6 ~ Sunday, May 16, 1999 — North Shore News Taxing tug LL taxpayers believe they pay too much tax. As your pay goes p, so do your taxes. No matter what tax bracket you are in, you feel it ought to be the other guy that pays more. Those earning less are paying less and getting a free ride at your expense. As for the ones earning more, they are richer and therefore can afford to pay more tax. Politicians have heard it all before and the response tends to correlate with the votes that are needed in an upcoming election or the promises that were made in the election just past. On Monday, North Vancouver District council heard from representa- tives of its waterfront industry. They pointed out that the municipal tax rate in the district for heavy industry is the second highest in the region and that north shore news VIEWPOINT ft war in 1997 the port community paid over $9 million in taxes and grants-in-lieu to the district — 22% of the tax levy. They pointed out that the port as a whole is struggling in an international marketplace where some of the compe- tition is subsidized by local taxes. They want to pay less and they deserve consideration, but if council bites the bullet and lowers the tax on heavy industry, that money must be made up by dropping services or increasing other taxes. Council, like Solomon, must deter- mine where exactly to cut the tax baby. Pulling on the one end is a large part of the economic engine in the district. Tugging just as hard on the other end are the voting homeowners who won’t want to see council increase their taxes. Council is going to need biblical- sized wisdom to satisfy everyone. you said it “As much as mom and dad a:e worried about the bogeyman getting their kids, the fact is, it’s parents dashing to get them to and from school that are causing the danger.” North Vancouver RCMP Sgt. Bob Beaudoin, on the need to protect elementary-aged children from their speed- ing parents. (From a May 14 News story.) °000 “This guy came down on the sixth tee and said it’s snowing on the seventh, and we're like, rain cheque? How "bout a snow cheque?” Bad Religion bassist fay Bentley, on a snowy game of golf at the Northlands public golf course. (From a May 14 This Week story.) _ 000 “If they were, it’s not a school-sanctioned event.” West. Vancouver seceisdaty school principal Dave McMaster, denying that streaking and flashing students were from his schoo! (From a May :4 News story.) Q%0Q “Oh, I’m really sorry for what I didn’t do.” Calum’ McDonough, summing up the viewpoint of teenagers accused of assaulting him and his brother. (From a May 14 News story.) Q00 “Kids have to see to believe.” Retired school teacher Sheila Thompson, on the value of children being able to view artwork first hand and meet the artist. (From a May 14 News story.) ; 000 “I came by choice to Canada, and this is the best country in the world.” ’ Egypt-born owner of. Ambleside Cleaners Greg Horoupian, on his view of Canada after 20 years in Vancouver. (From a May 12 Commercial Avenues column.) “We're not there to create problems, make bad prob- lems on purpose or call somcone out because you don’t like the look of them. ... We're in it because we want to put something back in the sport.” North Vancouver soccer referee Ron Ward, on life as an amatcur referee. Ward was assaulted by soccer players last year. (From a May 9 Sunday Focus story.) Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as on ingepencerd sirburtan newspapes and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 171 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Faiday and Sunday by North Shore Free Pross Ud, and distritntod to every door on the North Sales Product Agreement No. 6087233. Creative Services Manager 985-2131 (127} —— a KEN GEORGETTI WANTS To ERADICATE THE OBSCENE WAGE GAP BETWEEN WORKERS AND Tor BRASS... AgouT TIME! Po You THINK HELL TAKE A$75,000 PAY CUT OR GET USA $75,000 RAISE? Waste, incompetence rob us blind STILL smarting from that cheque you made out to Revenue Canada just over a couple of weeks ago? If so, you’ve good reason, because the figures show Ottawa robs us blind. Its favourite method of pulling the wool over our cyes is to accuse tax protesters of wanting to destroy Canada’s most sacred cow of all — medicare. Unfortunately for Ottawa, a recent report on comparative health care costs by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shoots a massive hole clean through chat argument. In 1996 all government levels in the USS. spent $2,482 per person on health care. Canada spent $1,767, or 29% LESS per capita. Both governments spent almost the same proportion of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care: the U.S, 6.3%, Canada 6.4%. Comparative education expenditures are similarly clase. And in detence expen- ditures, of course — 3.2% of America’s GDP, a pathetic 0.6% of Canada’s — we enjoy a major per capita saving. So how come taxes in Canada total 37% of aur GDP compared to America’s mere 29% of GDP? And why does today’s average Canadian family pay 12% more of its income on taxes (46%) than on shelter, food and clothes (34%)? The answer is mainly because of 11 PETER SPECK Publisher 885-2131 (161 a raphy 985-2131 ren 986-6222 (202) 61,582 (average crculation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) The North Shore News is published by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck, from 1138 Lonsdale Avenue Horth Vancouver, B.C., V7M 2H4 eh bloated, overpaid bureaucracies and pub- lic sectors whose key activity is to pro- mote their own power and that of their political masters by squandering OUR money. Duplication benween federal and provincial governments abounds. Bilingualism and multiculturalism (with free English- Second-Language class- es tor all) cost many millions, And hew eco- nomicaliy vital still — as opposed to politically — are massive subsidies to Quebec and other “have-not” provinces? The devil, they say, is in the details. A few years ago the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), a 40,000-member advocacy group dedicated to “more free- dom through less government,” identi- fied $7 billion wasted by Ottawa in a sin- gle year on projects of no value whatsoev- er to Uie average citizen. It included: $400,000 to promote World Hot Air Balloon Championships in Quebec; $321,000 to study Peruvian guinca pigs; $161,260 to examine the Philippines garlic industry; $208,286 to probe “religious and historical practice among northern Malagasy speakers”; $3.3 million for Montreal’s Museum of Humour; $23,000 for Fiddlehead Magazine, and $8,000 to Janice and Lynn Andrews tor their book Bloodlines: A Collection of Writings by Lesbian Sisters. . Add $107 million in phony UI claims; $39 million in excess student loans; $131 million to promote multiculturalism; $2.4 hither and yon million for radical feminist groups; $18 million to trade unions for “labour edu- cation”; and S114 million in regional support plans and subsidies to prop up private businesses. No space here for the many similar items that added up that year to $7 bil- lion of our bucks misused to feed political sacred cows or finance bureaucratic empire-building And even at $7 billion the NCC sleuths may still have only scratched the surface of the total waste and incompetence. Correct this reckless lack of financial discipline and accountability at both senior government levels, and the major tax relief urgently needed to restore Canadian productivity and prosperity to their former levels could be achieved without the slightest threat to our cher- ished social programs. . U.S, taxpayers have 2 whole arsenal of weapons for forcing their governments to toe the zax line. On Wednesday we'll examine why Canadians still mostly lack such weapons — and what to do about it. 000 MANY HAPPY RETURNS of yesr-r- day, May 15, from the Better Late Dept. to Mt. Seymour Lion Jamie Innes... The same again to West Van’s | saug, Max Wardell ... And on Tuesda;, slay. 18, wish happy birthday to West Van Kiwanian Graham Senner. ro .. Q0G ; WRIGHT OR WRONG: Life isn’t holding a geod hand, it’s playing a poor hand well. : ~~ nwright@uniserve.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number, Managing a VIA e-mali: trenshaw @ direct.ca Michael Becker - News Editor 985-2131 (114) Andrew MecLredie - Sporta/Community Editor 985-2131 (147)