ADDED FEE, CIGARETTE TAX SOUGHT FOR JAIL

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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040250
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ADDED FEE, CIGARETTE TAX SOUGHT FOR JAIL
City Manager Bob Herbert will recommend a $5 increase to Roanoke's motor vehicle license decal and adding 3 cents per pack to the cigarette tax to pay for expanding the city jail and juvenile detention home.
The decal fee would increase from $15 to $20. The cigarette tax would go from 14 to 17 cents per pack.
The higher fee and tax would generate an estimated $630,000 a year that would be used to repay a $6.3 million bond issue.
Herbert said Wednesday he will recommend that City Council issue the bonds without a referendum because the city is under pressure from judges to ease overcrowding in the jail and the detention home.
"These two projects are not simply needed, they are critical. We are at the point now where we must move ahead on them," Herbert said.
"At the same time, we do not have the capacity to take on an additional $630,000 payment each year [to repay the bonds] with existing [taxes]. That means that we have to find a way to pay for these projects," Herbert said.
Herbert said he tried to soften the impact for taxpayers.
"The decal fee increase is a relatively small amount per citizen and the cigarette tax is a user fee that would only impact those who buy cigarettes," he said.
Also Wednesday, Herbert said he will recommend - as expected - that council approve a $13.8 million bond issue to pay for the conference center that will be part of the Hotel Roanoke project. Council has given informal approval to the center financing.
No taxes or fees will be increased to pay for the center because the tax revenue generated by the hotel complex will repay the bonds, he said.
City Council will hold a public hearing at its March 22 meeting on issuing bonds for all three projects - conference center, detention home and jail - without putting them to voters. The bonds total $20.1 million.
Combined, the jail annex and detention home expansion will cost $10 million - $7 million for the jail and $3 million for the detention home. But the city hopes to receive $3.7 million in state funds for them.
The city's share of the jail project would be $4.8 million and for the detention home, $1.5 million.
These figures are based on the assumption that the state will pay 25 percent of the cost of the jail and 50 percent of the cost for the detention home.
If approved by council, the projects would be included in the fiscal 1993-94 budget and the bonds would be issued at a time to be determined by the finance director.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB