Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412140043
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I think it speaks clearly of Virginia elected officials' position that our state's tobacco tax remains the lowest in the nation.
I agreed so completely with two-thirds of the people polled earlier this fall that taxes on tobacco products should be raised that I called my senators to urge their vote for higher taxes. Many other Virginians have done the same. If the tax reduces the money teen-agers need for other things they deem necessary (gas, CDs, movies, etc.), perhaps they could learn to do without tobacco.
In Canada, teen smoking dropped 60 percent when the tax went to more than $3 a pack. It would save more than money. It would save millions in health care, pain, suffering and death.
Are you listening, politicians?
WILMA REED
President, Floyd County Unit
American Cancer Society
FLOYD
A governor who keeps promises
WAY TO go, Gov. Allen! It's positively refreshing to be reassured once more that here's a politician who keeps his campaign promises to reduce our tax burden, to abolish parole, and to encourage job growth in the private sector instead of state government.
Not surprisingly, this newspaper finds it difficult to praise his agenda for positive change without inferring that there's an ulterior, selfish motive. Having traveled one-third of this commonwealth on behalf of and with candidate Allen, I can tell you that our governor is simply fulfilling pledges he made to Virginia voters, which prompted them to elect him with a clear mandate for change.
We should all feel proud that he's receiving national recognition for actively pursuing and achieving goals for which taxpayers have long clamored.
Now if we can just take a page from the recent national elections and gain GOP control of the General Assembly, we can send Gov. Allen that ``new generation of leadership'' to assist him in his endeavors.
TRIXIE L. AVERILL
VINTON
Keep him off the ballot
AS OUR Democratic leaders meet privately to find a potentially electable candidate to run against state Sen. Brandon Bell in 1995, one name should be omitted from the list: Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson, the driving-under-the-influence driver, sweetheart-deal real-estate broker, big spender who has no time for his Hollins District citizens' complaints, and finds it impossible to solve any problem without spending taxpayers' money to excess while adding more regulation on already overregulated, overtaxed county residents.
Wake up, city and county voters, and make Johnson's politics extinct. Just say no before he can do statewide damage.
TERRY L. WALKER
ROANOKE
Boucher did what was right
IN HIS Dec. 4 column (``Do Boucher, Payne represent some constitutents too well?''), Alan Sorensen criticized Rick Boucher for voting against the Brady Bill and assault-weapons ban.
The implication is that the votes were politically expedient, giving Boucher a National Rifle Association endorsement and campaign funds. They were also expedient in that voters didn't overwhelmingly endorse the 1994 crime bill and weapons ban. Of congressmen ``fired'' in November, 97 percent voted for the crime bill. A CBS poll found the top issue for 25 percent of the voters was gun control.
Sorensen urges that a congressman must not only represent his district but also work for the common good. That work includes fulfilling a congressman's oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution, of which the Second Amendment is a vital part. Boucher respected his oath.
Sorensen implies that he hopes Boucher feels guilty when reading of assault-weapons deaths in Washington, D.C. - murders occurring in spite of an assault weapons ban that D.C. has had for years. Sorensen's own words imply the folly of gun control.
It's no crime that Boucher's campaign benefited from these votes. They were the right ones for his constituents and his country.
TODD PUKANECZ
BLACKSBURG
by CNB