Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990 TAG: 9006220698
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE LENGTH: Medium
The board rejected the tax Tuesday when it adopted a $4.1 million budget for the 1990-91 fiscal year that begins July 1.
The new budget includes a tax increase that county officials say is needed to bring in additional money to cover a state-required pay increase for teachers and other school personnel.
The real-estate tax will go up 5 cents to 70 cents for each $100 of assessed value. The personal-property levy will increase 20 cents to $2.20 for each $100 assessment.
Schools will get the bulk of expenditures in the new budget - 70.4 percent or more than $2.6 million.
The proposed business, professional and merchant license tax was widely denounced during a June 4 public hearing.
A number of citizens, mostly operators of small businesses, made it plain they did not want the tax. Several of them hinted broadly that if the tax were adopted, it would become a political issue in supervisor elections next fall.
In deciding not to adopt the license tax, the board also decided not to repeal the current merchants' capital tax. This was to have been repealed if the license tax had been adopted.
On another matter, the supervisors allocated $500 toward the cost of opening the swimming pool at Camp Mitchell this summer.
Operators of the pool said about $2,000 is needed for start-up costs. Most of that is for chemicals to purify the water. But the supervisors said they did not have that much money.
Members of the board also suggested that the swimming pool operators join forces with the county's CADRE group that has a $25,000 grant to provide a drug-free youth center.
CADRE hasn't been able to find a center, and the supervisors suggested that CADRE could take over Camp Mitchell's main building and operate it as a youth center in conjunction with the swimming pool.
In other matters:
The board interviewed Thomas Zimmerman and Joyce Gillingham for Zimmerman's seat on the Craig County School Board. Zimmerman is seeking reappointment to a second four-year term, and Gillingham, a Head Start teacher, is seeking a first term.
The board approved a special-use permit to allow construction of a car wash on Virginia 311, about five miles south of New Castle. James and Brenda Custer, owners of the Custer's Last Stand country store, want to build the car wash next to the store.
The board approved a $50 fee on all new septic tanks. The fee will cover an increase in the cost of providing health services in the county.
The board approved a $2 fee on all criminal and traffic warrants to build a fund to cover the cost of maintaining court facilities.
by CNB