Still waiting for a response from either Mayor David Miller's office, or the office of my local city councillor, Bill Saundercook, in response to the email I sent them.

Gentlemen,

I wish to address, as a resident of Toronto, the issue of the 1% slash in GST beginning July 1.

I have read about the reasons you have for not changing the tax rate, and I do understand them. However, the GST is a federal tax, subject to the rules of Ottawa, not City Hall. If the federal government had told you to hike the GST by 1% instead of dropping it, something tells me you wouldn't pay it out of your own pockets just to save the trouble of having to change all your billing practices.

There are many small business people in Toronto who use City parking and taxis on a regular basis, and then claim those expenses back on their taxes at the end of the year. For each of them, 1% of that GST that you are keeping for City Hall will not be eligible from either the Federal or Provincial government for a refund or deduction.

Tell me, gentlemen, going into an election season for the City of Toronto, how will you explain this to your constituents? Are Torontonians expected to accept City Hall lining it's pockets because hey - Toronto didn't vote Tory anyway!?

I would like you to reconsider your plan to keep this money, for it is not yours to keep. It is mine, my husband's, my neighbour (that's you, sirs - you are both right here in my neighbourhood), and my coworkers'. My parents raised me to believe that if you keep something that isn't yours, that's called stealing.

Surely you don't want to be seen as theives?

Regards,