THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300512
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BATTINTO BATTS JR., STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 60 lines
Jeanette Rainey, Reginald Barnes, Frankie Edmondson and Frank Trice all say they don't mind paying taxes as long as their money is well spent.
The Portsmouth residents discussed issues in the presidential election at the opening Thursday of Anderson-Little Antiques and Garden Shop on High Street.
A tax cut, once promised by President Clinton and at the heart of Bob Dole's campaign, sounds good until you consider the programs that might disappear, they said.
``Cutting taxes would cut programs that help make the community,'' Rainey, a 28-year-old real estate agent,said.
``What is driving this? It's not that we feel we have too many taxes, but we feel that our money is being misused,'' Trice, 50, an accountant, said. ``I'd feel better if they give the power to the local level. Portsmouth knows what its problems are better than Washington does.''
Edmondson, a consultant, and Barnes, a musician, think the proposed cuts are mere rhetoric.
Barnes, 36, doesn't believe Dole intends to cut taxes across the board by 15 percent if elected.
``I think it is a last-ditch effort to save a desperate campaign,'' Barnes said.
The conversation then shifted to welfare reform and smoking.
Barnes said he is glad to see the government limit the time someone can receive benefits.
``The old system fostered dependency,'' he said.
Trice, Rainey and Edmondson, 28, agreed the government should restrict welfare but said recipients need training to secure jobs.
Barnes thinks the lack of welfare will force people to work.
``They will find something,'' he said.
The group had divergent views on regulating the cigarette industry.
Trice and Rainey think the government should regulate tobacco sales, particularly to youths.
Rainey thinks the industry is already regulated by restrictions on smoking in some public places. More wouldn't hurt, she said. Barnes thinks there are too many regulations already.
Barnes would have found a sympathetic ear four blocks away on Dinwiddie Avenue, where Victor Howard was preparing to paint Nancy Feller's house.
Howard doesn't think the government should crack down on cigarette sales. He understands the hazards but supports the right to choose.
``I'm a nonsmoker. But I think if we keep making laws we will go to a situation like Big Brother,'' Howard, of Norfolk, said.
Feller disagreed.
``As a mother, I would not want my teens to smoke, if we can keep them from it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Frank Trice, 50
Jeanette Rainey, 28
Reginald Barnes, 36
KEYWORDS: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 CHICAGO by CNB