DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260999

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Decision '97

                                            LENGTH:   35 lines

TAXES AND SPENDING [GILMORE]

Virginia must concentrate its resources on creating the best public school system in the nation, assuring the safety of our neighborhoods and streets, and improving the transportation infrastructure that will carry us into the 21st century efficiently.

I will first provide the funding to put 4,000 additional teachers in Virginia's elementary schools. In higher education, I have proposed the New Century Scholars Program, which would provide scholarships to 50,000 Virginia high school graduates and college students every four years.

Plain and simple, I want to abolish the personal property tax people pay every year on their cars and trucks. This tax hits working families hard year after year, and is heaped annually on top of the sales tax they already pay for their cars.

Virginia's revenue collections have grown over 7 percent the last four years, and this past year, they grew 8.2 percent. Economic forecasts project that Virginia's economy will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

There is no reason for Virginia's government to spend every cent of that prosperity dividend, and there is every reason for the people of Virginia to share it.

By abolishing the personal property tax on cars and trucks, we'll return $1.6 billion to the pockets of Virginia's working families over five years and let them make the decisions on how it gets spent. Much of it will be plowed back into small businesses across Virginia, leveraging the beneficial effects of this tax cut and creating even more jobs and prosperity across the commonwealth. KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE VIRGINIA

PLATFORMS TAXES CANDIDATES

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