But on the other hand, there is the spirit of taking, which also manifests itself during this otherwise festive season, as cities table their operating budgets for the coming year. As a result, it is usual to see those tired old standby editorial cartoon images of elected officials dressed as Dr. Seuss's immortal Grinch—stealing our holiday joy by announcing tax increases, reductions in services or some other nasty surprise hidden within the new, well-crunched figures.

This year is no exception, of course, as the Montreal agglomeration gang's new budget raises property taxes by 4.09 per cent over last year. This might not be enough to justify their own animated TV special, but it is certainly enough to negate the City of Westmount's 1.34 per cent reduction in property taxes.

So despite the fact that the City of Westmount seems to be doing all it can to ease the municipal tax burden, tightening the old money belt and even dropping a few employees from the public payroll in a successful attempt to reduce its residents' tax bills, the agglomeration taxes continue to rise unapologetically—and that figure is the one responsible for the inevitable increase in the total amount payable.

There is no question that Westmount and other demerged cities are being robbed. It is a commonly accepted fact of life in this city—one that is not even denied by members of the Tremblay administration. They not only endorse the unfair tax hikes, they planned them and carried them out. They even made it perfectly clear that they were going to do it! Even the nasty old Grinch didn't have the gall to actually warn the residents of Whoville that he was coming to rob them.

Is it fair that the average Westmount homeowner now has to pay more than $6,000 in Agglom taxes, over and above their regular Westmount taxes? The Agglomeration Council seems to think so, as if a combined annual tax bill of nearly $10,000 would not be a setback to most people who live here. Even if this were true, it is certainly no justification for outright theft.