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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 20, 1995                   TAG: 9501200108
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

A LITTLE TAX THAT SHOULDN'T?

Some 100 business people, led by a large contingent from Northern Virginia, gathered at the State Capitol on Thursday to take verbal whacks at an obscure tax with an innocuous acronym: BPOL.

They denounced the tax as a "job-killer" that cripples small businesses and chases multinational companies out of the state.

They cheered when a member of Gov. George Allen's cabinet reaffirmed his belief that the tax would die a slow but sure death.

Allen's vision of a slimmer government has lifted BPOL from obscurity and put the little-understood levy at the center of the biggest fight of the 1995 General Assembly.

BPOL - pronounced "Bee-Poll" - is short for a "Business, Professional and Occupational License" tax that is imposed by all cities, most towns and about half of the counties in Virginia. Businesses pay according to the dollar amount of business they generate.

Until Allen singled it out for elimination, BPOL had generated little controversy in many parts of the state.

Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., a member of the Roanoke City Council from 1988-93, said he could not remember ever hearing a complaint about the tax.

"It's certainly not something that comes up at a cocktail party - until recently," said Martha McClees, vice president of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

Opposition to BPOL originated in Northern Virginia, where giant companies drawn to the suburbs of Washington complained that they were getting soaked compared with competitors from neighboring localities and in BPOL-free Maryland.

Multinational corporations based in Northern Virginia howled when localities tried to lasso the BPOL around revenues generated in their far-flung offices.

A legislative committee was studying ways to curb these abuses. But Allen went one better by proposing to eliminate BPOL altogether as a way to make Virginia more business-friendly and put governments on a forced diet.

The vast majority of local governments are flatly opposed to Allen's plan out of concern that losing BPOL will force them to raise local property tax rates.

Robert Skunda, Allen's secretary of commerce, tried to defang the mandate argument Thursday by saying localities could reinstate the business levy if the state falls down on its commitment to replace lost revenue.

The compromise is not expected to stop a bevy of angry local government officials from descending on the Capitol next week.

Stay tuned. And keep an eye out for lapel stickers reading: "Kill BPOL" or "Killing BPOL: The Mother of All Mandates."

Democrats who control a slim majority in the General Assembly opened a third front - higher education - in their efforts to dramatize hardships that will result from Allen's tax cut proposal.

Senate Democrats pledged to fight Allen's proposal to slash $47 million from state colleges and universities.

"We're going to do what we can, but we need help and we need support," Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, told college presidents appearing before a legislative committee.

Having lost $500 million in state funding over the past five years, the college chiefs said further cuts would be devastating. The state risks slipping to 45th from 43rd place nationwide in amount of funding for higher education, they said.

"We simply cannot have the best system of higher education in the nation by investing the least," said Timothy J. Sullivan, president of the College of William and Mary.

Andrews said a priority will be to restore funds Allen wants to ax from six colleges - including Radford University - that failed to submit approved restructuring plans by a December deadline.

In other General Assembly news:

The House of Delegates voted 66-32 in favor of a bill that enhances penalties for anyone who is convicted twice of obstructing access to abortion clinics. The measure, sponsored by Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

The House voted unanimously to give a second chance to federal pensioners who missed a Nov. 1 deadline to take part in a proposed settlement with retirees who were taxed illegally from 1985-88.

The Associated Press contributed information to this report.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995