Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503160003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The tobacco industry, possibly more formidable in this state than the National Rifle Association, may yet raise a ruckus. So might the hotel-motel industry. But thus far - and Secrist's recommendations were put on the table last fall - there's been no apparent groundswell of opposition from Blacksburg's residents.
OK, so maybe some Blacksburg types harbor attitudes different from some of their neighbors', one difference being a greater willingness to pay for things governmental. No doubt, many Blacksburg smokers are unaware of Secrist's proposal to increase the cost of inhaling.
Still, the virtual lack of protest confirms what polls show: that public disgust with tax increases in general does not extend to cigarette-tax increases in particular. Many citizens, in fact, believe tobacco taxes should be considerably higher than they are, what with cigarettes' known toll - 400,000 Americans killed annually and billions upon billions added to the nation's health-care bills.
There's even more cause for this sentiment in Virginia, where the General Assembly, kowtowing to the tobacco industry, has kept the state's cigarette tax indecently low - lowest, indeed, in the nation.
Well, then: Why no noticeable opposition to a lodging-tax increase? The reasoning may be similar, if less admirable. It's a nonbrainer that nonsmokers won't especially mind tax increases on a product they don't buy - especially if it means that another tax, which they do pay, won't have to be raised accordingly. Likewise, a local lodging tax is ordinarily paid not by local residents, but by visiting outsiders.
Raising the cigarette tax from a nickel to a dime a pack would not put Blacksburg out of line with nearby jurisdictions that impose levies on tobacco. Ditto, raising the lodging tax from 2 percent to 4 percent.
All of which is to ignore perhaps the most significant reason for public willingness to go along with the town manager's recommendations. The tax increases seem fair and reasonable in part because the capital-outlay projects they're intended to finance enjoy broad community support.
The senior-citizens center initiative has been lent added impetus by Blacksburg's efforts to market itself as a retirement mecca. In June, the town, the local Chamber of Commerce and Virginia Tech plan to stage a four-day exposition expressly to lure soon-to-be retirees to the area. (Lodging prices wouldn't reflect a higher tax yet.) The more success Blacksburg enjoys in this economic-development strategy, the more it will need a facility especially for senior citizens' activities.
Not to mention seniors already living here, whose interests are worth considering as well, and who should be neither smoking nor spending nights in local motels. It's time to raise the money and get on with the capital improvements.
by CNB