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10 - Orono Weekly limes, swwws .ii ni ru il October 19. 2000 F a cure With a little help from her friends,,Courtney Haines was able to present a $5,677.41 donation to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, for cancer research. Since discovering her mother; Heidi Egert, had cancer, Courtney has been on a fundraising drive to help find a cure for the disease. disease. One of her fundraising efforts this summer, was a back yard tea held at the home of Jack and Gloria Gordon. Pictured are, (L to R) Heidi Egert, Ëlli Hartwell, Courtney Haines, Jack Hartwell, and Jack & Gloria Gordon at Princess Margaret Hospital, on October 6, when they made the presentation. FROM PARLIAMENT HILL Alex Shepherd The Reform Alliance party is committed to bringing us flat or single rate income taxes. And while they have flip-flopped, the fact remains, they see this as central to their platform. I guess when you want to sell something bad enough, regardless of how bad it is, you wrap it up in paper that looks good. The wrapping on this conceals two issues. One is the flat tax, the other, a general tax reduction. In order to sell the flat tax the Reform/Alliance coupled it- with massive tax cuts across all income groups 1 . As a consequence consequence everyone is' getting reductions. So why wouldn't evetyone buy into flat tax? The present government is committed to tax reductions. It is also committed to coupling coupling tax reduction with debt reduction and enhanced' health care. Traditionally most Canadians have wanted their government to develop a progressive income tax system. system. Simply put people earning earning higher incomes pay proportionally proportionally more income taxes on higher incomes. What I think is important to understand is tax as a percentage percentage of total income. By deducting taxes we arrive at.' disposable income or what money we have left to buy the groceries or pay the mortgage or rent. As we all know income taxes are only one component. component. We pay G.S.T., provincial provincial retail taxes, excise taxes on gasoline, municipal taxes and custom duties. Indeed hardly a day goes by that we don't pay some kind of tax. But the other taxes I mention mention are flat already. This means the wealthiest pay proportionally proportionally less of their total income on these taxes. If we take total taxes, including income taxes, we discover that the tax system is already flat. The only progressive progressive tax is the income tax system. If you allow it to be flattened you actually get the absurd result of seeing higher income people paying proportionately proportionately less tax than the middle class. There isn't a single country in the OECD that has a flat tax. Income redistribution, while we may not like it, is in fact necessary to promote a healthy society. What logic could a flat tax have? I suggest it is immoral and unethical to argue that the very wealthy should pay even less tax than the middle and lower income groups. Income ' redistribution allows those in lower income groups to catch up. It allows them access to government services like health care and education, which they likely could not afford if these services were privately operated. A good example of countries countries that do not have good redistribution of income are those in South America. Technically they don't mean to have a flat tax system but because of poor enforcement enforcement and corruption, the effect is that they have a veiy small wealthy group. This leaves the rest of the country poor, unable to participate participate in the economy, unable to advance themselves and unable to get any form of health care. This illustrates the likely effects of what a flat tax would do which is wipe out the middle class. And only a very few members of the middle middle class would rise into the ranks of the wealthy. The result would be to see most of us going backwards economically. economically. Once again beware of the Reform Alliance party bearing bearing gifts, as the Trojans found out when they received the wooden horse from the Greeks. Flat tax is a recipe for disaster. disaster. For all those who want fairer taxation I say this is not the way to go. SUBSCRIBE TO THE ORONO WEEKLY TIMES ALL CANDIDATES MEETING Monday, October 23, 2000 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Bowmanville High School Liberty Street N. Bowmanville Meet candidates running for the Mayoralty, Regional and Local Council sponsored by the Bowmanville Business and Professional Women's Club Wards 3 & 4 Require An Experienced Regional Councillor On November 13 ELECT Ann Vreslinski □ Member of Clarington Council 1991 - 1997 □ Member of Durham Regional Council 1991 - 1997 □ Clarington Planning Committee Chairman □ Region of Durhgm Planning Committee Vice Chair □ Ganarâska Region Conservation Authority Chair 7 promise to do the. best for you and our community. This community we call home is too important, to all of us, for me to commit mysèlf to do anything less. " Experience YOU KNOW You Can Trust pgr nffHB Hyxl Let us help finance your dreams! 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