Aprit 3, 1992 96 pages

ND

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Office, Editorial 985-2131

WEST VANCOUVER

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NEWS photo Terry Peters

A NORTH Vancouver RCMP officer takes information from Al Fitkowski, the
driver of a car that lost its brakes Thursday morning on Third Street in North
Vancouver. The driver attempted to avoid vehicles stopped for a red light, but
ended up clipping a Jeep and a Toyota. The accident caused no injuries.

20% increase for average taxpayer;
140% to 170% hike in school taxes

taxpayers

FALLOUT FROM the NDP provincial budget announced
jast week in Victoria will soak taxpayers living in Canada’s

richest community. 7

West Vancouver municipal
number crunchers say that prelim-
inary figures point io an estimated
20% increase in taxes to the
average municipal taxpayer this
+ aid West Vancouver finance
director George Horwood, *‘There

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

are some. serious implications
here. We're going to end up with
a lot of taxpayers revolting, and

we've got enough
revolting as it is.”’
Three elements of the provincial
budget hit especially hard in West
Vancouver:
ethe decision to scrap the sup-
plementary homeowner’s grant
that was given to taxpay in
1990 to offset school tax hikes;
ean 11% decrease in uncondi-
tional revenue sharing transfer
money from the province (the

Lage

number varies for municipalities
and the decrease is capped at
14%);

ea 10% reduction in tunding for
the B.C. Assessment Authority
coupled with « move (o annual
assessments.

Average West Vancouver tax-
payers pay a lot because they sit
on expensive properties. But over
30% of those homeowners are
senior citizens,

Said West Vancouver Mayor
Mark Sager, “The removal of the
supplementary homeowner's grant
most severely impacts those who
have purchased property
time ago and may now be |

on a fixed income, and the value
of their property in) no way
reflects their ability to pay.’’

Sager is angry because the
changes came without consultation
with the municipalities.

“It came out of the blue. And
then they just unilaterally reduced
our transfer payments by 11%. OF
course they provide these uncon-
ditional grants in recognition that
some of the functions that a
raunicipality carries out are really
within a provincial jurisidiction,”
Sager said,

He termed the overall conse-
quences to taxpayers ‘‘enormous’’

See WV page &