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whitchurchstouffville public hbroy 21 diversions drawing the line on racy lyrics at school radio station saturday march 62004 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 44 pages1 including gst opinion 6 sports 16 recreation 18 classified 23 crime stats headlines sell police budget 137m document includes 110 new cops by roy green staff writer instead of opening his budget presentation with financial sum maries and staffing levels york region police chief armand la barge began with crime stats and newspaper headlines about mur der mayhem and organized crime calling it the new normal for the reality of policing in 2004 the chief opened thursdays presen tation to the regions finance committee the third such ses sion since early february with a slide presentation showing 63 robberies in the first two months of this year compared to 46 from january to march in 2003 lit also listed three more home invasions four more car jackings and three more traffic fatalities there were also six homicides and charges laid against 34 mas sage parlours in the first two months of 2004 compared to none in the same period last year the only place where the numbers are lower is in marijua na grow houses 18 charges compared to 26 last year and thats only because our officers are so busy with processing last years charges the chief said the slide also showed head lines 3 victims killed at spa police say rub parlours thrive in york organized crime stakes claim and two injured in see cuts page 8 welcome to splitsville council sends udget staff photosjoerd witteveen councillor susanne hinton reacts after leaving a split during the big brothers big sisters of york bowl for kids at stoufiville bowl last saturday with corporate donations the event raised about 5000 other bowling events take place this weekend and next across the region mayor councillors differ over 12 tax hike proposal by hannelore volpe staffwriter in a surprise move whitchurchstouffville councillors voted thursday to postpone a budget meeting and told town staff to bring back another budget with a smaller tax increase the move was made without the support of mayor sue sherban the proposed 2004 municipal tax increase of 12 per cent didnt sit well with the council lors who were looking for only a 5percent increase councillor susanne hilton made the motion to suspend the operating budget meeting and have staff come back with tax increase options of 5 to 7 per cent to get to 5 per cent there have to be serv ice cuts nickkristofiy the towns administra tortreasurer said leisure services public works fire and emergency services and the library are the largest budget items he added it was the first time in many years council had postponed a budget meeting at a 12percent increase the owner of an average home valued at 330000 would have had to pay another 100 on the municipal portion of their tax bill mr kristofiy said dropping the rate to 5 per cent would lower that figure to 42 the municipality receives about 24 cents out of each tax dollar paid by residents last year on a 330000 home municipal taxes were around 840 while the region took 1576 and regional school boards 1005 for see budget page 8 88 genuine honda oil and filter change honda 8220 kennedy rd markham 90547 724 51 wwwmarkhamhondacom includes premium qualify 5w20 or 5yv30 genuine honda motor oil genuine honda oil filter and a new drain plug gasket quick lube service no appointment necessary honda genuine gbg t ifnilill itioitch ftvcl iti ivw n and country realty jm 6400888