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Regarding the article "Our favorite sons" (The Inside Scoop, Dec. 18):

The point is that congressmen have to pay only 15 percent on the interest that they earn on their campaign accounts, while the rest of us -- state and local politicians in addition to the public -- have to pay 35 percent or more on the interest we earn on our accounts.

This is an issue where Rep. Howard Coble could be a hero to the people, to local and state politicians, and to local and state political parties by providing them with the same tax break afforded U.S. congressmen. The tax rates should be equalized.

This is not a personality issue. I happen to like Rep. Coble .

In fact, I used to have dinner with him every Monday night in Raleigh when he was in the state House and I was in the Senate. I also encouraged him to run for Congress.

I simply do not like the fact that he is not being aggressive with this particular issue, which is an obvious contradiction to the 14th Amendment. It is unconstitutional because it does not provide equal protection under the law and instead serves to disproportionately benefit U.S. congressmen.

If you had pointed out in the "Scoop" that my beef is that he only has to pay 15 percent and other local and state politicians have to pay 35 percent, then people would have understood this situation better.

Rep. Coble's response regarding this issue was inadequate. He does not have to be a member of the Ways and Means Committee to introduce a bill, nor does he have to be on the committee to make things right or at least express such a stance through the introduction of a bill.

All I have received out of his office are insufficient excuses. The first time I contacted his office concerning this inequity, his administrative assistant said he was required to have 235 co-sponsors in order to introduce a bill, which is not true. The second contact with his office resulted in his sending of my complaint to the chairman of the U.S. House Administration Committee, which does not deal with taxation laws in Congress. Rep. Coble did not tell me that he had talked to the Ways and Means Committee chairman until after I had asked N.C. Rep. John Blust to tell Coble to call me. Later, I was informed that the Ways and Means Committee chairman had replied that the committee was not going to do anything about the issue. My response to this final piece of information was that CBS's "60 Minutes" ought to be interested in this issue as congressmen want only to give a tax break to themselves that they refuse to give to everyone else. As such, I have sent correspondence to "60 Minutes" regarding this and am awaiting a response.

Rep. Coble has told me his inability to have this issue addressed by Congress essentially means that he is not effective, and I would agree with that.

If he cannot convince the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee that this is not a fair law, then he is not effective.

I re-emphasize, this is not a personality issue. I'm not running against him, but the little people and the little businesses deserve more aggressive representation.

Cary Allred represents the 64th District in the N.C. House. He lives in Burlington.