Re: Auctex persistent problems not recognizing master file

[David Denton]

It returns the value of 60 as expected. So the local variables are being 
read in non tex file. Interesting.

mm. I suspect that elisp function `hack-local-variables' is broken on
your machine for some reason. Does that work when you open non-tex files
with Local Variables section? For example, save the following file
somewhere and re-open it, and examine the value of `fill-column' in that
buffer. Does that value turn out to be 60, the local value?