Keep up the good work Bill!

It's too bad that Bill Murdoch didn't stay as an Independent when he was booted from his Conservative caucus last fall.  Otherwise, I might vote for him once in awhile.  Yeah, he's got a loud mouth that gets him into trouble once in awhile, but at least he sticks up for us!

If you haven't heard what his current shenanigans are, you can read about them here.

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Mr Murdoch,

It never ceases to amaze me at what lengths you will go to in standing up for the people of your riding.  Thank you for being our voice!

HST concerns me, and it concerns me because I don't understand it.  It's like a dark cloud slowly looming in the distance, but I for one don't really understand the implications of it, or the reasoning behind it.  Now maybe that's my own fault; there's probably plenty of information about it out there on the internet if I so choose to go looking for it.  But there seems to be a lot of rumbling about it with no clear picture as to how it is really going to affect the average joe.

Aside from this HST adding to the costs of a number of our goods which currently aren't taxed, my greater concern is from the viewpoint of a non-profit organization.  It's all well and good that the government is going to send us all $300 cheques for the next two years to make up for it, and that there will be a drop in income tax, but an income tax reduction doesn't do a thing for a non-profit.

I am the bookkeeper of a group of churches in your riding.  As a charitable organization, we are refunded 50% of all GST we pay throughout the year in regards to the general day-to-day expenses of the church.  That rebate averages about $7,500 each year.  We are also refunded for all PST we pay on building materials and renovation expenses.  Our PST rebate averages about $2,500 per year.

Now, what's going to happen to that $10,000 worth of rebates?  $10,000 is no small chunk of change for a church!  That's the difference between running at a deficit or a surplus for the year.  We rely on that money; we expect that money.  Am I going to have to go tell an entire church congregation that we're going to come up $10,000 short next year??

I've already heard that our PST rebates are going to become defunct, and that there is a whole office full of people in Kitchener (who specialize in PST rebates) who are going to lose their jobs because of this.  Are we going to lose our GST rebates too?

This whole HST thing might help out the big guys, but it sure isn't doing much to help us little guys.

Thanks for sticking up for us little guys