Members of Grey County council are tired of paying tax on taxes.

At last Tuesday's regular county council meeting the issue of municipalities, paying provincial sales tax became a topic of conversation. The county's Finance and Personnel committee had received a resolution at its April 22 meeting asking that other municipalities around the province support a request to exempt municipalities with populations under 10,000 from paying provincial sales tax.

After seeing the resolution in the minutes being reviewed by council, Owen Sound Mayor Ruth Lovell said the resolution circulated by the other municipalities didn't go far enough.

"Ten thousand total population is too low. All municipalities should be exempt," said Lovell.

Paying sales tax has long been an issue for local government. The province offers no exemptions for municipalities with its sales tax. At one time municipalities had to pay the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and received a portion of the amount back as a rebate. The federal government has since made municipalities exempt from paying the GST.

Members of the Finance and Personnel committee assured Lovell that the committee did not support the resolution as presented. It was received for information purposes.

Other members of county council supported Lovell's viewpoint and urged members of the Finance and Personnel committee to take a look at the issue.

"Councillor Lovell makes a good point. We shouldn't be collecting property tax dollars to pay the province of Ontario PST. I would hope the committee will look at this issue," said Chatsworth Mayor Howard Greig.

Grey Highlands Mayor Brian Mullin said he believes the PST issue is one county council should pursue further.

"It's been quite an issue for a few years. It was the same with the GST.  At one time we were only exempt a portion of the GST," said Mullin. "The problem is that it's huge, huge dollars for the province," he added.