The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Let's talk taxes Ontario's spending, tax, debt and deficit levels have becomesso outrageous that a public cpnsensus has emerged. Taxpayers must act to control government. On May 30, 1995, Mike Harris, Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party pledged, if elected, to support immediate passage of Taxpayer Protection"legislation. The legislation'would: * make any increase in existing tax rates or any new taxes subject to approval by the votes of Ontario in a binding | referendum, * require the elimination of Ontario's operating and capital deficits within at least five years, along with interim deficit reduction targets for each of the years. * contain "pay for performance" ministerial salary penalties fog the Premier, deficit reduction targets arefiot met. The purpose of taxpay isto place limits on one behaviour of governments with respect to fiscal polje; Govern Tots may be restricted in a nuthber of different ways Some taxpayer protection laws force governments to balance their budgets on a year - to - year or cyclical basis. oi Others, require a self - imposed spending and / or tax li A number of jurisdictions with taxpayer, protection legislation employ debt limits in order to curtail the negative effects of government over - spending. In each and every case, however, taxpayer protection legislation sets out a definitive, objective and precise guideline delimiting the resources available to the stal be derived from its citizens. Its citizens, likewise, ate provided with a confidence that the state will not act in an'arbitrary of erratic manner in the appropriation of revenues and how it spends those resources. Under taxpayer protection legislation, the expectations of both parties in the raising wy spending of public funds are pre - defined. - Thus taxpayers are protected from what © can widely be regarded as ill - conceived and damaging fiscal policy - .| excess debt financing, successive deficits, growth in spending disproportionate to growth in production, and a seemingly limitless series of tax increases or the imposition of new taxes. Legislated limits protect the cifigen's right to the wealth he or she has prodyced, while protecting the economy - the environment - from which that wealth is derived. As the Ontario government begins to prepare its spring budget for 1996, we trust that the Premier and the Finance Minister will honour the pledge which they and their fellow caucus members made, by introducing the Taxpayer Protection legislation as part of the budget The model which taxpayers should insist the 'Ontario government adopt would set out constitutional, rather than , fiscal limits. The effect of this provision is that the legislatio oll) be far more difficult to override or change in the Bection 43, found in Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982, provides for the provincial legislature plus Parliament to amend the Constitution with respect to changes that only apply tothe said province. This section has been used before, for single - province amendments, including changes to language laws in New Brunswick and amendments pertaining to denominational schools in Newfoundland. In going through the pain over the next several years of government restructuring, Ontarians must nein that the effort not be lost by future governments. ' Once we pull ourselves out of this flacal mess, a constitutional Taxpayer Protectioy Amendment would Pride a fiscal line that the government of the day may not Clot' Talk Taxes" is a feature service of the Ontario Taxpayers Federation.) cabinet ministers if interim | T published by: Scugog Citizen Publishing 1d co-publishers : John B. McClelland, Valerie Ellis editor : Jbhn B. McClelland office manager : Sibylle 'Warren . THE 5Ci UGOGCIT! IZEN OCNA Member an independently owned and operated CCNA Member weekly community newspaper, is distributed, fre of ocarge, | 8 (qi) A Ee reception : Janet Rankin . to over 13,500 : in and around rd bar CCNA Verified feature writer :- Heather McCrae _ Subscriptions sold outside Scugog Tc p Circulation Co Thom Doran, Jennine Huffman, Bo Bob Osborne production : Tanya Mappin, Valerie Elli "Proud Canadians, prowd to call Scugog Township home." Be rine | WHA Te Der | SH | ISIN , Fosse ness god fi No ' IDEA SRE NEW COIN l To the Editor: While Ontarians as well as most Canadians are in a sea of debt the Harris government is doing its utm to cut the $9 Billion dolla deficit. If it isn't cut we'll have no money left for essential services and our debt load will be . #0 overwhelming that to borrow further will cost even more with our credit rating downgraded. Ontario is spending $1 million per hour more than it takes in, A record number of Canadians are cashing in their RRSP investments - some 660,000 consumers cashed in $3.5 billion as we suffered economic "doldrums not seen since the great depression. While 67% of us plan to live off our RRSP nest eggs less than 20% are contributing -- and only contributing 18% of what we dre allowed to A fow days ago the dollar took ending at 72.18 cents Us pri o lowest level since Ag os Province wants to cut the number of school boards 7 about half to save million Meanwhile nothing has been cut from frivolous french programs despite the clear ETTERS TO THE EDITOR The honeymoon is over 1977 law. (LeDevair) | At the same time the Durham Board of Education is viewing a plan for establishing a French Language Instructional Unit. The report says that the Board buys French language at a cost of $11,000 per student per year. Oh what fools we mortals be! The second language in North America and the Caribbean is Spanigh. French is 15th world wide. language of computers and commerce the world over is English. Even France has computer programmers in the next few After choking a protester, Prime Minister Chretien welcomed the new Bloc Quebecois leader -- in French -- wishing the separatist Michel Gauthier good luck and a long tenure in opposition, Leaving little doubt where he stands. Againsp Reform Leader Preston -Manrifng. A Trudeauite to the end. A Quebecer first, a Canadian when it suits him. As he once said "You're not of the blood", ' As Minister of Justice in the " Trudeau government when' questioned about the legality of French language laws and their discrimination against Anglo - phones in Quebec, he squirmed out of it*by saying "it's too sensitive to getdnvolved in". His inept mishandling of the Referendum shows his weak The latest work is another 1.5 cents gas tax by Chretien Government. Many in the press are saying the honeymoon is over. Jo Me Souvien Dean J. Kelly, President ) Association of Dedicated Canadians (since 1967) To the Editor: from Lucien Bouchard that Quebec will separate sooner or later. Billions have been wasted on attempts to a Quebec to no avail, Even the Canadian Flag is outlawed in the Quebec National Assembly. Loecill 4 Trustee Drew says she still supports French Immersion despite the cost. In contrast, Quebec's Labour Minister says that there should be no changes to the Language Law Bill 101 despite the pressure from English language groups to the to spend our depleting Outhi My bank acount just Yours thoughtfully, * Owen Nill Port Perry That $2 coin Well, 'here we go Apiat Why is this government spending thousands of dollars ta tell 'us the obvious: that we dollar form of currency? What does it matter if it is a bill'or a coin? we have a choice" And who cares One as well may argue that tomorrow will be another day, such is the silly logic bo. { grown to expect from our politicians. Does some t flunky stay up nights thinking of more stupid Saursy of wh bhi It sure feels like it eared SE ot the guversmment), Why don't we get rid of our worthless penny? Then we could change the old adage to "A nickel for your thoughts!"