BRITISH COLUMBIA City taxes should reflect ability to pay — The main item on the agenda of the first meeting of the newly elected Van- couver city council last November was the city budget. Some direction had to be given to staff in preparing it. NPA and TEAM aldermen demanded that we lay off staff or put all staff on reduced hours or both, and that we cut services to people such as libraries and so on. The labor-backed majority on council — the four COPE -aldermen Bruce Yorke, Bruce Eriksen, Libby Davies and myself, plus mayor Mike Harcourt and alderman Bill Yee said, “No Way!”’ We insisted that we could balance the city budget without cuts in staff and without cutting services. We pointed out that the city was in a good financial position and had reserve funds that it could draw on, funds set aside for emergencies such as we were currently in. Since we had the majority, our viewpoint prevailed in a seven to four vote and staff was instructed accordingly. Staff then prepared recommendations in line with council’s instructions which were submitted to council’s standing committee on finances of which I am chairman. The committee worked through the budget and submitted it to council. It has now been endorsed. As a result there will be no layoffs and no cutbacks in services. We proved it could be done despite the cries of blue ruin from the NPA and TEAM who continued to demand layoffs and cutbacks. One of the steps we took in balancing the budget was to reduce the business tax from nine percent to 5.7 percent. This was the only method available to usin our transfers and other funds). It should be noted that the grant from the provincial government has been cut by $976,232 (from $18,684,232 last year to $17,708,000 this year). Among the major expenditures are $19.1 million for administration and . government, $53.3 million for police, «: $34.5 million for fire protection, $37.4 million for public works (streets, traffic, sewers, garbage, etc.), $8.1 million for Harry Rankin ih. unfair tax system, even though we-are well aware that it will also give big business a tax break. A second major step we took was to transfer $9.4 million from other funds and reserves into general revenue. The total budget comes to $258,168,524. On the income side, $181.4 million will come from taxes, $67.4 million from other revenues (grant from the provincial government, license fees, parking fees, waterworks, and $9.4 million from health, $37.8 million for recreation and community services, $2.9 million for grants to community groups, and $34.4 million for debt charges. Even though it is already overdue, city council has not yet set the mill rate for 1983, and therefore has not sent out any tax bills. This is because the provincial government has indicated that it will replace the present method of taxation (under which municipalities can choose one of four options provided by the pro- quarters May 5. CP candidates forced real election debate By FRED WILSON The lessons of the provincial election - will be debated for months to come, but for the Communist Party one important conclusion can already be drawn. That is that the basic electoral strategy of the CP - is correct. Unfortunately, complete poll results are not yet available and the final Com- munist voie is not yet known. However, the range will be from slightly less than a hundred in Alberni to about 300 in Van- couver East, It was not a realistic expectation that the Communist vote would rise in this election. Polarization and the issue of government cutbacks precluded that, and the CP itself recognized that fact by runn- ing only four candidates. But the fact that the CP maintained its base of aware, committed voters and that its campaign was met with warmth by thousands of sympathetic voters who decided to support the NDP, demonstrated that the party is on the right track. During the course of the campaign there were two arguments heard most often criticizing the Communist cam- paign. First was the suggestion that the CP candidates could contribute to the defeat of NDP candidates. Second was the opinion that the low vote the Com- munist candidates were likely to receive would harm the image-of the party. The best answer to these arguments was the campaign itself. Take Vancouver Centre, for example, where Maurice Rush ran an outstanding campaign. One of the distinguishing features of the cam- paign in this constituency was the organization of several large debates, some of which were shown on television. It.was.one of the few ridings where a real debate was able to take shape. The NDP incumbents began their campaign on the defensive, pleading with voters to unders- tand their shortcomings. By the end of the campaign it was the Socreds who were in retreat, and any honest observer would have to give a large portion of the credit to Rush and the Communist campaign that led the attack on the Socreds. In the © course of that debate Maurice Rush’s credibility was established unequivocally. The prestige and influence of the Com- munist Party in Vancouver Centre has in- creased and bears little relation to the ac- tual vote. There were shortcomings in the CP ef- fort which should be noted. Some flowed out of a woefully inadequate budget that allowed the party to spend only slightly more than $20,000. But the biggest short- coming was the lack of door to door, per- sonal contact. Without a doubt a large number of potential Communist votes were not realized because of organiza- tional weaknesses. I’d like to invite Tribune readers or CP supporters to express their opinions about the Communist campaign, either with letters to the editors or letters directly to myself at the CP provincial offices. This was a learning and growing campaign for the Communist Party, from which the party has emerged stronger. vincial government — all of them bad) with a so-called variable mill rate. Presumably the legislature will be called into session quickly to deal with this. Under the present system of options provided by the provincial government (Vancouver has selected Option C), only a certain percentage of the assessed value of the property may be taxed and the percentage varies according to the type of property. Under a variable mill rate, the taxes would be on the total assessed value of the property, but there would be varying mill rates for various types of property. This could, in theory, be a better method, but it depends upon how many strings are at- tached to it. When the provincial govern ment’s record of reducing taxes on big corporations and increasing them on homeowners, I wouldn’t be too Op- timistic at this stage about the benefits of a variable tax. S The only fair method of taxing propel- ty is to base it on ability to pay, the same way our income tax is. That would re- — quire a graduated property tax. Then small business would pay a small tax and big business a larger share, and taxes on homes could be reduced. The following table will be of interest to taxpayers. SHARE OF TAX PAID BY CATEGORY OF PROPERTY (Actual) 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Single Family 37.72% 37.71% 39.71% 32.47% 29.13% Other Low Density Residential 5:40°= 6416 = 5:96. 6:27. 6.13 Apartments & Condominiums _ 12.59 12.08 11.42 1282 11.63 Commercial 36.61 36.73 35.87 40.47 44.22 Industrial 6.58 6.34 6.10 6.46 7.08 Vacant 1.10 ..98 94 1.51 1.86 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 J) bs RR TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON. Communist Party leader Maurice Rush speaks to party supporters at CP head- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 13, 1983—Page 2 Bishops’ plan favored | by two GVRD councils Vancouver city council has become the se- cond civic government in the Lower Mainland to adopt the Catholic bishops’ statement on economic and social reform as the ‘‘keystone of a municipal strategy for economic recovery.”’ Council voted five to four Tuesday in favor of the motion which praises and ac- cepts as guidelines for economic planning the statement of social affairs commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled, Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis. : The statement, which levies un- precedented criticism of capitalism by a church body and calls, for an end to social service restraint and wage controls, was also adopted by North Vancouver city council at its Apr. 25 meeting. The initiative came from Hamilton city council, which adopted Ethical Reflections at its Mar. 29 meeting and sent copies of the motion to all municipalities with populations exceeding 10,000. The eight-member social affairs commis- sion, headed by the outspoken social critic, ° peace activist and Victoria bishop Remi De Roo, attacks government policies of high unemployment and calls for a massive infu- sion of government funds to create jobs, in- cluding the development of secondary in- dustry. The essence of its message is that the current practice of placing ‘the wants of the rich above the needs of the poor’”’ is inimical to Christian philosophy. But the delegations that appeared before council prior to the debate showed that other churches have taken up the cause of Ethical Reflections. Rev. Ray Tingley of the Fair- view Baptist. Church, Anglican minister Margaret Marquardt and Barry Morris of the downtown eastside’s . First United Church all urged council to adopt the report. “People were not created to be cannon fodder and victims of the greed of multina- tional corporations and munitions manufac- turers,’’ said Tingley, a noted peace activist Churches. ‘friend, that alderman Yorke lauds it tO’ df speaking for the Vancouver Council In moving the motion, Committee Progressive Electors alderman Hall Rankin said council would be prov! at ‘‘moral leadership’ to meet the crisis unemployment. { “If governments want a program & socially usefully employment, they of, it . . . they find the money to do it, asserted. COPE’s Bruce Yorke said the bish0; statement doesn’t use the word “socialist in its economic remedies, but it is impli ‘ But whatever system one favors, unemp!? ment cannot go on and “‘the rules 0! game will have to changed sometime, — said. : ry The fact that many churches support é) statement was lost on George Puil, the alts man from the right-wing Non-Patt of Association who red-baited the CO aldermen. “The next thing alderman bee will be reading us is the Commu™ Manifesto,”’ he said. : Fe ‘‘No wonder Dennis McDermott od Canadian Federation of Labor (sic) pr A it, that the IWA said labor had found a™ skies,’’ said Puil, accusing the alderme# ¥ wasting council’s time with a ‘non issue.” ft To which COPE alderman Bs Eriksen replied that with hundreds of job! in Vancouver and small businesses 8% ‘A “belly up”’ every day, the bishops’ state™ certainly did apply to civic policies. of The motion passed with the CO: i aldermen and independent Bill Yee votin® favor, and the NPA’s Puil and my Bellamy, along with Marguerite Ford f May Brown of the Electors Action Mov ment opposed. Mayor Mike Harcourt and aldernt™ Warnett Kennedy were absent.