BOUCHER LISTENS TO CONCERNS ABOUT HEALTH CARE, ECONOMY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992                   TAG: 9201160246
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
BOUCHER LISTENS TO CONCERNS ABOUT HEALTH CARE, ECONOMY
Rep. Rick Boucher faced a crowd of more than 100 at a town meeting Tuesday night to hear views on America's health-care crisis and economic stagnation.
Both are tough issues that Congress will wrestle with early this year, said Boucher, D-Abingdon.
He also heard from people who were concerned about the proposed direct-link highway between Blacksburg and Interstate 81, and about an idea for a regional trash incinerator at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
One owner of a small business said he thinks some who would consider starting a business are scared off by the high costs of health care for their employees.
Boucher said Congress has about 30 wide-ranging proposals on health-care reform, including a system based on England's, where doctors are government employees.
He doesn't like that idea, he said, but favors some kind of a public-private setup. At any rate, health-care reform will take years, he said.
On economic recovery, Boucher said the federal government again must overhaul its tax laws.
He said the capital-gains tax break should be restored to where it was before the tax reform of 1986. And citizens should be able to claim as tax-deductible their contributions to individual retirement accounts, up to $2,000.
Both measures would help fill the nation's pool of capital for personal and business borrowing.
Further, Boucher said, the federal government should guarantee loans for all college students, and change the eligibility requirements for Pell Grants to allow access to more rural students.
The government also needs to invest more in developing parts of the country with additional money for vocational and adult education; retraining for laid-off workers; and roads, water and sewer lines and industrial parks.
"Southwest Virginia, being a developing part of the country, should be a part of that package."
A $50 billion reduction in the $300 billion defense budget would help pay for those programs, he said.
Several people spoke against the proposed Blacksburg-I-81 link, which would be built as a test "smart" road for Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems.
Boucher has backed the road and pushed for federal money, which came through in a $5.9 million appropriation in November's transportation bill.
"Whether or not that road is built depends entirely on whether the state decides to move forward on that," Boucher said.
The Virginia Board of Transportation may take up the matter at its February meeting and decide on a route for the road, estimated to cost about $108.5 million.
One questioner asked Boucher what he would say to citizens living downwind of a possible incineration at the arsenal.
The congressman assured the audience that the incinerator would use state-of-the-art scrubbers in the smokestack to clean emissions before they were released into the air.
The arsenal needs a larger incinerator to burn scrap propellant left over from the manufacturing process. The Army has approached local governments about pitching in to build a regional facility that also would handle municipal garbage, up to 400 tons a day.
Boucher said the idea, called "Incinerator 2000," needs much more study, technically and financially, to see if it would work.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB