Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1982-06-16, Page 4Tim.s-Advocota, June 16,1982 Ames Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publication Umhed LORNE EERY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mali Registration Number 03K. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $20.00 Par yaar: U.S.A. $55.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and `ABC' It DOES make a difference When the Huron County Board of Education trustees presented their 1982 budget, many people, in- cluding this newspaper, were of the opinion that they had lost touch with the reality of the current economic situation facing the vast majority of Huron ratepayers. Now that it has been learned the trustees voted themselves a 331/3 percent pay boost, there appears to be little doubt that the trustees are off in a world by themselves with no feeling whatever for common sense or financial management during these recessionary times. The lone salvation for ratepayers is the fact that this is an election year and they have it within their power to make the changes obviously. required to get eduction costs in Huron off the bankruptcy course of the current group of freewheeling spenders. The shameful size of the increase trustees voted themselves was slow coming to light, primarily because the reporter who covers board meetings for the weekly newspapers in Huron and Perth didn't know the devious methods used by trustees in the past in keeping their salary boosts carefully hidden from the public. A couple of years ago, board members (many still sitting) attempted to hide a salary decision, and when they were found out, it was assumed (incorrectly it seems) that future decisions would be made in public and in umistakeable terms. While there appears to have been a planned move A slide a committee decision on the recent salary boost through the board in hushed terms, that becomes almost irrelevent in comparison to the decision itself to dig so deeply into the public purse at a time when common sense and a modicum of leadership would have dictated an increase of no more than one-third of that which was actually approved. Perhaps the most frightening and appalling com- ment on the increase came from board chairman Dorothy Wallace who noted that the extra $100 a month doesn't make much difference in a $32 million budget. Such thinking is obviously ludicrous! How many other items in that $32 million budget ended up being included because they didn't make much difference? When elected officials become so flippant about an an- nual expenditure amounting to over $20,000, the credibility of the entire budget must be called into questiol. It should be remembered that when the pay in- crease was approved, board members were restricted in the amount they could approve through provincial regulations. They, of course, took the maximum. However, in future, trustees will not be curtailed by those provincial regulations and can take what they deem reasonable for their services. The current board's failure to understand what is reasonable in relation to current economic conditions. should dictate the action required by Huron ratepayers when this fall's nominations and elections roll around. Unless they realize the error of their decision and take corrective action, the current trustees should be replaced because they have clearly shown that a deci- sion regarding their stipends with an open cheque book would betoodifficult for them to handle and would pro- bably end up being too costly for the ratepayers of this county. Taxes upon taxes Once there was a general understanding that a tax- payer should be taxed only once on any given transac- tion or purchase. That theory, however, has been blown sky-high by the tax -hunger of present governments. Take sales tax as an example. For a long time you have been paying seven per cent provincial sales tax on most of the items you buy. But that tax is calculated on. the price the retailer pays to the wholesaler. The wholesaler has already paid the manufacturer the price of the article, plus a nine per cent federal sales tax - so your provincial seven per cent was calculated on the manufacturer's price plus the federal tax. Now the federal government intends to place its nine per cent tax on the price at which the wholesaler sells, rather than at the maker's level. Thus the nine percent is calculated on a higher base price. Latest wrinkle is that goods, material and equip- ment purchased by a municipal government will no longer be sales tax free. Your local tax bill will now in- clude the basic tax to cover municipal expenditures, provincial sales tax on your municipality's purchases as well as the federal tax levied on the wholesaler's price. But take heart. Governments are trying to save money. Senior officialsand MLSs are being limited to a mere six per cent increase in any one year. That means that a senior civil servant who only makes $70,000 a year will have to scrape by on $74,200 next year. Wingham Advance -Times Survey may suffer from ill -timing Time alone will test the validity of Ex- eter council's decision to expend $6,900 to have a London firm develop a system for administering salaries and benefits for town employees. As the nation's economic ills worsen and more and more local residents start to feel the effects of those ills of unemployment, high interest and uncer- tainty, such as a sizeable expenditure is open to question at this time. The objectives outlined in the study criteria do not include any review of the public positions as they relate to the cur- rent economic situation, nor obviously could they because no one can determine what may happen in the weeks and months ahead. However, unless there is a sudden halt to the skid in the economy, the study may well be a waste of time and money, as its findings and recommendations could be offset by decisions that have to be made in relation to the local economy. One facet of the study is to ensure that town salaries and benefits are com- petitive with those of comparable public sector organizations and appropriate local, private companies. As several of those local, private com- panies are forced into layoffs, voluntary wage restraints or even pay cuts, the competitive factor is obviously difficult to assess on anything but a very short-range prospect. The uncertainty of the economic climate may have dictated that the study be delayed until such time as the situation became more stable, and therefore more meaningful. It is not difficult to cite examples of the difficulty in getting a clear picture on which to base public salaries and benefits. For instance, if the management con- sultant decides to compare the town's 4441 BATT'N AROUND with the editor receptionist with one at Dashwood In- dustries. he may find that the base salaries are comparable, but that the receptionist at the window firm is among those now on the federal work -sharing program under which she is working on- ly three days per week and part of her sti- pend for the other two days is made up from unemployment insurance benefits. How do you relate that factor in such a study? If the clerk's salary and duties are com- pared to the company controller at Hughes Columbia Inc., the competitive base may be close, but one of the two may apparently be out of work with the boat firm going into receivership due to the current economic situation. While there may not be any public jobs comparable to that of a reporter for this newspaper, it would be difficult for the survey to put into perspective that one of our reporters was laid off recently due to the recession and the others, similar to all the staff, have had their salaries frozen at the 1981 levels. The examples could continue, but you probably get the picture. Hopefully, members of council and their employees will also have the picture painted clearly for them through the study, and that is that the biggest com- petition right now is to keep a job and not to improve one's pay scale. For some strange reason, that message is one that Canadians are having difficul- ty in comprehending. It's obviously an over -simplification, but the prime reason for the economic problems is inflation and yet a large number of Canadians appear to think that the fight against that foe is one in which only other people should be engaged. While bankruptcies and unemployment mount around them, many of those still working think they should be getting more money and better benefits. They seem im- mune to the stark reality that each gain they make is in fact a further threat to their job security. Perhaps they have taken on a defeatist attitude whereby they think they may as well get all they can at the present, because the future is not very bright. They're probably correct in that assess- ment but it is economic suicide. People are being swallowed up in their own greed and unless they come to their senses in short order, the ramifications are disastrous. .4. •.:4•••!-1.;r$411.10 i, y . • r• s..1,K. 7 "No — wait!" "... You'll need something heavier than that." Readers share their views He raves on: "Would we have the educational hor- ror in Ontario if we had one Minister of Education with some backbone. Tell me Mr. Smiley when do. you people actually do any teaching. Be honest would you teach six months out of a year if we put it all together? It seems to me that every time I go out in the street its full of high school students... "I am disappointed with Reagan as he seems to have gone soft but he sure made a wealth of friends when he put the screws to the unions. It didn't take him long to show who was boss. Would there be one politician in Canada with that kind of backbone? No bloddy. way." I haven't changed any of the punctuation. Well, Mr. Ross, you say what you mean, but I'd hate to be in a prison camp with you as the Gauleiter in charge. Let's go back a bit. I'd take even Joe Clark ahead of Pierre Trudeau, but I still wouldn't want a That- cher or a Reagan. Mrs. Thatcher is a remarkable woman in many ways. But she certainly hasn't led Britain out of its economic slump. And she has recently, supported by people like yourself, got her country into a difficult and dangerous war, which could destroy that economy completely. Think of the oil bill. Mr. Reagan has a great old Hollywood smile, was going to reduce taxes, balance the budget, scare the Russians silly and do all sorts of things. None of which he has done. He has produced a budget that would create a three hun- dred billion dollar deficit, and even his own Republicans can't swallow that. The U.S. is in a bad recession. Unemployment is high. I'm not blaming the man. But let's face it; he isust another politician full of hot air who can't deliver on the election promises. I am merely a person who says what he thinks, within the bounds of com- mon decency. Even though a third letter - writer says, "Your col- umns are almost always interesting if sometimes just a trifle vulgar." Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley I agree about Mrs. That- cher's guts and those of our politicians. But about that education horror in Ontario. What horror? I ain't seen none, as my students would put it. And we do have a Minister of Education who is noted for backbone. In fact, Dr. Bette Stephenson is a ter- ror, a miniature Margaret Thatcher, but not a horror. I'll be honest, Mr. Ross. Yes, we do teach six months in a year. In fact we teach 10. And if we didn't have a long break in the summer, our mental institutions would be over- flowing. As well, I might mention that the teachers on our staff spent more than 5,000 hours outside the classroom, helping with student activities, last year. Well, at least I keep my readers guessing. In one week I received a letter from Saskatchewan that accused me of being a right-winger, and another from Ontario suggesting I am a socialist. Sorry, folks, but you can't label this old codger that easily. I am neither . The Saskatchewanian did not sign his letter, but attacked me for a column about welfare bums, the shrewd ones at the bottom of the heap who know every angle, and the shrewder ones at the top of the heap who know the right people, and are ap- pointed to posts with im- mense salaries, like M. Juneau, or given choice architectural plums like that other chum of Mr. Trudeau's. Not for an instant was I talking about the poor devils who must have welfare to put bread on the table and shoes on their kids. But what really hurt was that letter from Sask. accused me of become another Gordon Sinclair, whatever that means. I am no more like Gordon Sinclair than Gordon Sinclair is like Joan of Arc. In the first place, I am not a millionaire. He is. In the second, I don't think I'm right about everything. He does. In the third place, I've never met the man, haven't read anything he's written for 30 years, and know him only as that old man on that dreadful dog called "Front Page Challenge", whose first question usual- ly is "How much do you make?" O.K. Now for Jim Ross of Exeter, Ontario: he writes with force if not much style. I'll give you some excerpts, along with my comments or answers. "Enjoy your column and most times agree with you. I was rather upset with your comments that (Lord forbid) we didn't need a Thatcher or a Reagan. Surely old fighter pilot Smiley isn't a socialist although I guess most teachers are." "Margaret Thatcher has more guts in her little finger than all the politi- cians in Canada put together. Would we have the chaos in the post office if we had one man in Ot- tawa with the courage of standing up to the post of- fice union instead of cowering in a corner while postal clerks crapped on him?" As I remarked, Mr. Ross writes with con- siderable emphasis but lit- tle elegance, and is a master of the sweeping generalization. No, Mr. Ross, not all teachers are socialists. Nor are they all married, or Anglicans, or Rota- rians, or women, or men, or grasping, or rich. No teacher I know is the last. They are just people doing the best job they can with the material they have. Tell you what should be done, perhaps. If we can find a wall long enough, we'll line up all the postal workers and teachers, and shoot them, the dirty pinkos. It would certainly help solve the unemploy- ment problem.' Putting it down on paper About this time of the year it seems that my of- fice desk looks like a tor- nado has struck it -- a white tornadf, at that. Every administrator above me must have decided - "Hey this is May. The school year is coming to a close. I'd bet- ter send out a survey to see how I've been doing this year, another survey to see what good old Syd has done this term, and another one to see what he plans on doing next year. And on yeah, those had better be done in triplicate. Probably it's the same in every office. People any small businessman about the forms that he's Perspectives By Syd Fletcher seem to have the idea that work is only being done if it is able to be shown on paper. That is surely the government's idea. Ask required to fill out for sales tax, income tax and six other things. It's bad enough being taxed in the first place but when you have to fill in six forms to pay the tax it's adding in- sult to injury. Here are a few tax jokes I dug up recently that might ease your pain a little. a) Today's dime is real- ly a dollar with the taxes taken out. b) A dog's life can't be that bad; someone else pays his taxes. • c) Folks used to worry because they couldn't take it with them. In today's tax climate their only worry is whether it will last as long as they do.