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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995                   TAG: 9506220035
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

CIGARETTE TAX UP; SOME NEW TAXES DELAYED IN PULASKI

The extension of the town's consumer utility tax to mobile telephone customers will also be delayed for a month.

But all these things are likely to happen soon because the revenue from them is part of the town's 1995-96 budget.

The budget contains no real-estate or personal-property tax increases, but citizens will pay a little more next year in other categories.

The town's tobacco tax on cigarettes will go from 4 cents to 10 cents a pack, the first increase in more than a decade. It will also affect cigars, snuff and smokeless tobacco.

Pulaski Town Council will wait until July to add mobile phones to its utility tax base, because its utility-tax ordinance was recently rewritten to incorporate changes in definitions to correspond with the state code and it will take a little longer to break out the language pertaining to mobile phones.

Council decided Tuesday night to hold off on increasing parking fines until its staff can look at a recent parking study and meet with the town's economic development board, business alliance, parking authority and Pulaski County.

The changes in parking fines were not planned to start until Aug. 1. Proposed changes include raising from $3 to $5 the fine for parking violations including overtime parking, parking too far from a curb, blocking a driveway, overtime parking in a loading zone and parking in a prohibited area. The $5 fine for parking on a sidewalk would remain the same.

Other proposed changes include raising fines for parking too close to a fire hydrant from $5 to $15; parking in a fire lane, $15 to $25; and parking illegally in a handicap zone, $15 to $35. New fines would include $5 for occupying two parking spaces, and $25 for blocking a travel lane or parking in a posted "no parking" zone.

As originally proposed, the $3 parking fines would have been raised to $7.

Council passed an ordinance changing the due date for vehicle decals to April, to coincide with those for Pulaski County and Dublin. All three jurisdictions have approved an agreement to enforce each other's parking decal regulations.

To make that change, Pulaski will sell 18-month decals this year. They will be effective from Sept. 1 until April 1997, at a one-time cost of $30 for passenger cars and trucks under 20,000 pounds, $12 for motorcycles, and $30 plus $1 per 1,000 pounds over 20,000 pounds for heavier trucks.

After April 1997, the regular one-year decals will revert to their current costs of $20 for cars and light trucks, $8 for motorcycles and $20 plus $1 per extra 1,000 pounds for trucks over 20,000 pounds.

Council passed its 1995-96 budget of some $9 million Tuesday night by a 4-2 vote. It includes a 5 percent increase in water rates.

Alma Holston and E.G. "Junior" Black voted against the budget because of its economic development funding. Holston said she favored the economic development initiatives but was worried about using the town's Urban Development Action Grant interest money to fund it.

She said that fund needs to be preserved to make loans to potential new businesses. "For the first time in 11 years, I'm most uncomfortable with certain parts of this budget," she said.

In other business, council agreed to reconsider a possible charter change to reduce its size from eight to four members and make the mayor a voting participant at council meetings. Now, the mayor votes only in case of a tie.

Mayor Andy Graham brought up the matter, which was considered late last year by the Human Resources Committee when Councilman John Stone brought it up. The committee never made a recommendation on it to council but the committee chairman, Roy D'Ardenne, has said he favors looking at the idea.