DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997              TAG: 9710220187

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

ELECTION `97

Crime, drugs, education and taxes

they're issues that dominate the political debates. But they're also issues that affect the lives of people in Chesapeake and elsewhere in Hampton Roads. Replace property tax with increased sales tax, says shipyard worker

To Chesapeake resident Emile Vautrinot, a truck driver at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard - Portsmouth, the best way to improve Virginia's economy would be to eliminate the personal property tax and replace it with a gradual increase in the state sales tax.

Vautrinot has grown children and one 16-year-old granddaughter.

``Governor Allen kind of had a neat idea, and everybody else stonewalled it. He wanted to get rid of the personal property tax and raise the sales tax to accommodate it, which I think would work. I'm no mathematician; I'm a truck driver. But I think it would work. The cost of things today like automobiles - the personal property tax hurts. I agree with a one-time personal property tax, but every single year? It kind of makes you wonder - is it (a car) mine? No, it's the state's. Because if I don't pay the personal property tax, they state can take it.

``With the price we have to pay for items, and the price we have to pay for personal property tax, to have something nice around here gets expensive. You know, an automobile, a decent automobile, costs $15,000. Personal property tax on that is - more than lunch.

``I'd keep on the idea of raising the states sales tax to eliminate the personal property tax. It wouldn't be that hard to do, and that way, everybody would pay, because you've got to eat, you've got to buy clothes. And it would in turn give the public more money to spend. In lieu of spending it on $500 a year on personal property, they would have that money to spend during the year. It would increase the coffers during the year, instead of just that one shot in the arm.'' Police stakeouts could curb drug dealings, says South Norfolk barber

Norfolk resident Robert White, manager of 1st Class Cutz barber shop in South Norfolk, has some ideas about solving crime.

White, who is unmarried and has a 1-year-old daughter, said the state should reinvest any budget surplus into fighting drugs. Rather than imprison drug dealers after they are convicted, the state should spend money on additional police patrols to prevent drugs from being sold in the first place, he said.

Crime isn't a problem at his business, which is located across the street from a police station. In neighboring areas, however, drug dealers are bold enough to sell drugs on the sidewalk in front of a business, White said.

``Right now their concentration is on penalizing people,'' White said. ``That's wrong. . .

``They need to keep on keeping drugs out of the community,'' White said. ``Not stiffer penalties for people who sell drugs, but make it so people don't have the opportunity to. . . We need better lighting. They should set up (police) patrols at certain stations where people sell drugs and don't move from it. Places like the back streets. If they set up there, the opportunity wouldn't be there for people to sell drugs. . .

``They should concentrate on the known areas, the hot spots. The policemen, they know where the drugs are being sold. . . They don't need to patrol; they need to set up there. Just sit there. Eight-hour shifts. Why leave? They drive by, and see guys standing on the corner, selling drugs right in from of them, maybe they just sold some, and all the police do is drive by and stare at them. That doesn't do anything. They need to stay there. . . ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by VICKI CRONIS

Emile Vautrinot, a Chesapeake resident, is a truck driver at the

Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.

Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN

Robert White is manager of 1st Class Cutz barber shop in South

Norfolk.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu