Tresurer s reportdisputes board's budge.t, sa'ys taxes wlill climb 0 By MICHAEL KNELL Free Press Staff Property taxes for educational .purposea wlll increase by 10 per cent, according to report prepared by Town of, Whitby treasurer AI Clarlngbold. Claringbold's figure differ from those con- tained lni the 1984 budget statement of the Durham Board of Education wbich st.ated' tbat property taxes for education purposes would only increase by 6.81 per cent. Accordlng to the board, the education mil rate' for Whitby residents would be 124.02 wbich would produce taxes on a home assessed at *5,000 of $M2. 10. But IlClarlngbold's report states that the educational mil rate would in fact be 128.30 producing taxes of $64150, a 10 per cent i- crease over last'year's $W83. However, the bottom lime las not the only dlacrepency between Clarlngbold's figures and the board's budget document., According to the board, the total net levy requisition on the Town of Whitby for both elementap and secon- dary sehool purposes is *10,824,542 this year. But Claringbold says that the total levy this year is $11,0839460. That's a'difference of $258,918. The treasurer accoun- ta for the difference because the board's share of the grants given by" Bell» Canada would not necessarlly be reflected i their budget statemnent. Because it ia difficuit to assess con- ventonal property taxes on over - and un- derground teleplione lines, the monopoly grants the municipality five per cent 0f- its gross earnings in Whitby each year. The board, of course, gets about haif of t4is money. Furthermore, the board's budget documents indicates a total levy requisition of $1,011,769. Claringbold's report- shows an in- crease of *1,149,763 - a difference of $137P994 which la an icrease of 11.6 per cent over 1983., Claringbold said that the difference between the 11.6 per cent requisition increase and the 10 per, cent tax in- crease la due to the ilý town's assessment growth and that during 1982 tax year the town underlevied for educational purposes. .This !nderlevy was partly corrected last year. In another report, Claringbold noted that sice 1982 the -board of education bas -been get- ting a bigger piece of the property tax pie. "The education share of the tax levy la in- creasing," he said,, "ifrom 482 per cent I 1982 to 51.5 per cent in By the same token, the share received by the Town of Whitby and the Region of Durham la decreasing from 51.8 per cent i 1982 te 48.5 per cent in 1984. The treasurer also said that should this trend contiue, it could mean . cash flow problems for the town producing a need ,te change the tax billing systeà .. The town may have to revert to the old system whereby. they sent out two tax bila - the in-, terim and the final - i- stead of the current four. The iterim bill would be based on 50 per cent of the previou . year's bull, and- the second would be fore- the remahiing' 50 per cent plus that year's tax in- creases. However, the total property tax bill for Whltby residenta wil only be 6.5 per cent, despite the. board's 10 per cent icrease. This la because the town and the iregion'only lmposed a total increase of tbree per- cent this year. For a home assessed at $5,000 taxes of $1,246 thia year wiJ have te be pald - a hike of *76.50. 0f thia amount, the tewn received $389 or $7.50 over 1983 while'the reglon received $215.50 or *10.50 more. The town's hicrease includes the extra taxes imposed for garbage collection and transit services. The board's share la *641.50, $58.50 more than last year. Their in- crease la more. than three times greater than that of the town and region combied. EDITOR'S NOTE: The Whltby. Free Prose leaflot ploased with these figures. In our éditorial on page 4, we cmli for our two mombers 0f the Durham Board of Education to à ek for à new eéducation budget based on these figures. W. aiso demand that the board, hold truc to ts ststed- tex. Increase of 6&81 per cent. Greg Extenco, 'of -the downtown branch of the Toronto Dominion Bank is seen, here trylng out one of the two ten speod bikes that will be given by the Whitby Kiwanis Club to t he two people (one maie, one tomnais) who ralsos the most money through this Saturday's Great Bike Ride for Can- cer. The ride, wiii1tar at 10 a.m. at Rotary Centen- niai Park and shouid it happen to rain, thon it wiii bo heid this Sundlay (Apr. ,29) at the samoe time. Tho ride is part of the Whitby branch of the Canadian. Cancer Society's annual fund raising efforts. This year's local goal is.$58,000. .Seen here with Extence lare campaign co- chairman Marion lrwin, as-weii as his fellow riders and T.D5. empioyeos Rose Cusack and Freda Gauwei 1er. For more information about this year's fund raising drive see Marion lrwin's report on page 7. Free Press.Staff Photo Whibyman running, for 222 presidency A Whitby resident has announced bis intention to seek the presidency 0f Local 222 of the United Auto Workers. Local22 is the largest local of tbe UAW in Nortli America and represents tbe uniomized workers at the ,General Motora plant in Oshawa.' In making .bis ýan- nouncement, John Be ers, said that the biggest issues facing GM workers this year are' wages, pensions and job security. "-Wages, pensions and job security are the tbree number one demanda," the 48-year old Whitby resident said. For the hast six years, Beera bas.been the pen- sion chairman for the local and since 1982 lias been pension chairman for the'entire 'Canadian Region. He also served for il years as a committee mani and waa on the SUB committee for four years before taking on lits current respon- sibilities. Beera lias been employed by General Motors for 27 years. Automation, lie said, la a tbreat tejob security and because of that lie wants to see the pension system refor- med to make it more at- tractive for the older wQrkers:to retire earlier, John Beers than tbey normally would. "We cannot beat tlie robots...it must become easier for, our older workers to retire so, that we have job security for our younger people," I e said. Beers la a member of the Auteworkers caucus witbin' the union. He la married and bas tbree cbildren and one gran- dchild. The election for UAW president will be beld on May 1. Beers la facing hicubent president John Siclair for the post.' Sliould lie be elected, Beers firat major task will -be negotiating a new- contract Witb General Motors later this year. f >m Vol. 14, No. 17 Wednesday, Apri 25, 1984 20 Pages@ -s, Great Ride ,this Saturday a ~ zuU à -4 ;iý, t;9 îýî - À îv. là t4,., _ef