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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 14, 1994                   TAG: 9412140118
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

BOTETOURT URGES TAX CUT TO WOO BUSINESS OFFICIALS WANT LOWER MACHINE, TOOL

Botetourt County officials are proposing a 25 percent slash in the machine and tool tax, hoping it will bolster the county's position as a key player in the Roanoke Valley's economic-development game.

The county's Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on reducing the tax rate at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday.

The proposed tax cut would reduce the effective tax rate on new equipment from $1.20 per $100 valuation to 90 cents per $100.

Roanoke County has the lowest effective tool and machinery tax in the Roanoke Valley: 75 cents per $100 for new equipment.

"Our No. 1 economic development target is manufacturing," said Botetourt County Administrator Gerald Burgess. "The biggest tax to the typical manufacturer is the machine and tool tax."

Burgess said several industrial prospects in the last two years have complained that Botetourt County's machine and tool tax was a little high.

"It was a disincentive for manufacturers to locate in Botetourt," Burgess said, adding that lowering the tax could bring some immediate results.

"We are working with several prospects, who have said that they would consider the lowering of the tax rate as a major incentive," Burgess said.

The county owns about 115 acres of industrial sites that it hopes to sell.

The county's ability to reduce the tax came as a result of its stand on an environmental concern.

Several years ago, Roanoke Cement Co., the county's largest industry, announced it would burn hazardous waste as part of its manufacturing process. The county rejected the plan.

After months of legal wrangling, the company was sold, and its new owners decided to invest $36 million in new equipment to modernize its process and significantly reduce emissions from the plant.

The windfall in new machine and tool taxes caused by Roanoke Cement's investment enables the supervisors to slash the tax rate while receiving virtually the same amount of money from the machinery and tool tax.

Burgess said the county could be in better financial condition than anticipated if several interested prospects view the tax cut as an incentive to locate in the county.

In addition to the machine and tool taxes paid by the new businesses, the county's real-estate and personal-property tax base also would grow.

Burgess said there could be another economic benefit: jobs.

by CNB