DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711150004

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion

SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   80 lines

THE COMING TAX DEBATE COMPETING PLANS WILL CLUTTER ASSEMBLY

Tired of thinking about taxes? Well, prepare for exhaustion.

Before the 1998 session of the Virginia General Assembly adjourns next March, you'll be as sick of hearing about the pesky little critters as you are of paying them.

You've no one to blame, Virginia voter, but yourself and Gov.-elect Jim Gilmore, who set the stage for a season of tax talk by centering his campaign on abolishing the property tax on cars and trucks. His victory margin qualified as a landslide and a mandate.

The result is a volcanic eruption of meetings and memos and strategy huddles as everyone with a scintilla's interest in Virginia's future prepares to weigh in on (a) the best way to fulfill Gilmore's pledge and (b) the best ways to reorder the whole sordid heap of levies and exemptions and payment schedules that make up Virginia's tax code.

To wit:

We've got Democratic Sen. Charles Colgan of Manassas and some others calling for a 1.5 cent hike in the state sales tax to pay for immediate elimination of the property tax on cars and trucks. (This contrasts with Gilmore's proposed five-year phase-out.) And we've got other Democrats scrambling to put the kibosh on party identification with any such tax-hike scheme. Political suicide, they say.

We've got the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Business Council, the Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties and just about every other group whose acronym starts with a ``V'' figuring how to convince Gilmore that the state has big needs as well as big wants.

We've got an assortment of lawmakers and groups seizing on the moment to advance their own particular tax causes. For instance, Sen. Bill Bolling, a Hanover County Republican, called this week for allowing localities to impose impact fees on new residential construction as one step in financing staggering school construction needs. (He's right.)

Meanwhile, Sen. Kevin Miller, R-Harrisonburg, is circulating a letter protesting the ongoing, hidden tax hike that comes from failure to account for inflation in setting personal exemptions to the income tax. (He's right, too.)

And the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, among others, is continuing to press for an Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. Virginia is one of seven states that requires ``very poor'' families - those earning less than half the poverty level - to pay an income tax. Meanwhile, the state gives a $12,000 deduction to every individual over 65, regardless of wealth. Such inequities need sorting out, the center says. (They're definitely right.)

Meanwhile, as if the input of 140 legislators, 5,000 local officials and 32-zillion special-interest groups wasn't enough, we also have two special study commissions getting ready to report on the state of Virginia taxes.

In the style that's become fashionable in the charged partisan climate of recent legislative sessions, we'll hear from the Republican-tilting Commission on Competitive and Equitable Tax Policy and the Democrat-tilting Commission on State and Local Government Responsibility and Taxing Authority.

Because both got started before abolition of local levies on cars and trucks emerged as the tax-cut du jour, actually du century, each will presumably have a thing or two to say about the broad array of levies used to fill state coffers.

But their agendas, along with everyone else's, have been reordered by the election results. The Competitive-and-Equitable crowd is soliciting a briefing by Gilmore or his staff, ASAP, on the details of their plan to enact the car tax cut. (Expect a mob at that gathering, if it occurs.)

And Eva Teig, chair of the Reponsibility-and-Taxing group, says she's sure her commission will wind up addressing the property tax issue ``in some way, shape, or form.''

The challenge on everyone's mind was posed by Sandra Bowen, director of government affairs for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce: ``We want to work with this governor to make sure we have fair and equitable taxes and sufficient revenue to do this other stuff,'' i.e., chamber priorities like investing in workforce training, education, transportation and assistance to small business.

``There're probably six ways of doing it,'' she said.

Bowen is optimistic. Six hundred might be more like it, and Virginians can prepare themselves for an onslaught of detail in the weeks ahead.

Funny how three little words, ``No Car Tax,'' could generate such voluminous response. MEMO: Ms. Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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