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THE HERALD Wednesday April 11 1990 GST is still unpopular but MP will vote for it By the time you read this the GST should have been passed by the House of Commons say should because in Ottawa Ive learned that anything can happen Theres word floating around we may have to stay up all night voting before the issue Is finished Then theres the Senate to deal with the unelected and Liberal dominated Senate is making noises about conducting yet another of crossCanada hearings on the GST holding up approval and wounding the feds plans to bring in the new system next January not to mention spending more tax money So the story is not over yet Meanwhile the government is unpopular The GST is unpopular People continue to write me threaUng letters about voting for a cocker spaniel before theyd vote for me Changes in the system frighten folks which is underctan dable Also understandable is anger at the GST which replaces existing federal sales tax No surprise there either because the feds have done their ususal lousy job at explaining complex issues As well this tax is not perfect Most people oppose the GST but havent read the document The same held true for Free Trade til very shortly before the last elec lion Ditto for Lake in both French and English Canada few understand but many are against It seems Ottawa cant get its act together and explain things As I said the GST is imperfect You may know that I wanted no ex empUons and the lowest possible rate and I tried hard to change Michael Wilsons mind But I voted for the GST anyway not to be a boy scout for the government but because its better than the alter natives Once I thought spending cuts along would be enough to save our country from drowning in its own sea of debt Before I went to Ot I thought the feds wasted enough money to balance the books Now I see that s a myth This year the government will have billion more in taxes than It spends on programs But thats not enough to cover the billion in interest this year on the debt Se well have to borrow another billion or so and add that onto the debt This is wrong And I cant figure out where wed find billion in spending cuts that would wipe out pensions and the military and most other programs in one whack So we keep on cutting spending but we also have to find new money The GSTs part of that The alternatives are these Raise income taxes raise cor porate taxes cut spending or tax Well cuts alone wont do it but we must continue cutting Raising corporate taxes would chase investment dollars and jobs south of the border where taxes would be less We don want that Taxing the rich sounds like fun but there arent enough rich peo ple and I cant see why they stay either if we took all their money So how about raising income tax Well right now most important countnes are income tax rates and relying instead on GST type taxes They decided to tax spending more and income less This may make sense For starters if you tax income more then people have less money in the Income taxes British Bmkan 330 Guelph St Georgetown ACflOSS FROM S MY GENE 8732851 I GEORGETOWN Garth Turner MP HiltonPeel PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE are imposed you dont have anything to say about them But if you ax spending then you get a choice on what you spend and how much tax you pay Buying a mink cost means paying more GST than on a cloth one And higher income taxes are a disincentive to work harder Worse they make it harder for people to save money if you take a bigger bite out of a it more difficult to tuck a little away m the bank So the GST may be the lesser of two evils The tax will rafse the prices of many services But the tend to forget to tell people that when the existing sales tax comes off some will also fail Last week 1 had a meeting with the For All Your Fine China Silver Crystal Glftware 227 MAIN ST MILTON 8780050 association of car dealers who fully support the tax cars will be cheaper and they ex pect to sell more The critics also dont tell smart business people that their cost of business will in most cases be go ing down Right now businesses pay the existing sales tax on a whole range of things from the vehicles they buy to printing to telephone charges to furniture and equipment and so on and that will end Businesses will collect GST but they won pay it And will that collection be the nightmare that guys like John Bulloch claim I hope not So far the feds have designed a onepage tax return thats one page ones a and promise businesses will not have to keep any extra books than they do not I expect well hear from Ot tawa soon about an easy new version streamlined accounting system So I think going to sur vive That doesn t mean we won have problems because we wil The transition period could be con fusing and perplexing We still need to get the provinces to with the feds on a single sales tax beccause that only makes sense And we need to protect con to find ways of ensuring V Clothing savings from the elimination of the old tax are passed through Ill be working on these things and 1 11 continue to badger Wilson as we finetune the system As always Id welcome your input RECYCLING i part Please Remember Recycle This Newspaper LOW LOW CARPET PRICES 8736002 345 Street Unit 25 Georgetown in the Knolcrost Centre Penny On Mens ALTERATK 8771598 a Watch ROBERT BATEMAN DEADLINE APRIL 348 Guelph Street NEXT TO BELL GLASS IN THE CENTRE Georgetown ATTENTION SECRETARIES Youre Invited To Our Secretaries Wine Cheese Party on Wednesday April 1990 from 530 to 630 pm in honour of Secretaries Day You II have an opportunity to view our facility and chat with our professional friendly staff We have tips on time management to help you commit to being fit RSVP BY APRIL A SPECIAL GIFT TO SECRETARIES TRIAL DAY MEMBERSHIP This offer good for any day period Offer expires Monday April 30th WORK THAT BODY 232 GUELPH STREET GEORGETOWN