U.S. Water News Online
GORDONSVILLE, Va. -- Hard hit by the drought, officials are considering a local cigarette tax to raise money to upgrade the town's water system.
Repeated cuts in state support and the loss of tax revenue from several businesses that have closed or scaled back operations have forced the town to look for new sources of revenue.
Imposing a 10-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes sold in the Orange County town could bring in $18,000 to $35,000 a year, town officials estimate.
``The budget doesn't even allow us to do any upgrades on our water system,'' Mayor Ernest Duncan noted.
Duncan said the council has been considering the ``sin tax'' for some time and has not heard much negative feedback. Town administrator J. Hubert Allen Jr. said the new revenue could go toward sidewalk improvements as well as water storage facilities and new water lines.
Councilman Robert Coiner said he will listen to the public before deciding whether to vote for the tax. He said he would like suggestions on ways to save money to stave off further taxation. ``It would well serve (residents) to articulate what services they wish to see eliminated,'' he said.
Last summer's drought hit Orange County hard, especially the towns of Gordonsville and Orange, where there is little capacity for water storage. The towns rely almost solely on the Rapidan River for water, and the river's level dropped to mere inches at one point in the summer.
Businesses in the two towns faced water shut-offs for a few days during August, and water-based customers such as car washes and coin laundries endured major water cut-backs.
Since then, both Orange and Gordonsville have studied water-storage techniques to prevent future emergencies.
Orange officials have not considered the tax, but may increase water rates to offset the cost of constructing a water storage basin, said Town Manager Sabrina Martyn. The increase will not go toward paying off drought-related expenditures from last summer, she said.
Gordonsville has no cigarette tax, so smokers pay only the Virginia tax of 2.5 cents per pack, the lowest state levy in the country. In mid-December, Alexandria joined Chesapeake in having the highest local cigarette tax in the state at 50 cents a pack.
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