BILL WOULD LET COUNTY SPEND COAL TAX FUNDS

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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992                   TAG: 9201180177
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CLINTWOOD                                LENGTH: Short
BILL WOULD LET COUNTY SPEND COAL TAX FUNDS
Financially strapped Dickenson County would like to dip into its coal severance tax money for its general fund.
Normally, money derived from the tax goes toward roads and a small amount, in recent years, to fund the Coalfield Economic Development Authority, which was established to lure jobs to the region. The legislation creating the tax allows Southwest Virginia's coal counties to enact up to a 2 percent tax that coal-mining companies must pay on tonnage removed from county lands.
Del. Clarence "Bud" Phillips, D-St. Paul, is introducing a bill in the General Assembly that would allow Dickenson County to move up to $1 million of the severance tax into its general fund.
But even that will not come close to addressing the $6.5 million budget deficit foreseen by county officials. - Southwest bureau

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB