Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993 TAG: 9302190071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
CALL FOR SACRIFICE FINDS SOME TAKERS
A CROSS SECTION of Western Virginians said Thursday that they don't fault President Clinton for breaking his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. And most said they were willing to pay higher taxes if the burden is shared by all - and if it helps bring down the deficit.
Doug Johnston, 60, didn't vote for President Clinton because he didn't like Clinton's avoidance of the Vietnam War.
Johnston, who is retired from the heating and air-conditioning business, is leader of the Henry County Taxpayers' Association. Considering Clinton's war protesting, Johnston said, it was ironic to hear the president ask citizens to be patriotic and pay higher taxes.
But Johnston isn't upset that Clinton won't be fulfilling his campaign promise for a middle-class tax cut. Johnston said the middle class is "not plumb stupid" enough to have taken the promise seriously.
\ Terry Arrington of Boones Mill doesn't object to President Clinton's plan "as long as it's across the board."
Arrington, 40, who owns and operates Boones Mill Market Plant & Produce, said Clinton's plan "has got to be better than sitting still. A plan is better than no plan. It's better than stagnating."
Arrington supported Clinton. "At least he's trying," he said. "He's not afraid to say what he's thinking."
\ Tommy Jordan of Buchanan is a prominent Democratic activist in the Roanoke Valley, and he's willing to give Clinton's tax proposals the benefit of the doubt.
"For me personally, I don't mind doing that, but I don't think it's going to work," Jordan said. "I just can't see this stuff passing. You start taking money away from Social Security and entitlements . . ." He figures special interests will gut Clinton's economic package.
But Jordan's concerns about Clinton's proposed energy tax make him sound like a Republican. For one thing, the railroad foreman runs a lawn-mowing business on the side.
"A gas tax on somebody who operates a small business, like I do, that's devastating," he said.
\ Kim Duncan, 32, didn't vote for Clinton, and she doesn't like his economic plan.
"Every time anything comes up, we're the ones who get stomped on," she said of the middle class. "My theory is, if I can work hard and work 12-hour days, others can, too."
The way Duncan sees it, Clinton is "just another Democrat who taxes more to spend more."
"I have to work two jobs to make ends meet and get my piece of, quote, the American Dream," she said. By day, Duncan works full time as an administrative assistant in the Roanoke Economic Development Department office; off-hours, she sells Avon products.
\ Tom Prato said you can't expect the company you work for to pay higher taxes if you aren't personally willing to contribute more, too.
But Prato, director of marketing communications for Bassett Furniture Industries, still is skeptical, especially since "we've started seeing promises broken already."
"At the same time, I think [Clinton] made some good points, specifically about welfare. That's one of the things the middle class looks at and thinks sometimes there is waste," he said.
\ Molly Hagan, director of the Alleghany Health District, is ready to embrace President Clinton's call for sacrifice.
"I believe the same thing he does," said Hagan, 38. "We can't keep pointing fingers and letting the problems escalate."
She believes Clinton is headed in the right direction when he speaks of empowerment rather than entitlements for the poor, although the prospect of getting off welfare after two years may be daunting for some of her clients.
"I don't know of any patients who will be angry," she said. "I do think they will be worried and scared."
\ John Marlles admires President Clinton for trying to reduce the national deficit. But he wants to see the details of the president's economic plan, particularly his proposed cuts in federal programs.
Marlles, 39, Roanoke's chief of community planning, is worried that the cuts might affect federal aid for urban areas.
But he likes the proposed energy tax because he believes it will encourage conservation.
Although Marlles will pay more taxes, he agrees with Clinton that the country must reduce the deficit and make an investment in programs that will help create jobs and provide long-term economic security.
\ Marian Pitman is willing to give it the old middle-class try.
But, she warns, Bill Clinton's economic plan had better work. Otherwise, he will be turned out on his ear.
Pitman and her husband, Richard, live in the upscale Dalnita Hills subdivision in Botetourt County.
"I'm not sure raising taxes in the long run is going to help us, but I'm willing to give it a try. We've got to get the deficit down," Pitman said. At the same time, she is nervous about Clinton's breaking one of his major campaign pledges, not to raises taxes on the middle class.
"I hope to God he knows what he's doing, but I don't know if he does. How does anyone know?"
\ Reginald K. Hutcherson of Roanoke, former chairman of CorEast Savings Bank, said he's willing to pay his fair share in higher taxes to help reduce the deficit.
"Everybody will have to pay more," said Hutcherson, now a field underwriter for Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York. But "if they buy in," he sees possibilities of success for Clinton's economic plan.
Clinton came across Wednesday night as "one who is trying to do something to solve the nation's economic woes." By cutting the White House staff and asking Congress to reduce its employment, he's setting an example.
\ "Mr. Clinton broke his promise when he said the middle class will not be taxed," Sylvesta "Dee" Dozier said. But, Dozier said, he'll support Clinton "if it's spread as equally as he proposes."
Dozier, 41, is the owner of Dozier's Cleaning Service of Roanoke, and said he was especially pleased with Clinton's effort to help small businesses get the credit they need to expand and improve.
Dozier, who voted for Clinton, said he's willing to forgive the president for breaking his promise to the middle class because "he has to reduce the deficit and this is what he has to do."
He said he believes that when Clinton made the promise, he was unaware of how big the deficit really is. "I think what he found when he actually got there was a bigger problem than he had imagined. Remember this is not Arkansas. We're talking about the country.
"That he had to go back on his word, I can live with that if he's going to do something for the country - as long as he squares away the country, puts people back to work, reduces the deficit," Dozier continued. "But if he's just going to tax, he's got a problem. He'll have a problem on his hands."
Staff writers Lon Wagner, Diane Simpson, Sandra Brown Kelly, Dwayne Yancey, Daniel Howes, Carolyn Click, Mark Morrison, George Kegley and Douglas Pardue conducted interviews for this story.