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THE HERALD Wednesday January 1989 Page 13 Sorting out the big numbers in government There are more numbers in Ot tawas annual public accounts than youll ever want to know but once in a while some nuggets emerge that can give Canadians a clear vi sion of where were heading The public accounts get less at tention than most of the other financial documents issued by Parliament Thats odd in a way because they say precisely where the government collected and spent your money in the fiscal year ending the previous March 31 They reflect reality And that puts them at another level than the estimates which are sometimes- fanciful guesses of where money will be spent the budget which declares how money will be rais ed and the auditorgenerals report which says how it should have been spent The recently issued accounts in clude a neat summary of revenues and expenditures And the figures are pretty revealing Critics of Brian Mulroneys Con servative government have argued the Tories made a big tax grab on personal income in their first term of office The numbers prove them right At April 1 a few months before Mulroney came to power persona income tax totalled some billion about per cent of all federal taxes in the previous year In the year ending last March 31 they topped per cent of tax revenues BIG INCREASE In four Tory years personal in come taxes rose by more than per cent Between March 19B7 and March 3J they climbed by a whopping 19 per cent Moreover the federal sales tax which is passed along to con sumers has nearly doubled since 1984 to become per cent of the total Ottawa collection A relatively small item but one thats very noticeable is the excise tax on gasoline That one has quin tupled since 1984 when it brought million into the federal cof fers In the year ending last March it extracted 23 billion from motorists Meanwhile whats been on the corporate income tax front Since corporate tax payments have risen per cent and in the last year they climbed 10 per cent But in contrast to per sonal and sales tax their share of federal tax payments has declined Are there reasons other than the general stiffing of average tax payers that might account for the huge rise in personal income tax collections After all more people are working which means theyll be paying tax There has been in flation Wages and salaries have gone up True on all counts But the in creases come nowhere near to matching the per cent rise in personal taxes The number of employed is up by 13 per cent since 1984 Inflation measured by con sumer prices has risen 18 to 19 per cent Average industrial wages are up between 10 and per cent EARLY NUMBERS So the public accounts represent reality to the end of last March But since then the first phase of tax reform has been introduced What do the finance departments numbers for this year show Phase One of tax reform which dealt with personal income tax went into effect July 1 Most Cana dians the Tories said would pay less tax Less money would be col lected from persona taxes and more from sales and coporate taxes The early figures to the end of October dont bear that out Between April and June Ot tawas collections from personal income tax rose by per cent over the same period in the previous year Between July and October the percentage increase has been percent What about on the business side In the period cor porate income taxes fell by 48 per cent Since July l theyve declined even faster at a rate of 134 per cent Its true these numbers are preliminary and many taxpayers will receive tax refunds early in 1989 On the other hand these are yearoveryear comparisons and not much seems to have changed in spite of reform To be sure well have to wait until next year The federal debt recently estimated by Auditor General Ken Dye as close to billion is a worrisome concern But its ironic that big business organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Manufacturers Association called this week for more effort in Ottawa to slash deficits and trim social spending When It comes to their declining share of tax payments they are remarkably quiet A heart stopping call in the night Drive carefully you hear peo ple say when you hit the winter roads armed with your metal machine and a desire to drive defensively But beyond the cliche is a warning deeper than the dozens of cliches we rhyme off each day with regularity Witness exhibit A a mangled car perhaps containing what should be a driver but in a shape police find barely discernible at times This is more than a car acci dent This is someones brother or sister husband or wife schoolmate or coworker But this is someone robbed of life or robbed of life as they once knew it Paul Franks the Georgetown man on the cover of the Dec edi tion of the Herald lost use of his body following a singlecar colli sion in Fergus Last year he ut tered his first word since the acci dent He is soon scheduled to return to Georgetown after spen ding nine months in an American hospital And 20yearold Neil Diaz re mains in serious condition at Sun- nybrook Hospital after a recent singlevehicle accident The driver of the car in which he was a Kelts Korner Donna Kef Herald Staff passenger has been charged with impaired driving following a lengthy police investigation Haltons death occurred last week in Milton when a woman whose Mustangsltd on an ice patch on Brittania Road died in hospital as a result of her injuries Police say she was driving to work the morning of the accident But nothing drives home the im pact of a collision like the dreaded phone call The one that wakes you up at 3 am to tell you someone you know was in a car accident The mere sound of the word accident can cause chills that rush straight to your heart Undeniably traffic fatalities are gruesome And police say that although RIDE brings down the volume of drunk drivers who make the road hazardous for all of us it hasnt cut the number of alcohol- related fatalities Half of the Regions traffic fatalities in the last year were caused by impaired driving But if youre a regular reader of local newspapers you know weather conditions are a major factor Snow and icecovered roads can make It impossible to control a skidding car But there are precau tions A close examination of the road ahead will often Help locate an unsuspected patch of ice Looking at the local newspapers and television and listening to the radio accidents get a lot of air play The gruesome details are painstakingly recorded for relay to the public BRITISH CALENDARS CHRISTMAS CARDS CHILDRENS SOFT TOYS CHILDRENS TURTLENECKS ROYAL WORCESTER SPODE SELECTED GIFT AND FOOD ITEMS 5198531633 The Stnat The House SHOPPING SPREE WINNER The winner of the 1 988 Shopping Spree is McMurdo of Georgetown Pic tured here presenting the 78000 worth of Gift Certificates from local businesses to is Herald Publisher Dave Beattie EVERYTHING MUST GO Ladies Gentlemen Skirts Sleeve Shirts Slacks regS35 1750 Sweaters BlOUSeS reg528now 1400 2000 ana up Peerless Suits W00I 13600 and up Mens Pants 2000 and up Nielsens Clothing 37 Mill St ACTON 8532280