66 HERE he lies, he was beyond the pale. He was of no Use and he must have contaminated every- one With whom he came in contact. These words-.were. spoken by. result of a life of crime.” There’s the none other than Gerald Gratton McGeer, then mayor of Vancouver, in January 1936, as he gazed upon the body of a youth shot to death in an attempted bank robbery. But McGeer, once more aspiring to the mayoralty, is silent about a ‘gang’ which has successfully pulled a much greater robbery in Vancotlver. One of the most successful ‘jobs’ of all time has netted a swag of $40,000,000, stolen from the small taxpayers. McGeer is silent because he is a part of the Non-Partisan gang that has been doing the dirty job and is out for an even greater killing in the years that lie ahead. -Forty million dollars of money. It took them is a lot ten. years, but the WNon-Partisans got it. They didn’t use guns. They used a taxation system. They stuck their hands into the pockets of small homeown- ers, small business men and eyen tenants and they kept them there, while the city has been going to rack and ruin. Maybe you think I’m exag- gerating. Well, let’s start from the basis of your Own experi- ence as 2a taxpayer, a small homeowner, say. ibe youre a tenant you’re paying the land- lord’s taxes, and you're getting soaked too, to keep the picture clear, place yourself in the posi- tion of a small homeowner. The Non-Partisans (as an as- sociation) took over in 1936. The mill-rate which determined your taxes then was 37.886. Today it is 54.5. That’s a boost of 43 per- cent—a pretty stiff jolt. That’s not all. Assessments are going up too. The average small homeowner has had a 25 percent boost in his assessment in the last couple of years. You've probably got your old tax bills on file if you’re one of the people who owned a house in 1936. Take a look at them ang see the difference between what you’re paying now and what you paid then. T’S been happening to the money? You’d think with all that much more money coming in from the small homeowners that the city could put on a good public works -program. But you know yourself, and the accompanying table of figures tells the whole story, that road, Sidewalk and lane improvements and extensions are not being made, and that 40 percent of Vancouver is without proper sewage facilities. What little has been spent on public works has been spent almost exclusively in Such areas as Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, Dun- bar and Point Grey, where all good Non-Partisan mayors and aldermen live, or in some of the new housing’ sub-divisions where the real estate sharks are making their latest killings. So, if all those extra tax dol- lars of yours haven’t gone to public works, where have they gone? Schools maybe? Again, your own experience gives you the answer. If you have. chil- dren, theyre almost certain to be in a school that’s hopelessly overcrowded and perhaps badly rundown. How about the fire department or the police department? Both are dangerously undermanned, their equipment deficient. Hos- pitals? seriously over- crowded, with no accommoda- tion for.many of those on their long waiting lists of sick. Every civic department pre sents the Same sorry story. it’s easy to see your extra tax dol- lars haven't come back to you in the form of improved civic services or community building. ERE else could that money have . been spent? There’s Qne place a good city council could have spent it, even with- out improving public works or civic services. It could have been used to pay off a great deal of the city’s staggering: burden of debt. Even a half decent city council would have tried to do that, ‘Unfortunately, it seems that Vancouver has not even had 2 hali-decent city council. The city’s debt in 19386, when the INOD-Partisans took over, was $70,000,000 in round figures. To- aay it is $69,500,000. Sinking fung deficits make the picture somewhat worse—they totalled $1,800,000 in 1936, over $9,000,- 000 today. A big stack of your tax dol- lars has gone to pay coupon clippers, but none of those extra taxes you’ve paid has gone to retire the debt. It all adds up to this, and it’s as plain as the dollar sign on your tax bill: You, as one of thousands of small taxpayers, are paying a whole lot more taxes, year by year, and you’re getting a whole lot less for it. In plain words, you’re being robbed. e@ OU’RE being robbed by a tax- ation system. The extra mil- lions which the small taxpayers are paying every year are not used to build our city or cut our debt. They’re useq te make up for the millions of dollars’ worth of tax exemptions which the Non-Partisan mayor and council hand out to big business every year. Every extra dollar you’re pay- ing in taxes is an extra dollar on the profit side of the ledger of some wealthy coupon clipper, some corporation, some big busi- ness. It may be Brown, Shippley and Company of London, Eng- land. It may be the BCER or the BC Telephone Company. It may be Woodward’s or the-CPR. They’re all getting their rake- Off andy briefly, it works this way: ‘Fixed charges on debt’ is -the official name for one of the worst current methods of Civic robbery. Now, most cities have a debt, but most of them don’t have a debt like Vancouver’s— - $145 for. every person in the city, as compared” to $51 for Toronto and $39 for Winnipeg. Our big-hearted Non-Partisan council has continued to dole out your money to the coupon- clippers from Vancouver te Lon- IN AAA amano ANU Li Y don at fabulous ‘interest rates of 4146, 5 and 5% percent. This is challenged in this election by Civic Reform candidates John Turner and Elgin Ruddell, whu are demanding that outstanding debentures (some of which will collect interest till 1970) be re- funded, that is, swapped for short term bonds paying a maxi- TRUITT TTT Elect John Turner for alderman — HENEVER Vancou- couver’s working men and women need and want help trom their aldermen, they either cool their heels on the~ well-scrubbeq floors: of the outerhalls, or are ushered into the plush council chambers where the Non-Partisan brush- off awaits them. The only dif- ference in the two receptions is perhaps one of comfort. But it would be different, if they had a friend in the house. That is why John Turner has been chosen as a Civic Reform Committee candidate for alder- man. John Turner is one of Van- couver’s best kKnown—and, for that matter, most admired— trade union leaders. His official position is; and has been for more than three years, secretary of the Vancouver Ta- bor Council (CCL). Trade unionists know him as a) quiet, pretty easy-going man, even when there’s battle to be done. But they know, too, he’s PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 10 firm—tough, if you like, when the battle begins. a That’s why they keep re- electing him as one of their leaders. Now what can he do in city hall? : : In the last’ 10 years, under the Non-Partisans, the big busi- nessmen, have had things de- cided their way- With Turner, and his running- mate, Ruddell, on the council, the office boys for big biz will have to move more carefully. Theyll be exposed at every false move. They, Turner and Ruddell, will expose the killing made by big business every year in the form of savings gained through an improper business tax structure. “A corner grocer, carrying 2 number of side-lines pays ap- proximately $85 annually in taxes,” Turner points out. “You'd think, then, that a large monopoly would have to pay a king’s ransom. But you would be wrong, for the B.C. Electric Transportation, Light, Heat and Power Company pays only $1,500 in license fees.” The fact is that the small shop-keper pays through the nose while big biz and the mon- opolies pay only token fees. : “The Won-Partisans are cer- tainly non-partisan,” Turner says. “They don’t care who wins as long as it’s big business.” The WNon-Partisans have also made things cozy for the bond- holders, . doing everything for them but sharpen their scissors,” he says. He explains that out of every dollar spent annually by city council, more than 26 cents goes toward fixed charges on _the city's staggering burden of debt. By continuing. to pay interest charges on bond issues at the fixeq rate of 4%, 5 and 5% percent, city council has piled up a tremendous fixed expendi- ture of public money. “That’s why your taxes have gone up,’ says Turner. It could be fixed. It is possible to save the city- up to a million dollars a year by refunding its bonded debt and cutting the interest payable by a third. “There’s no financial trickery to it,” Turner says. “Other cities have done it. It’s good business. That's all.’ Turner, who is 52, is a vet- eran of World War I. He was wounded twice, won a mention in dispatches. A life-long trade unionist, he has been president of the West- ern Shoe Workers’ Union for the past five years. He is a member of the Com- munity Chest, Inter-Racial Coun- cil, East and West Association, Friends of the Public Library, and other semi-public bodies. He has lived in Vancouver for 25 years and, he says, hopes to live here long enough to see a city council which will end the handouts to big business and give working people and small businessmen good government. AAU Lida g WY a NT : ANU a HHT S\ a HT AN Water mains Sewers Look Permanent pavement Permanent lane paver Asphaltic surfacing — Water-bound macadar’ Cement sidewalks —__ mum of 3 percent interest. - Turner and Ruddell are show- ing the taxpayers that this would save at least a million dollars a year. Had it been done in 1936, it would have saved ten million dollars by now. ‘Those ten million dollars didn’t just disappear when they left your pockets — they went inte some- body else’s pocket. There was no justification for it, but it happened. That was a ten mil- lion dollar robbery. s e CTUALLY the city could im- prove its debt position even more by steadily retiring the principal. _ The last few years have seen a golden opportunity to do this wasted. ‘Absence of business tax’ or ‘license _dis- crimination against small busi- mess’ is the name of another highly successful method of rob- bing small taxpayers. By this method one million dollars a year is shovelled into the coffers of the big businesses that exist on the patronage of Vancouver citizens. There are plenty of people in Vancouver who haven’t even heard of a business tax. If you had listened to all the debates in the city council during the last 10 years you wouldn’t have heard a word about it. And if you listened to every one of the deluge of radio speeches by the well-financed CNPA candidates, and studied every one of their advertisements and leaflets, you still wouidn’t hear’ a word about it. Wet every other leading city in Canada. has a business tax. They're levied in different ways —some on tke basis of fHoor FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1946 peatidele Sui Sie i