DATE: Thursday, September 18, 1997          TAG: 9709180335

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

VIRGINIA [BRIEFS]

MANASSAS - Jim Gilmore's plan to cut Virginia taxes may not be the flat tax Steve Forbes preached as presidential candidate, but Forbes praised it Wednesday as a good idea with national implications.

Gilmore campaigned in northern Virginia with the wealthy Republican and author of the conservative flat tax orthodoxy. The two visited business leaders and toured a new $1.7 billion semiconductor plant.

Gilmore's platform for governor includes a five-year plan to cut the personal property tax on cars and trucks. At the end of the five years, the tax would be eliminated from vehicles costing less than $20,000.

Forbes' plan would simplify the federal income tax system by eliminating multiple tax brackets and closing loopholes.

Critics wondered whether economic growth and budget savings could pay for either plan, as both Gilmore and Forbes claim.

``He has the right idea. Make it clear, keep it simple,'' Forbes said of the Gilmore plan after the two snapped protective blue raincoats over their suits for a tour of the chip plant.

Forbes predicted if Gilmore wins the Nov. 4 election, his tax cut will attract national imitators.

Jail conversation causes

taking of forensic samples

MANASSAS - A potential suspect in the deaths of three Spotsylvania girls told a cellmate that he had sex with adolescent girls at a deserted Caroline County house, court records say.

Michael A. Jett, 39, also talked to cellmate Joseph Norford about the slayings of sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk and mentioned having been near the Lisk home, according to an affidavit signed by Spotsylvania County Detective Robert B. Jones.

Authorities investigating the deaths of Sofia Silva, 16, and Kristin Lisk, 15, and her sister Kati, 12, took blood, saliva and hair samples from Jett Thursday night after Norford notified police about Jett's alleged jailhouse statements.

The affidavit outlining Norford's allegations accompanied a search warrant executed to obtain Jett's samples. But it could be several months before FBI crime lab tests shed light on any connection between Jett and the killings, said Capt. Patricia Sullins, a spokeswoman for the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office.

Jett is serving a one-year sentence in Prince William County on a misdemeanor sexual battery conviction and is awaiting a hearing on felony abduction and forcible sodomy charges. The charges stem from an attack in July on a woman in Prince William County.

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