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¢ J. PETER HVIDSTEN } Advertising Manager Ne Editorial Comments SHARPEN UP It could be as late as May 3 before the Durham Re- gion council sets the Regional budget for 1989. Usually, the Region brings down its budget by the end of March. So why are things pushed back to May this year? For good reason. The delay in the budget approval process will presumably give Regional staff and councillors a chance to do some heavy duty sharpening of the old pond for an attack on the numbers in the preliminary udget that was handed down last month. That preliminary budget is a real shocker. It calls for a tax ingrease for Regional purposes of (are you ready?) 27.5 per cent this year. No, that's not a typo, folks. That's a 27.5 per cent hike in the Regional share of your property taxes in 1989. Try to jibe that number with the five per cent hike you got in the pay cheque. Property taxes in Durham Region break down roughly as follows: the School Boards receive just over half, local government about 25 per cent, and Regional govern- ment about 22 per cent of the taxes on your property. For arguments sake, if you paid $1,000 in property taxes last year, about $220 went to the Region. It that 27 per cent hike goes through, you'll be asked to kick in an- other $65 in '89. And then the School Boards and the lo- cal municipalities will tack on their increases. Obviously, tax hikes of 27 per cent are simply not ac- ceptable. No doubt the preliminary budget that was pre- sented January 18 will be pared down between now and May 3. But even if council trims ten per cent off the origi- nal, the tax hike will still be 17 per cent, and that is unac- ceptably high for any single year. The Proliminary budget contains a lengthy written re- port explaining why Durham Region needs to increase spending by such a high rate in 1989. The main reason is the hiring of 198 new employees, alt of them in the Police department, and 48 in Social ervices. The proposed Police budget will climb from $30 mil- lion to $38 million, a hike of 25 per cent. Social Services is proposed to go up 26 per cent, from $10 million to $12.8 million. The reason is that the Jpopulation of Durham has soared in recent years, and increases in departments like the police and social services are needed to handle the calls for service. However, Durham is only going to have an increase in assessment of seven per cent in 1989. Clearly, some- thing is out of whack. Why should the existing property owners get nailed in the neck to pay for the price of pros- perity that comes with the building boom? Sure, it's nice to be in the middle of a boom with con- struction going on everywhere, factories humming and near full employment. But if the cost of this "prosperity" is tax hikes in the 27 per cent range, who needs it? Enough is enough. Sharpen those pencils. Port Perry STAR 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 P.0.Box90 LOB INO (+cCha =n | ny Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Community Newspaper Association. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. Publisher J.B. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for cash CATHY OLLIFFE payment of postage in cash. News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 : (Qa) + 3° Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year. i? a [RPT Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50° © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver- tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. "SUNDAY. 15 A DAY OF REST! Go ask your Chatterbox by CATHY OLLIFFE CHANGES MUST BE MADE A little more than three years ago, a teen- aged boy obsessed with Satanism murdered a young family while they slept. A father. A mother. Their daughter. Shot to death without mercy. In cold blood. The boy then boasted about his heinous crime and even showed his friends through the victims' home, a macabre tour. He was as stupid as he was malicious. He was caught, charged, found guilty in a youth court, and confined behind bars for three years. Not too long ago, he celebrated his 18th binhiday, and was set free on an unsuspecting world. John Q. Public doesn't know his name, nor his face. Wherever he is, this killer is safe hid- ing beneath the forgiving cloak of Canada's Young Offenders' Act. Because of the Act, he served only three years--one year for each murder. And now he walks free, unencumbered by a criminal record or an infamous name. He will be treated as if he never did anything wrong. And that's wrong. Last week, the mother of a stabbing victim said she felt like killing the young offender ac- cused of the second-degree murder of her son. The impulse followed a court ruling that the teen stand trial in youth court, not in adult court. The accused murderer is 17 years old. Old enough, | think, to figure out the difference between right and wrong. Old enough to be accountable for-his actions. On February 3, a 21 year old rookie social worker named Krista Sepp was murdered at a group home for the emotionally disturbed in idland. Well-liked by everyone who knew her, full of enthusiasm for her job, Krista was stabbed to death. A 16 year old girl has been charged with her murder. And according to a Crown attorney, the girl tried to kill a married couple in their sleep in 1987. She was convicted of two counts of at- tempted murder. She was serving a probationary period after a family court judge reduced her 12 month sentence under the Young Offenders' Act to nine months. The girl attacked the couple with a kitchen knife as they slept--stabbing a woman in the upper arm and putting her husband in hospital for 15 day's with a punctured abdomen. She spent the first eight months of her con- finement in Sudbury's Facer Correctional School where she received counselling. A judge dropped the remaining three months of her sentence of "secure custody" and sent ps on probation to Kinark group home in Mid- and. Krista Sepp's funeral was held February 8th. Her death, the decision to try an accused - murderer in youth court, and the release of a. triple murderer after only three years pen- ance, are clear indicators that something has gone terribly wrong with our judicial system. The Young Offenders' Act is a joke. A very sick joke. As far as I'm concerned, being tried and sen- tenced in juvenile court is like being slapped on the wrist. Gently. Young offenders know they're not going to be punished severely for their crimes. They know they'll be treated with kid gloves by Can- ada's penal system, and then released back into society in a very short time. Krista Sepp wasn't treated with kid gloves. She paid the price of the Young Offenders' Act with her life. It has to change. And | think it will. Last week Ontario Attorney General lan Scott sent a let- ter to federal Justice Minister Doug Lewis seeking an urgent federal-provincial mcating to discuss the Act. Government officials in British Columbia, Al- berta and Manitoba confirmed they want the Act amended. | like to believe the majority of people in this country also want the Act changed. They want young people to be held responsible for their actions. If a horribly adult crime, like murder, is committed, the guilty party should be pu- nished like an adult. Not coddled like a child. - We like to think of our children as innocents, pure of the thoughts and deeds adults are plagued with. Most Canadian kids probably are, but | cannot think of a triple murderer as a child. Once a person of any age picks up a weapon and uses it against another human being, all innocence goes out the window. Child or adult, in my books, that person is a monster. In the United States, Ted Bundy was elec- ronyiled after being convicted of just one murder. In Canada, a triple murderer is free. A -------------------------- IL rp: ory +: Th