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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994                   TAG: 9402080076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

INCOME TAX WOULDN'T CHANGE, BUT SMOKERS WOULD PAY MORE

Within the dry tome that is the president's budget - column after column of small, black and white print - are the numbers that can change the lives of many Americans.

Hikers would pay more to enter National Parks; some laid-off workers would qualify for new job-training programs. Ranchers would pay more to use public grazing lands; more poor children would get the vaccines they need.

Much of the savings would come from eliminating 115 programs.

So the proposed budget is bad news for people who work at the weather station in Samoa, scheduled for elimination, or who depend on cottonseed oil export subsidies, study the zebra mussel or plant or enjoy new trees in state and city parks.

Congress will have its say, of course. Some pet projects may win reprieve before Congress returns the budget to the president for his signature, this summer at the earliest.

Generally, taxpayers can breathe easy: Unlike the 1994 budget, the new proposal contains no major changes in income taxes.

That may be little comfort to smokers. Clinton wants to quadruple the federal tax on cigarettes, to 99 cents per pack. The money would be used to pay for health-care reform.

For two-pack-a-day smokers, that would mean an additional $1.50 per day, or $547.50 per year, up in smoke. The expense could drive some to quit. And that upsets tobacco farmers.

"There's a lot of people who depend on tobacco for a living," says tobacco farmer Frank Strickland of Lakeland, Ga. "It's going to put a lot of people out of work."

They aren't the only ones worried about their livelihoods. Military cuts will take their toll on some, like workers in Fort Worth, Texas, who make the Air Force's F-16 fighter jet. No more of the planes are ordered in the 1995 budget.

And gun hobbyists who make extra money selling guns may no longer be able to afford dealer's licenses. Clinton wants to raise the fee from $200 for three years to $600 for one.

Other professions will come out ahead. Scientists should benefit from a research budget that's up 4 percent from this year - especially if they do AIDS research or their work relates to the information superhighway, a favorite subject of Vice President Al Gore.

Border Patrol agents may find some extra help makes their jobs easier: The budget calls for 1,010 more agents along the U.S.-Mexico border by late 1995. And Clinton wants more police across the nation, too.

The budget also has good news for college students - the number eligible for the federal government's grant, loan or work-study programs would increase by 80,000 to 6.7 million. And 829,000 students would be eligible for work-study programs, up 16 percent.

For the poor, there's less money to build public housing, but Clinton wants to spend more to fix up existing public housing.

Some who get government heating assistance may be left out: That program is to be slashed from $2.08 billion this year to $791 million next year.

But the Head Start preschool program will continue to grow, making room for 90,000 more children next year (750,000 are enrolled now). And there's more money for nutrition programs for pregnant women and children, too.

And the Department of Housing and Urban Development would increase aid for the homeless by 85 percent.