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THE HERALD Wednesday October 3 1990 tax bind Halton Hills Town Councillors and Mayor Russ Miller are finding themselves trapped in a Catch22 situation con the 1991 budget tax rate To put it bluntly they will be damned if they do increase the local tax rate to continue providing residents with ser vices they have gotten used to and damned if they dont in crease the tax rate by cutting some services in order to br ing the 1991 budget in line with the inflation rate Last week Town Treasurer Ray King submitted a town budget direction report to council that effect would have increased rural residents tax rates by a whopping 60 7 per cent Unacceptable responded a chorus of councillors and their rejection of the proposed hike was echoed by Mayor Miller Led by Coun Ann Currie and Coun Cook who stated The people are saying enough is enough the general feeling was that tax hikes in 1991 should reflect the mfla rate or at least not jump more than per cent over the previous year All well and good and the sentiments are honorable but when services to residents are cut in order to hold down the tax rate increase residents will question just where the money from their tax dollars is going Halton Hills isnt the only community large small or medium sized faced with the same dilemna Metropolitan Toronto residents might be asked to pay an unheardof second property tax this year unless major cuts are made to their budget Metro Councils management committee has suggested that a contingency fund be dipped into to help alleviate the taxpayer s burden but that would be akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul The contingency fund estimated at 22 million represents money set aside for emergency situations and should Metro Council avail itself of these funds it would still be faced with a projected 9 8 million deficit and no money set aside should an emergency situation arise Metro Chairman Alan Tonks was quoted as saying It s a remarkable situation This is not a scene that I hope will be repeated in any fiscal year in the future Metro Council is also predicting a double digit property tax hike for 1991 Halton Hills staff will be preparing a preliminary 1991 budget forecast for a tax range increase of between six and 10 per cent reflecting how this will affect town services Final budget approval is not expected until sometime in the spring of 1991 but town council will hear from disgruntled taxpayers regardless of which route is taken Editorial Letter of the week Government sinks to alltime low Editors submitted to fte tttltm Hills for To Hud hm1mI Unit I to Minister of Natiouai Revenue 6a Sept I received from Revenue WW I Iron I have- net hate ewtiac6eiW tiro the It is time now not tomorrow To take action end get iis country back on Hie right ira over of the Canadian people are opposed to the Goods and Services does this mot tell the that something is wrong on the ST I con sider an to The few tt tan to is ing a toy mm off loaf of thai rosy ewe ecu- this ha fa otjustiJitlieneitoihiit to mM foot ours rago- I personally- you and to keep these few cents and send me a Jar of instead fa help ease being shafted by this Goods and truly Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop he office Our address is 45 Guelph SI Georgetown Ont L7G3Z6 All letters must be signed Please include and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations or libel The Halton Hills HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario ROBERT Publisher and General Manager 8772201 fl Wrlle i CLASSIFIED Joan Manna I CIRCULATION Mb a Shad boll ACCOUNTING a Aeeoun SUBSCRIPTION RATES Helton month Canada ISO year DO three rnofilh Felon tiro year 90 the Herald claims copyright an all original and advertising material creeled by a employees and In newspaper National Ad tilling oil I cat Queen St Toronto Ontario MSH 2MB St Montreal shall not be liable lor riling out error In advert I e- lb amount paid lor lha actually occupied by thai portion advertisement In which the occurred auch error la due the negligence lis servant at and be no liability lor Iniertlon any the amount paid for such APPOINTED HACKS ID COSY atoeygenbms CLEAj Of CHARGES OF WROWG00W6 IN THE AFFAIR- JlCrlAELWlLSON Letters Property owners respond Dear Re Beechbrooke Proposal Galls riter he ners of he property we would like an opportunity to respond lo issues raised in the letter to lh entitled Proposal Galls Writer first while it must have been disappointing for Ms Woode to be denied permission to speak in General Committee it is tant to follow proper rules of pro cedure Delegations were given an opportunity to speak and following that the Councillors debated the issues When Ms asked to speak during their debate she was invited to appear as a delegation the following week prior to the Council vote Second the letter implies that the site is on Class l agricultural land This is not the case No Class 1 or Class 2 soils the most productive are present Less than 13 of the land is Class 3 and The majority is lass and Organic This was established by a detailed soil an ilysis and confirm an on site inspection by the Agricultural Advisory Committee HA AC and by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food A Third the President of the Hill ton of Agriculture is quoted as saying in their ex pentnte A is not interested in farms with acreages However even though the lands have only about acres workable Class and about acres of rough pasture Class M A F an part in evaluating its agricultural capability A land use specialist from did on site inspection of the proper ty examined the land uses in the area and evaluated the agricultural report which included a detailed soil analysis The Ministry then wrote a report stating that it had no objection to the proposed development When the Niagara Escarpment Commission C reversed its position and decided to oppose the Beechbrooke proposal one of the reasons given was that it wanted to encourage and protect agriculture The Commissioners voting against the Beechbrooke proposal did not do an on site inspection or review the reports by OMAF and HA AC They relied solely on the presentations and letters of ing neighbours then wrote a second letter confirming that it had no objection to the pro posed development Fortunately the Hills planning process does not rely on either a developers opinion or a special interest group opinion to determine a sites agricultural capability This evaluation is made using objective rating criteria from the Canada Land Inventory the Guidelines and reports written by qualified specialists Yours truly Kent and Lois Hills Election signs create problems DearEditor The signs that were put by the roadsides in the last election were either a wonder to behold or an abomination depending on one s point of view The I ibertanans put up a total of one hundred signs We don know how many the other parties put up but we did complaints about signs loc tcd so is to obstruct motorists view of oncoming traffic treating a hazard Complaints were also the man titles of signs in cert locations One has to avsume the old par ties feel they cin win elections by the number of signs We were also assured this would not create gar bage since they would be used again It would be interesting to find out how many signs were put up and if they ire now available or if they went into the garbage I believe the Mayor is correct in wanting to have some sort of reason in the placing and quantity of signs John I ibcrlanan Candidate Hills Our 100 signs either tjken by someone tir were in the garbage