TAX-RAISE FOES SPEAK OUT

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992                   TAG: 9202050276
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
TAX-RAISE FOES SPEAK OUT
A tax increase viewed as the most likely tax bill to pass the General Assembly generated the most opposition at a public hearing Tuesday.
The Senate Finance Committee took comment on bills that would raise taxes on cigarettes and on incomes of people earning more than $100,000 a year. It also considered a bill that would allow a tax break on personal savings and business investments.
Tobacco farmers and cigarette plant workers filled the hearing room to oppose bills that would raise the cigarette tax to as much as 20 cents a pack.
Legislators say the assembly is likely to at least double the current 2.5-cents-a-pack tax, which is the lowest in the nation.
Jordan M. Jenkins, a Lunenburg County tobacco farmer, said a tax increase "kicks dirt in the face" of the most successful industry in Virginia's rural areas.
More than 4 percent of state workers have jobs with direct or indirect ties to tobacco, Virginia's biggest cash crop, said Anthony Troy, a lobbyist for the Tobacco Institute. He said tobacco has created 47,000 jobs in Virginia.
Daniel LeBlanc, president of the state AFL-CIO, said tobacco industry jobs would be jeopardized if a tax increase passes.
Sen. Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg, said Virginia still would have cigarette taxes below the national average even if his 20-cents-a-pack tax passes.
"It would not hurt your industry, which we love here, one iota," Schewel told Troy.
Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, said tobacco farmers are against a tax increase but also oppose planned cuts in the agricultural extension service.
"You can't have it both ways," Marye told Jenkins. "Tell me what you would do."
Jenkins said he would prefer a sales tax increase.
Dr. Stephen Ayres, dean of the Medical College of Virginia, supported the cigarette tax increase as a way to pay for rising health care costs.
"It's not a sin tax. It is basically in the best tradition of the insurance risk-rating approach," Ayres said. "It is paying in advance for the health care, the excess health care, that will be necessary."
Smokers of all ages have a death rate twice that of the general population, he said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB