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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995                   TAG: 9503080070
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

DENYING TAX DELINQUENTS THEIR VEHICLE REGISTRATION 'BEST TOOL'

City Treasurer Martin "Jigger" Roberts thinks a cooperative program that denies a motor vehicle registration to anyone owing the city at least $100 in back personal property taxes is "probably the best tool we have come up with to collect from people who have slipped through the cracks." The city signed up for the plan last year.

Roberts told a City Council planning session Saturday that the program stopped registration of 650 motor vehicles for nonpayment of personal property taxes. Under the arrangement, supported by computerized records, tax delinquents can be thwarted at any Division of Motor Vehicles office in Virginia, and their vehicle may not be registered until the tax debt, interest and penalties are paid.

Overall, Roberts reported his office's 9,500 enforcement actions over the past year - including those through the DMV - recovered nearly $167,500 in delinquent personal property taxes and almost $100,700 in back real estate taxes.

Another technique Roberts used successfully was the debt set-off program that withholds back taxes from an individual's Virginia state income tax refund. Roberts said the city has been enrolled in that program since the early 1980s.

In other business at the Saturday session, Councilman Bill Yerrick asked his colleagues to establish the Radford Commission on Arts and Events and hire a part-time special events coordinator to oversee a proposed "world-class" annual festival in the city. Yerrick headed the ad-hoc Commission on Festivals and Celebrations. That panel has recommended setting up the permanent commission to manage an annual festival on a par with the Highlands Festival in Abingdon or Festival in the Park in Roanoke.

Yerrick said the new structure would "give the city the opportunity to provide the leadership" for a major festival.

Under the proposal aired by Yerrick, the commission would have nine members appointed by council, and a regular budget. The ad hoc commission proposed a festival budget of just $700 for 1995-96. For next fiscal year, however, it would increase to $18,950, then jump to $33,120 for 1997-98. The lion's share of that, $18,000, would go for entertainment.

Main Street Radford and the Radford Chamber of Commerce have backed away from sponsoring full-blown festivals featuring name entertainers. Spokesmen for Main Street, which will sponsor a scaled-down Septemberfest this year, have said mounting a major annual event was "beyond the scope of any one group." The chamber has dropped its annual Riverfest because of other demands on personnel.

"It takes more than our volunteer organizations can deal with," Yerrick said.

However, some council members questioned why either Main Street or the chamber could not handle the festival if freed from the fund-raising aspects. Mayor Tom Starnes said he had reservations about the costs involved.

Other members wanted to know if the new commission also would oversee the annual Fourth of July event, now managed by a small committee of volunteers who raise in the neighborhood of $10,000 each year to cover the celebration and fireworks in Bisset Park.

"The Fourth of July could come through this [commission]," Yerrick allowed.

City Council plans to formally consider the festival commission proposal at a regular meeting later this month.

by CNB