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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990                   TAG: 9006050103
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

COX CABLE CHALLENGES HAMPTON ROADS TAX

Cox Cable of Hampton Roads has filed suit challenging the constitutionality of a recently imposed city tax on cable television hookups.

In a suit filed Friday in Norfolk Circuit Court, the cable company and two subscribers charge the 7 percent tax discriminates against the city's 48,000 subscribers and violates the company's First Amendment rights to free speech.

The suit claims that cable television never has been defined as a utility under Virginia law, so the city has no right to tax it as such. The suit further alleges the tax, which will increase basic cable costs from $18.30 to $19.49 a month, is unfair to "the elderly, shut-ins and low-income residents who rely on cable television as a primary form of entertainment." - Associated Press

by CNB