
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180345
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Medium

EARLIER TAX BILLS CONSIDERED

Franklin County landowners may get their property tax tickets earlier this year to give them a chance to avoid a year-end cash crunch.

Union Hall Supervisor Mike Brooks, who proposed the plan, said Tuesday that it was a "real shocker" for people to pay property taxes in one lump sum before the Dec. 5 deadline.

Brooks said mailing tax tickets earlier would give people the opportunity to pay in several installments. Any money that came in early would be a bonus for the county, he said.

Real estate tax tickets generally are mailed to landowners in November, several weeks before the deadline for payment. The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to study the feasibility of mailing the tickets earlier, possibly in the summer.

But several supervisors said they wanted to make sure the plan would not create too much additional work for Treasurer Doris Brown. Brown did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

Commissioner of Revenue Ben Pinckard said he would be willing to try an early mailing of tax tickets, but cautioned that "human nature" would lead most people to wait until the deadline to pay their taxes.

"You check the tax rolls at Nov. 25," Pinckard said, "they'll be the ones who have not paid their taxes at all."

In other action Tuesday, the supervisors did not act on a $1,200 request from Project Discovery to help send 40 disadvantaged high school students on a three-day field trip to five colleges in eastern Virginia.

Project Discovery is a state-funded program that helps students from disadvantaged families apply and prepare for college.

The board's decision not to act on the request comes two weeks after it agreed to donate $1,000 to a drug- and alcohol-free party for students attending the upcoming Franklin County High School prom.

The supervisors also approved rezoning requests for a 12,000-square-foot office complex on Virginia 616, one-quarter mile east of Virginia 122, and an Italian restaurant on Virginia 40 in Union Hall.

by CNB