Today is Friday September 10‚ 2010
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| Here's how to secure my vote. | |
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By jeffwith1f Originally published on I've had it with what is going on. Time to set people straignt about what I intend to do about it. This has been sent to the city, all my ontario level candidiates for my riding, as well as the party leaders, my federal MP and Stephen Harper. Let's |
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| To My Local, Provincial and Federal Representatives. I am being told that the city I live in is in a cash crisis, and that the only way to rectify the situation is by raising our municipal taxes significantly, or by cutting services in order to achieve fiscal stability. Toronto is a world class city, the pamphlets and emails tell me, but unlike other world class cities, we are bankrupt and failing to flourish. I have checked the census results as listed at the Toronto website and can tell you that I represent an average household, with an average income in an average neighbourhood, in what I happen to believe is an outstanding city. I reviewed my family’s tax return for 2006 and noted how much federal and provincial tax we paid last year. I added to this the municipal property tax that we paid. Finally, I added an estimation of how much PST and GST we paid on the remaining post-tax income. This worked out to 35% of our total income. More than one out of every three dollars my household makes goes directly to one of the three levels of government. So, where does all the money go? Perhaps it is being wasted. Perhaps it is being hoarded at the Federal and Provincial levels when it should be flowing back to the communities in which the people that pay the taxes live. Perhaps the government has simply overextended itself on behalf of the citizens. The cost of running the country and its components has surely gone up over the last 7 years and I am not going to pretend to know the intricacies of how we find ourselves here, but it surely seems that between all of us giving over a significant portion of our money already, there should be enough to provide the services that are needed. Over the last 7 years my costs have gone up. I got married, bought a home and started a family, in general the cost of living has increased at around 2% a year, however, since 2000 my personal income has only increased a total 1.6% or by about 0.2% a year. Telling my employers that things have gotten more expensive so they need to give me more money rarely, if ever, seems to work. I am constantly told that I need to stretch my own dollar and make due with less at a personal level. I would suggest that everyone I know would like to see all three levels of government act in accordance with how we are all routinely asked to conduct our own lives. Here’s what I am going to do. -I will vote for the candidates that put forth proposals to fix this without asking for more money. I would rather see this fixed than receive tax cuts, but do not add new taxes. . -I will look to all levels of government to provide solutions and will lend my support accordingly in every election at all levels from now until this problem is rectified. -I will vote against incumbent candidates that give themselves significant pay raises and then come to taxpayers saying that they are out of money. We all make due with stagnant salaries and so can you, at least until we are no longer in a financial crisis. If you have given yourself a raise recently, roll it back. Be part of the solution, don’t contribute to the problem. I strongly believe that if all levels of government work together this issue can be solved without asking for even more from people that already give so much for the privilege of being Canadian. Comment on this article? |
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