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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995                   TAG: 9503200059
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

PENSIONERS ABOUT TO GET THEIR REFUNDS

Virginia will soon be mailing refund checks to its federal retirees, nearly six years after they began fighting to retrieve income taxes the state had collected illegally.

Gov. George Allen last month signed a law that provides a total of $306 million for 147,506 pensioners and their survivors. That works out to an average of about $2,075, but the checks range widely.

The first checks will be mailed March 31. Those due the smallest refunds will get the full amount; others will be repaid over five years.

The refunds amount to 76 percent of what retirees were illegally taxed. Although many retirees rejected the offer, legislators decided to stick with the settlement and take their chances in court with those suing for more money.

Virginia was among 23 states affected by a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states could not tax federal pensioners while exempting state and local government retirees. Because of its large population of federal retirees outside Washington, D.C., and around military bases in Hampton Roads, Virginia faced by far the largest liability of any state.

- Associated Press

by CNB