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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992                   TAG: 9203100323
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

BEDFORD COUNTY EYES NEW TAX

Bedford County residents may be charged a monthly tax on their electric bills starting in July, as part of a proposal by the Board of Supervisors to balance next year's budget.

The consumer utility tax suggested Monday night would cost residential electricity users - homeowners, renters and mobile homeowners - $1.50 a month.

Industrial and commercial electricity customers would pay $5 a month.

The tax, which would bring in $432,000 in new revenues next year, will be considered in a public hearing April 6 before the supervisors make their final decision.

If they do approve it, however, it will mean a balanced budget of about $56.5 million for 1992-93 - with no increase in the real estate tax rate.

In fact, supervisors agreed Monday night not to increase the real estate rate of 62-cent per $100 assessed valuation. They are locked into that decision because they cannot raise rates - but can lower them - after advertising them for public hearing this week.

The decision to leave alone that rate came as a surprise to some who had predicted this budget season would be particularly tough, complete with a hefty and painful jump on the real estate tax rate.

Bedford County is one of only a few counties in central Virginia without a consumer utility tax on electricity, county officials pointed out.

Neighboring counties including Amherst, Botetourt, Franklin, Pittsylvania, Roanoke and Rockbridge and the city of Lynchburg have such a tax. Bedford city and Campbell County have no such tax.

Still, the new tax would come on the heels of a different, new tax for Bedford County residents. Just last year, residents began paying a monthly tax on their telephone bills to finance an enhanced emergency 911 system.

For what was expected to be a grueling budget year, supervisors whipped through a budget work session Monday night with relative ease and speed.

From a proposed $56.8 million spending plan, the supervisors cut $300,000 in planned spending for items like a new landfill, gas pumps, a tractor and an oil tank.

They also agreed to spend $43,000 to give county employees pay raises similar to the ones state employees are expected to get next year. The original budget proposal had included no pay raises.

by CNB