DATE: Saturday, September 27, 1997          TAG: 9709260024

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

A large cigarette tax increase could hurt Norfolk

Norfolk City Council is considering raising the city tax on cigarettes. In an editorial on Monday, we asked readers to phone in their opinions on the proposed tax. Following are several responses:

The biggest problem of business here in Hampton Roads is the taxes. .

If you all would get together and decide to lower the taxes, maybe we could bring a lot more business into Hampton Roads and expand our tax base that way rather than raising taxes, making people leave the area.

Richard Stockton

Virginia Beach

According to staff writer Jon Glass' recent article, sales in Norfolk go down as cigarette prices go up. Therefore, revenue from taxes goes down as the sales go down. I'm interested in seeing that you want to suggest a 5 percent increase. That would be fine if you're trying to curtail smoking, but not if you're trying to raise more money from taxes. You might have suggested that Norfolk consider lowering its tax to make it somewhat lower than the surrounding cities. That might increase revenue.

Lynwood Beckner

Norfolk

I am a smoker, and I think it's wrong to target smokers to clean up Norfolk neighborhoods. Whatever happened to landlords taking care of their own property? What is wrong with tenants being required to clean up their own mess? Sounds like everyone wants to get on the ``get rich quick'' cigarette bandwagon. The way things are going, it won't be long before I start making weekly trips to North Carolina to buy the nasty cigarettes. If the money was going to something worthwhile, like fighting drugs, then it might be worthwhile and I wouldn't mind an increase so bad.

John Hatcher

Virginia Beach

I am not a smoker. I do not believe the city of Norfolk should raise any tax one dime. Right now we pay the highest taxes and the highest user fee of any city in the area. This is just another way for the city of Norfolk to get some more tax money. What's going to happen? They're going to raise the tax on cigarettes, the revenue will drop and then the city will raise some other tax to make up for the tax they lost when they raised this tax.

Again, not one penny in tax increase.

Al Armfield

Norfolk

I thought the bottom line was to discourage people from smoking. Seems to me that that's the essence of this whole anti-tobacco movement, and I know a couple of people who've said if the price of tobacco gets much higher, they're going to quit. They've been trying to quit, but they said they will quit for sure if it gets that high.

B-Cat Graham

Norfolk

I don't think they should raise the cigarette tax in the face of a possibility of inviting crime, because the people who're going to smoke will kill you, steal, rob to get the money.

There's nothing on a pack of cigarettes says you've got to smoke. The advertisement on the cigarettes tells you what smoking will do. I'd rather meet a person driving a car smoking a cigarette than meet a person driving a car drinking a fifth of liquor.

Let's use some common sense in these rules and regulations.

Macon Johnson

South Mills, N.C.

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