RESIDENTS SLAM POLITICIANS
OVER HIGH TAXES
Too Many Politicians Cause Taxpayers Grief




JORDAN H. GREEN
Regional Affairs Columnist

  "It's taxes, taxes, taxes!" summed up Bill 
Fisch, at Markham's public hearing on the 
Golden commission's recommendations for the
Greater Toronto Area (GTA) last night.
  Fisch, a town councillor, wasn't far off, 
as every speaker focused on taxes, specifically
property taxes, which on an average house could
jump in Markham by $563, according to the town's
own report.
  Out of the 51 recommendations in the Golden
Report, the one receiving the most attention is
the suggestion to pool property taxes across the
GTA. Property taxes are currently handled by each
municipality, some -- such as Metro's -- are based
on outdated figures from the 1970's.
  This is where things get ugly, as some municipal
property taxes will go down, while others will go
up. This balancing act is necessary according to the 
Golden report, to axe competition between mun-
icipalities and make the GTA 'economically thrive 
again.'
  "People are fed up with high taxes on their 
property," said Howard Shore, a Markham resident,
during his deputation to council. "People feel
that property taxes are the mortgage you will 
never pay off and it keeps going up."
  Shore's comments were welcomed with scattered
clapping and cheering by the crowd of about 25
residents at the town hall style meeting.
  Another set of cheers were set off when resident
Ken Hoyle suggested scraping property taxes 
altogether, replacing them with a similar system 
used for federal and provincial income taxes.
  "Municipal (taxes) should also be based on 
income, when my ability to pay is low, my taxes
should be low and when my ability to pay is high,
my taxes should be high," he said.
  Hoyle also made a recommendation that no one 
had heard of before, pooling educational taxes
among the federal, provincial and municipal
levels of government.
  This caused an enthusiastic Markham Mayor 
Don Cousens to interrupt him, saying: "I think
you've hit the nail on the head."
  Education taxes make up 75 per cent of York 
Region residents tax bill, pooling these makes
sense as an educated population benefits all 
Canadians, according to Hoyle.
  Another key recommendation discussed last 
night was the Golden report's suggestion to
eliminate the regional level of government.
  Resident Bud O'Connor expressed the crowd's
sentiment during his presentation to council,
"regional government is strangling us, it just
keeps growing and growing."
  York Region's nearly 600,000 residents are
served by 125 politicians in nine municipalities,
with over 4,000 staff members, according to
Fred Cox, Markham's governance committee chair.
  "It's interesting to note, just in York Region,
we have 12 fire chiefs, 12 fire chiefs!" exclaimed
Cox. "If you look at their total pay, it comes to
$664,000. Why do we need 12 fire chiefs?"
  Convincing residents there are too many dup-
lications in municipal services isn't as big a 
problem as it is convincing the politicians 
involved, as some will lose their jobs.
  "We either are going to reduce the number of
municipalities ourselves, or (Mike) 
Harris is going to do it for us," said Cox.
  Once the Golden Task Force examines all the
municipal reports from these province-wide
public meetings, the outcomes will be hammered
out this summer. If all goes according to 
Premier Mike Harris' plans, the changes will
be in place for the municipal elections in 
November.

Covering the areas outside of Toronto, Regional
Affairs Specialist Jordan H. Green's column
appears weekly.