ASHLAND, VA (WWBT)- It may soon cost you more to enjoy some of the "extras" in Ashland. The town is planning to hike taxes on cigarettes and hotel stays to fund a pay raise for town employees. Civic workers have gone without any salary increase for five years.

The tax hikes would bring in an extra $222,000 a year for the town. Ashland mayor Faye Prichard says raising "luxury" taxes will fund the three percent pay increase for 60 full-time employees, including police.

"At the end of the day, certain things are luxuries. And I would rather tax those, than things people just don't have a choice about," said Prichard.

For example, raising property taxes would put the burden on everyone in town, instead of just smokers or visitors. 

"Then nobody's actually getting singled out as being a smoker or non-smoker," said Tony Gsell, who says he often buys cigarettes in Ashland.

HANOVER, VA (WWBT)- A group of Hanover residents is saying enough is enough to new developments like an apartment complex currently under consideration. Some residents feel it would bring too much traffic, but county leaders say there may be more pro's than con's.   

A wooded property off Atlee Station Rd. in could be replaced with an upscale apartment complex to be home to nearly 500 people. Four stories catering to families. It's a new tool for development the county says but some people who live here say wait a minute.

Nearby resident Kim Vivaldi got a letter in the mail, asking her and her neighbors to speak out at a public hearing.

"Probably the most negative debate about it is that they want to stay a rural area and that the apartments can be found in more urbanized areas than what we have here," Vilvadi said in reference to talk among her neighbors.

She says she doesn't quite agree.

Randolph-Macon College will host journalist Steve Moore, who will present “Economic Challenges for Millennials” on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in Blackwell Auditorium, R-MC Center for the Performing Arts. This event is free and open to the public. Click on R-MC campus map for information about the venue.

Moore's most recent book is Who's the Fairest of Them All?: The Truth about Opportunity, Taxes, and Wealth in America. He is also the author of Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status.

He is the senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal and is also a member of its editorial board. Moore splits his time between Washington and New York, focusing on economic issues, including budget, tax and monetary policy.