Municipalities had a right

to expect more from budget

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Municipalities had a right to expect more from Premier Bar- rett’s first budget. In its elec- tion program the NDP promised that ‘‘only services to property, will be paid from taxes on pro- perty’’ and that “‘services to people will be financed by shar- ing the province’s resource revenues and general revenues with municipalities.”

The NDP provincial gov- ernment raised the provincial per capita grant to munici- palities by $2 to $32. For Van- couver this means an additional $850,000. The grant will now be unconditional and that’s.a good

~ thing. The Social Credit govern-

ment earmarked its grants for specific purposes and gave'the municipalities little leeway in planning their expenditures.

The homeowner grant was raised by $15 bringing the total to $200; those over 65 will also get a $15 increase bringing their total to $250.

But the $2 increase in the per

capita grant will hardly keep.

pace with the present rate of ‘inflation. And the $15increase in the homeowner grant will cer- tainly not be enough to match the increase in taxes we'll be get- ting this year.

Removing the education tax -from owner-occupied homes as also promised by the NDP in its election campaign would be a very good thing. But this has been postponed. The provincial government has announced that legislation dealing with this will not be brought down until the spring session next year

which means any steps in this direction will have to wait until 1975.

If the provincial government acts to remove the 10 percent ceiling on annual assessment in- creases imposed by the Social Credit government, that could bring in substantial increased revenue for Vancouver and other cities.

This-ceiling was imposed by the Bennett administration to protect commercial, industrial and apartment properties whose value sky-rocketed due to rezoning and other reasons. It meant that they have escaped paying their fair share of taxes. That miscarriage of justice should certainly be ended.

But there is an even more important step that this provin- cial government could take. Itis a wellknown fact, one which can be substantiated by statistics from every municipality, that big commercial and industrial properties have as a matter of policy been assessed at only a, fraction of their real market value. And this is in spite of the fact that the law requires that they be assessed at their true value.

In many cases their assess- ments have hardly gone up at all since 1950, while those of home-

_owners have doubled and trebled in the last 20 years.

Assessors are appointed by the provincial government and take their orders from the provin- cial government, even though their salaries have to be paid by the municipalities. I think the

provincial government should order a re-assessment of all big commercial and_ industrial properties in the province and see that they do pay their fair

share of taxes. If this were done, ,

the taxes on homes could be greatly reduced. ~

The NDP election platform

correctly pointed out that ‘‘the central problem facing our cities is their chronic inability to pay for the services people

-need.”’ This will be corrected, it

said only “‘when municipal revenues are shifted from the property tax.”

This is indeed the central problem and so far it has not yet been tackled by the NDP govern- ment. A new revenue-sharing for nula is required. Either the province should take over many of the expenditures now borne by the homeowner and the municipality, or it should provide a much greater share of its revenue to municipal govern- ments. - tee ie

Peace parley - meets Saturday

The province-wide peace parley called by the B.C. Peace Council meets in Vancouver’s YWCA Coronation Room this Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.

A large attendance is expected at the parley, which will be opened by Ald. Harry Rankin and will feature’a report by John Beeching, chairman of the B.C. Peace Council, and Jean Vautour, organizational secretary of the Canadian Peace Congress.

: hi One of many hospitals in North Vietnam destroyed by U.S: be Photo showsa room of the TB hospital in Thai Binh province, de

Aug. 19, 1972.

Tag days for Vietnam Spread to B.C. points

The movement in’B.C. to aid the people of Vietnam is being spurred this week by the announcement from Victoria that the provincial government will donate a hospital for the

children of Vietnam, and by the

big tag day being held in Van- couver Friday.

As the PT went to press hund- reds of taggers were reported ready to hit the streets of Van- couver between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. Friday with brightly colored tags reading; “I gave- medical aid for Vietnam.”

Students from many high schools are reporting for tag- ging duty. It was also reported that some trade unions are plan- ning to circulate the cans and tags at places of work on Friday.

The tag day idea is catching on in many centres across Canada and B.C. In Burn- aby a committee of prominent

citizens has been forme! approach the municipa nef for permission to hold atte to The committee will apr council on Monday, Fe” p.m. with their reque permission. 1 Included among those nent in seeking f fe! day in Burnaby. a? Duncan Chalmers, Re¥’ Ward, Rev. Allan Dixo™ | man Tom Constable: ii unionists Colin Snell and 0 McKay, and lawyel Motiuk. ; ol Last week the Nana i Council voted to spons es day and a delegavlo reo

ZS

- scheduled to appear DO" og

council Monday to seekF | sion.

Sponsorers 0 tag day report that enq information about hold! days have come from a of centres,

lessed are the peacemakers . . .’ says a streamer

B headline of an open letter to “‘evangelist’’ Billy Gra-

ham in the January 29 edition of American Report by a lead- ing U.S. churchman.” * :

Extracted from all the interpretative content of what peace, Christian morality and ‘*God"’ is all about, this clergy- man turns the heat on the “Reverend”’ Billy for his long obvious approval of U.S. aggression and genocide in Vietnam a support expressed by feeble evasion or by complete silence.

The self-styled *‘confidante™ of no less than five U.S. presidents, evangelist Graham replies with the hoary excuse. one commonly used by the bloody-handed followers of the Hit- ler regime when faced with the moral condemnation of anout- raged world at Nuremberg: “he didn’t know’ of these greater U.S. atrocities in Vietnam.

According to this sanctimonious fake, he first heard of U.S. involvement in Asia while playing a game of golf with the late president John Kennedy when that worthy blurted out that “we (the U.S.) cannot afford to lose Laos:

Apparently the “reverend” Graham in his capacity as ‘White House chaplain” guiding Nixon's footstepsonpathsto ‘“‘neace’’ through mass slaughter of Vietnamese women and children, hasn’t heard a word since. ‘I didn’t know.” He didn't even hear the December annihilation of Hanoi and Haiphong and the countless thousands of humans who perished in that genocidal atrocity.

Now that a cease-fire has been imposed upon the ‘‘Mad Bomber” of Washington and his bloody-taloned war hawks.

the ‘reverend’? Graham is hurriedly getting rid of his own

emblematic war eagle and posing asa peace dove. Hestill pro- claims his close personal friend Richard Nixon as a man

‘devoted to peace (whom) history wi j eC y willhavet his decisions were right or wrong” ee History has already decided “re « isi

: verend”’; a decision which compelled your friend to the peace table, and yourself to plead ignorance now and masqueradeasadove. . possession a moulting pigeon indeed. :

Your lame excuses to your critical fello your criminal silence on the long U.S. ev duiatiner vice nam, its lands and its peoples is sickly indeed: ‘*I am con- vinced that God has called me to be a New Testament evangelist—notan Old Testament prophet.’’ The ‘‘Jesus’’ you presume to represent once said; ‘‘Suffer little children to come unto Me, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”’ Apparently however the ‘‘Mad Bomber’’ — with your silent approval— agreed they should first be barbecued with napalm bombs, their little bodies torn to shreds with shrapnel and personalized” bombs, their poor mothers and onies and relatives wantonly destroyed, before admission to a Pent seg ceed “heavenly presence!”’ : ith a cashregister for a‘‘soul”’ likeall the Bi that have preceded you, your ‘‘ministry’’ to Hie an ee ing monopoly philistines of this era is a sanctimonious denial of eae eneee you now profess! < ell may the audience of ; ‘“*mini a i

the English poet, Percy aes ae ee

But my soul, from sight and sense

Of the polluting woe of tyranny,

Had long learned to prefer Hell’s Freedom

To the servitude of Heaven;

Therefore I arose. |. ;

To the deeply sincere chu i i the world over, who worked Pee eee aes abhor the pillage. destruction and death whi . ay engenders, to them all honour, respect and reverence as They did not have the ear of philistine presidents but kept Puen eee they reached the earsofaworld, and spaided in eter mass killing in Vietnam and Indochina to a They stood up’to be counted an i their valiant efforts for peace. In eee ee mandates of the lowly Nazarene they serve. Unlike the “reverend ‘Billy Graham who now says “he didn’t kno - they did not plead’ ignorance of their chosen ateaton! r desecrate its altar with phoney pleas of ignorance! ae

. .inyour

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“LETS ADOPT A- CONTINENT g! PoLIcy.wwou suPPLy THE ENE: VLLSUPPLY THE CONTIN

FOLK SONG FE? with N TOM HAWKET,

Saturday, February ol

PERETZ SCH ;

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY!PEBRUARY 23,1978 OPAGEDIO MoisoubS Hi s JOA9-—EN@! ES YAAURSSA YAGIAA-—SAUAITT 29/989

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