PAGE 2, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 9, 1980, WHITBY FREE PRESS Region wants $1 million budget eut By MICHAEL KNELL Free Press Staff Durham Regional Council is attempting to cut $1 million from its net expen- diture budget even though this action could result in layoffs and a reduction in regional services. To achieve this end, coun- cil has set up a special committee to re-examine the budget and come up with ways to reduce it by the required $1 million. This "ad-hoc" committee will be made up of Regional Chairman Walter Beath; Councillor Alan Dewar (Oshawa), chairman of the management committee; Councillor John Aker (Oshawa), chairman of the finance committee; Coun- cillor Gerry Rose (Brock), chairman of the planning committee; Councillor Gery Herrama (Uxbridge), chairman of the public works committee; Coun- cillor John DeHart (Oshawa), chairman of the social services committee; and Tom Jermyn, chairman of the Durham Regional Police Commission. Regional council has taken this action because of the concerns of the eight municipal mayors in Durham over the province's equalization factors. Although the Town of Whitby was not hard hit un- der the new factors - five of the eight regional municipalities were hit with what has been termed "staggering" increases. Whitby taxes under the regional levy rose by 4.8 per cent while the neighbouring Town of Ajax was faced with a 20 per cent increase. Should the special com- mittee be successful in trimming the $1 million, it would cut the tax increase by five per cent. That would mean that Whitby would not suffer any increase in the regional levy this year. Despite this action, coun- cil was warned that the budget does not contain too m-e v many non-essentials and any cuts could mean not only a reduction in regional ser- vices but staff layoffs as well. In an attempt to explain why taxes have increased so greatly for the five municipalities Dewar told council that residential and farrn land values have in- creased more than commer- cial and industrial lands sin- ce the province first in- troduced equalized assessment in 1969. Dewar said that rural communities are "suddenly wealthy in -1980 as opposed to 1969." "The municipalities with a lot of residential and farm assessment appear richer," Dewar said. "Those with commercial and industrial land appear poorer." Dewar said that people "should be paying the same tax for equally valued property," adding that this breaks down when the present situation is con- sidered. He pointed out that com- mercial/industrial lan- downers pay a big share of property taxes in places such as Whitby and Oshawa while the tax base in rural municipalities is residential and farm lands. Because of the lack of commercial/industrial land in these areas, the tax bur- den rests with the homeowner and the farmer and this produced the staggering tax increases in 1980. The municipalities affec- ted by the tax increases are Ajax (20 per cent); Brock (18.1 per cent); Newcastle (14.8 per cent); Scugog (11.3 per cent); and Uxbridge (11.3 per cent). The $1 million in reduc- tions will have to come from those areas over which the region has total financial control. Dewar pointed out that these areas received a seven per cent increase this year. He also laid the respon- sibility for the situation at the feet of the provincial government. The region, he said, acts as an administrator for many provincial programs and gives Durham Con- ditional grants. Conditional grants require that the region spend the money in the area it is allocated to. He also said that these grants have been frozen sin- ce 1977. Dewar told council that the province is "not taking in revenue but raising the expenditures." "Municipal financing in the province of Ontario is in a mess," he said. Bomb threat at Firestone Whitby's Firestone Canada plant was forced to shut down last Wednesday after the company received a bomb threat. The plant, which employs 650 people is scheduled to close down on July 18 and was evacuated by Durham Regional Police at about 8:30 a.m. After an hour long search, police found no evidence of a bomb and allowed workers to return to their stations. Barry Kadechuk, plant manager, asked the press to play down . the incident saying "This plant has to operate while operations wind down. "It's already a traumatic thing and if we get more of this sort of thing it will disrupt even more." Kadechuk also said that he was asking that the bomb threat be downplayed "for the employee's sake." Should other incidents of this kind occur again, it could cause the plant to be closed earlier than announ- ced, he stressed. Frestone, an American- owned company, is trying to consolidate their Canadian operations and is attempting to find work for the soon to be laid-off employees. Various levels of gover- nment are working to bring new industry into Whitby to avert what is acknowledged as a major blow to the town's economy. Firestone is the town's third largest industrial em- ployer. The Loan Arranger H11 help you"Pronto" Your heroic Branch Manager is able to save you a 1/2% on Personal Loans over $2,500.00. Offer valid to April 19th. The Loan Arranger can help you look forward to that terrific trip, get behind the wheel of that new car, or take home that coloured T.V. And that's only the beginning ... VICTORIA AND GREY TRUST Contact us in Whitby at: 308 Dundas St W 668-9324 Toronto line 683-7189