than a year
ago in the hopes of removing
Social Security numbers from
as many information systems
as possible. Next year all tax
forms will only contain the
last four digits of Social Secu-
rity numbers.
“It’s a comprehensive proj-
ect meant to change the way
we store information into our
system so we can better pro-
tect this kind of information,”
Krawitz said.
The placement of Social
Security numbers has been
changed on some tax forms,
such as the W-2 form, but has
not yet been changed on Form
1098-T, Krawitz said.
tial survey will be conducted
online at the end of January
to determine what faculty
and staff value about their
compensation and benefits.
Betsy Rodriguez, system
vice president for human
resources, said it has been at
least 10 years since a survey
of this kind has been con-
ducted by the university.
The survey questions will
cover current benefit areas
and are designed to allow
employees an “avenue for
input on the value of various
benefits.”
Forsee wrote that the
results of the survey will
be used to assess the value
of benefits and determine
which features have the most
appeal.
Different pay and benefit
combinations will also be
analyzed.
“For example, some employ-
ees may prefer that the uni-
versity spend more on medi-
and Benefits Preference Sur-
vey.”
“We have used them for a
number of years in related
surveys,” Rodriguez said.
“This survey will comple-
ment other Hewitt work for
us.”
Hewitt Associates conducts
a benefits index survey which
compares the university’s
benefits values to other uni-
versities.
The upcoming employee
survey will compare employ-
ee perceptions of value to the
actual value of the benefit
programs.
Although all employees
are encouraged to respond
to the survey, the expected
response rate is approximate-
ly 45 percent, according to
Rodriguez.
The cost of the survey is
$100,000 and will be com-
ing from employee bene-
fits. Overall, the university
spends $300 million a year on
employee benefits.

wastewater spills Corrections Index

into Missouri river
By The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY — More than
50,000 gallons of untreated wastewater
spilled into the Missouri River after an
electrical failure at a Boonville wastewa-
ter lift station.
The state Department of Natural
Resources said Boonville authorities
reported the overflow Wednesday. Boon-
ville officials believe a loose electrical
connection at a station caused an electri-
cal breaker to trip, shutting off power to
the station’s pumps.
Wastewater entering the station then
backed up and began to overflow, even-
tually reaching the Missouri River. The
city repaired the electrical problem and
stopped the overflow on Tuesday.
The DNR is investigating to see if the
overflow caused environmental dam-
age.
The City Council voted 5-0 to withdraw a proposed Cleaning up after Abby 7A
charter amendment that would require council input
when city department heads were hired and fired.
winter Calendar 2A
Classified 5B
Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe voted with The snow’s gone for now, but
Comics 7A
the other council members present. An article on don’t be fooled. Missouri is Life Stories 8A
page 1A Wednesday incorrectly reported the vote.
infamous for its unpredictable Lottery 2A
weather. Vox examines who Nation 4A
Money raised this week by The Rock church to help takes care of what when it Opinion 5A
Haiti will be matched by a charitable organization,
comes to winter cleanup. Sports 1B
and that combined amount will be given to Samar-
Sudoku 6B
itan’s Purse, an international relief organization. A
World 3A
story on page 6A on Wednesday incorrectly described
the fundraising effort.
Our 102nd year/#93
Today’s weather 3 sections
32 pages
The City Council voted to withdraw a bill to amend the Today: Patchy fog. Otherwise, cloudy.
city charter to allow more time for council and public Temp: 38°
discussion of the proposal. The secondary headline on Tonight: Cloudy. Temp: 32°
page 1A Wednesday incorrectly described the action. Page 2A
6 54051 90850 3