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on premise jewellery repair stouffville tribune z repair speciaust 172 bullock drive unit 31 markham 4718660 o fyf stouffville budget will see taxpayers o 0 dig 15 deeper for operations roads tracy kibble staff reporter whitchurchstouffville coun cil this week approved a three per cent tax hike for 1993 an increase officials say is neces sary to repair and maintain deteriorating roads well remember you at elec tion time yelled one angry resident after a recorded vote clinched the increase cowards another man mumbled to officials who voted in favor of the three per cent hike during the most raucous council meeting in more than four years local officials approved the hike in a twopart vote one per cent for operations and an additional two per cent for road repairs to be undertak en this year the decision comes after months of inhouse debate and one eagerly anticipated by the fastgrowing save our stouf fville sos ratepayers group which has actively lobbied the town and other government agencies for fiscal restraint officials are blaming rural road deterioration and unex pected snow removal costs for this years hike but there was no mention of the proposed fire truck purchase or the 133000 slated this year for staff salaries mayor fran sainsbury said after the meeting the fire truck will likely go to tender this year and be delivered next year if council decides to purchase it therefore she said taxpayers will not feel any debt from the purchase until 1994 the mayor sidestepped the salary increase issue saying the money this year has been built into the big budget the details of which would be avail able during a press conference april 21 she said what it means because of the increase the towns 4500 ratepayers will now owe an additional 1520 on their 1993 municipal tax bill portion or a fourcenta hike based on an average household assessment of please see taxpayer page 3 meeting a fiasco says wells the towns budget meet ing tuesday night was a complete fiasco and one which left ratepayers con fused and disconcerted said save our stouffville sos chairman marion wells wells said she was ashamed and appalled at the way local politicians handled the meeting in which officials passed a three per cent municipal tax hike for 1993 these are supposed to be professional people and i felt the council was very fragmented wells said she added a surprising twopart vote one which initially passed a one per cent tax hike the other which later approved an additional two per cent increase for roads astonished her she said i was dumfounded 1 dont understand why they did that wells said she said the budget pro cess is set up to try to manipulate the ratepayer counting on the average person not understanding how it works and shading the real issues behind closed doors sos mem bers had earlier told offi cials they would not be please see sos page 3 analysis audience thrilled by political drama tracy kibble staff reporter he could have sold tickets the drama was so profound ward 6 councillor ken prentice took advantage of tuesdays threepercentincrease budget deci sion to vent frustrations against the town its staff and its policies clinching as it appeared was his intention at least 50 votes for the 94 municipal election his vying for the mayors seat rhetoric was just what the audience ordered and a juicy addi tion to an otherwise grey topic stouffvilles frugal councillor offered ratepayers a heaping helping of upstaged political rivalry and conflict and won rounds of applause for his please see prentice page 3 what they said finance director ed blackburn there were a lot of areas where we had no control like increased garbage costs and department heads worked very hard to reduce budgets by 10 per cent we were not able to achieve that but many areas were brought down considerably and substantially reduced mayor fran sainsbury it was a very long ardu ous process and we did state a zero per cent increase was a oneshot deal council deliberated everyone has their own opinion its a democratic society ward 6 ken prentice where will the money come from wage increases id like the treasury department to come in at 10 per cent less like everyone else ward 4 cliff dunkeld during the last 10 years some of our rural roads have become really impassable we are a rural community and roads are a vital neces sity ward 2 stephen bellerby i think a three per cent increase represents a good compromise for our short- term objective and that is to protect the millions of dol lars we have invested in assets such as roads markhams used car teader 1985 topaz gs auto ac cert 1989 tempo 4 dr auto ac cert 4991 1990sunbirdle w auto ac 4 dr 6888 1988 honda accord lx i 4 dr auto ac 8788 1991 tracer auto loaded 4 dr mint 9888 1991 taurus wgn ac lilt cruise mint 999 1 1992 mustang 3 dr auto loaded 18000 lam 1888 1991 taurus ac till cruise 39000 kms 1 1 1 999 1991 probe lx auto ac leather loaded i 3947 1990camryle auto v6 loaded 1 3999 1992 sable gs loaded under 30 kms mint 1 4937 1991 aer0star e bauer extended quads 1 5999 1992 club wgn xlt extended 15 pass loaded 13000 ions 2 1 98 1 1991 continental sg moon leather 39000 kms 25984 1992 town car leather mint must see 2798 1 faxfy f j markville mercury ilincoln new service hours monthursfri 730 am 530 rm tueswcd 730 am 830 pm tr vir mmjtmmjij mraosmvtsiukcxfmicurtdfa8vellnowlngyun0eschd j r 1 y i i i i i i i ii i i 40 4707044 tor line 7987025 tr i i i ra i v tt 10 4