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WFIITBY FREE.PRESS WEDNESDAY JJL.Y 16 1986 PAGE 5 "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mird of man." - Thomas Jefferson Advýqise and Dissen OTTAWA - There was an opinion piece in the Toronto Star recently in which the writer suggested that our current approach to property tax needs drastic revision. He said the current systemn is regressive, outdated and wholly unjust because it is not based on ability to pay. And he cites the following hypothetical example of what he caîls the unfairness of the current system: "Two similar houses next door to each other- in a fashionable downtown neighbourhood are owned respectively by an older working class family who bought 20 years ago, when the prices in the area were low, and a young professional couple who moved in last year. The working class's annual income is $25,000; the professional couple earns three times that. But because their homes are similar, both families pay similar taxes". I don't know how that strikes you, butI must ad- mit that I arn absolutely floored by the suggestion that there is something unfair about the scenario just outlined. If the working class family bought 20 years ago, they probably paid $25,000 for the house, with say $5,000 down. Amortized over 25 years at the going rate in those days of 6%/ percent, their monthly. payments on the $20,000 mortgage would be $137. Taxes would be another $1,400 a year, for a total of about $254 a month. They've done pretty well with the house. It's almost paid for now and it's worth $150,000. With two children and an income of $25,000 a year,. the working class family would be paying roughly $3,000 in income taxes. Now let's take a look at the situation faced by the two yuppies. They paid $150,000 for their house, with $30,000 down. Say they got the $120,000 mor- tgage for 93/ percent. That's $1,270 a month in- cluding Property tax, or five times what the other family is paying.. The young professional couple may earn three times the income of the working class family, with combined salaries of $75,000, but they are paying eight or nine times as much income tax, say $26,000 a year as opposed to $3,000. So what is the man who wrote the article talking about when he says the current arrangement is regressive, outdated and unfair to the lower fainily? Both famhilies are in houses they can af- ford, paying taxes they can afford. The built-in equity in our system of property tax is fairly simple and straightforward: the bigger the house and the better the neighbourhood, the more the homeowner pays. If that is no longer considered fair, then we're a lot farther gone than I thought we were. Milke Knel ...returns next week WITH OUR FEET UP By Bill Swan Vacation time, and the rains of July beat bard upon our lawn sprinklers. Time, one would think, to put away difficuit thoughts, and Jet the mind flit among bits and pleces of fragrnented chunks of reality. Item one: A recent study in the City of Toronto shows that being without a job robs father of dignity. And worse, jobless fathers who tackle the role of homemaker find that job duli, boring, lacking in dignity. And poor paying, too. Fit, perhaps, only for a wife. The study concludies that the answer would be-to guarantee men jobs of some kind, even part-time. Thus, these men could save both their dignity and earn a bit of rnoney. Enough, perhaps, to take his wife out to McDonald's. I write this in moments stolen fromn pairing socks and making baby's clothes fresh and folded. Vacuuzning awaits, and three floors lick their lips for a taste of Spic 'n Span. In other words, I don't have much time. So listen up, and listen good. Why not start a movement to get mnen back in the home? I know this sounds left wing, but why not pay unemployed men to become household engineers? 0f course, first we would have to train them. Send them back to college to learn the chemnistry of washday, the physics of lost socks, the mathematics of the superrnarket and biochemnistry of the kitchen. The trFick, then, could ha to teach fathers the dignity of their new roles. I think that now we have most wives out there working and slaving and punching the old time dlocks, it's tinte we maies asserted our rightful positions. Item two: The sports writers and editors are a hopeless lot, and had hast ha re-educated. Say, like on a distant planet such as Pluto. I wil admit, under dire threats, that once upon a time, I too pounded out sports copy and wrote those dreadful headlines.- But I had an excuse: I was not a sports fan. The difficulty with most sports writers etc. on daily and weekly newspapers, and on television and radio, lies in the fact that they are sports fans. And as sports fans they give us the professional stuff: basebail, hockey, auto racing, golf, and - haginning in Julyl1 - football. Ail of which are tied, thanks to television, to beer hallies, bad breath, and sweat. The real sports.- the amateur athietes who work hours, daily, to perfect purely for the sport - are forgotten. Whlch is why most sports pages grossly under- played, misplayed, or both, the story in which a Canadian woman won th e World Show Jumping Championship. Most thought the unique angle sim- ply lay In the fact that a woman won. Few gave us any insights into a challenging sport. The same effect came into play last week when Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, beat Anierican Carl Lewis for the third straight time in the 100- metre sprints at the Goodwill Games. You may have seen the televised finish, after which the press bore down on - you guessed it! - Lewis. Johnson was ignored, even in victory. That, of course, could have been the American flag- wavers. And you want to hat that Canadian sports writers followed right along. Sports writers will argue that they cover the spor- ta that fans have interest in. See those ticket sales? If 25,000 fans watch a Blue Jays games, that must ha the best hat in town. Some argument. The biggest participation sport in Ontario is bowling. Try to get any newspaper - even this one - in- terested in çovering bowling, and listing league standings and high triples. See how far you get. Now if the 40,000 bowlers in this area would get together, mayha they could prove to someone that they too drink a lot of beer. 1 mean, I've seen some of them too. You think pro basebali players have a monopoly on beer hallies?