DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706190435

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   52 lines

PROFESSOR CHALLENGES GILMORE'S PROPERTY TAX PLAN

If elected governor, James S. Gilmore III says he will sponsor legislation to end Virginia's property tax on personal cars and trucks.

There's just one problem, according to the leading authority on the state's Constitution: He can't do it.

Called upon by officials of the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties, University of Virginia Law Professor A.E. ``Dick'' Howard analyzed Gilmore's proposal. At a news conference Wednesday, he announced his conclusion.

Because Virginia's Constitution stipulates that ``all property . . . shall be taxed'' unless it is specifically exempted by the Constitution, said Howard, Gilmore would need a constitutional amendment before he could abolish the personal property tax.

Such an amendment would require a statewide referendum and approval by two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly.

Howard, the principal author of the revised 1971 constitution, is often asked by General Assembly leaders to settle constitutional disputes. But Gilmore operatives characterized him Wednesday as a ``tax-and-spend liberal Democrat'' who has contributed money to Democratic campaigns.

``Every time the Democrats want to make a case for a liberal issue, they bring out Dick Howard,'' said Gilmore campaign spokesman Mark Miner.

In the face of such remarks, Howard was serene.

``I have a long history of giving legal opinions without regard to party,'' he said. ``I've done my homework. I am certain of my answer.''

Gilmore supporters rebutted Howard by passing out a legal analysis of their own, concluding that Gilmore's idea - a phase-in plan to end property taxes on the first $20,000 of assessed value on all personally owned vehicles - can be carried out constitutionally.

Written by Washington-based lawyers Theodore P. Olsen and Terence P. Ross and George Mason University School of Law Professor Steven J. Eagle, the Gilmore analysis outlines two ways Gilmore could cut the tax without altering the Constitution.

The first method would require the General Assembly to reclassify personal trucks and cars as ``household goods'' because the Constitution specifically allows the legislature to exempt such goods from taxation.

The second method entails passing legislation directing local governments to exempt from taxation the first $20,000 in assessed value of personal cars and trucks, or else to tax cars and trucks at ``such a low level, such as $1 per $20,000 of assessed value, as to amount to virtually no tax at all.''

Should Gilmore, as governor, manage to get approval from the General Assembly to end the tax, Howard said, that legislation would be open to legal challenge. In that case, the Virginia Supreme Court would have the final word on the issue. KEYWORDS: PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX

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