Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990 TAG: 9004020194
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
A member of the Roanoke Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce staff has admitted to a county tax rate of $1.50/$100 by 1996. My numbers come out at $2/$100, or higher.
A $75,000 home will be taxed at $1,500 and a $125,000 home at $2,500. We'll get nothing more for our money except to pay for consolidation, no increase in services and no measurable improvement in education. These will take even more money.
Roanoke City has recently raised all utility taxes and is looking for more. Be assured that everything that can be taxed will be, to the limit! County assessments are so high that the market has been stabilized with a substantial real-estate inventory.
Can the Roanoke Valley carry the financial burden of consolidation? No, it will devastate the economy, including Salem's.
If it's education or $9.3 million to merge the two emergency communication services, the money will go to the emergency services. If it's parks and recreation or $8.4 million to merge the two mapping and land-record systems, the money will go to mapping and land records. These are two items of $27 million not in the pro-forma budget.
Citizens Against Merger advocates cooperation as an efficient solution. We don't have to wait three years to start cooperation; it can start tomorrow. We don't have to destroy two school systems to promote cooperation, and we don't have to go into poverty to do it either. Cooperation is the answer.\ DON TERP Coordinator, Citizens Against Merger\ ROANOKE
by CNB