Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Alberta Government: Spending Problem or Revenue Problem

albertGQ · 06-29-2010, 12:08 AM

There was a segment on Global News tonight and they mentioned that in order for the provincial government to balance their books, they must find ways to generate revenues instead of cutting expenses.

I agree with them that we shouldn't be relying so much on natural resource revenue, but I'm not in favour of what they were proposing. They mentioned that it may be time for Alberta to implement a sales tax. I'm not sure why any current governing party would agree with this. Even if you may think that this is an efficient tax, you must agree that this is an unpopular one. So unpopular that it may cost your party the next election.

They also mentioned going back to a progressive income tax system instead of our current flat tax (I know, our current system is not a true flat tax).

Ted Morton did dismiss both these ideas when asked, but what do uou guys think? CP has had many great economic and political threads.

Does the Alberta government have a spending problem? A revenue problem? Both? Should we look at finally implementing a sales tax? Should we change our provincial tax structure back to a progressive one?

One small thing I've been a fan of is to treat our Heritage Fund the way Alaska treats theirs. The income generated from that fund should be reinvested back into the fund instead of going into general revenues. The real value of that fund is declining on an annual basis. If we followed the Alaska model, we would have approximately $100B in that fund now. With a fund that large, our dependance on natural resource revenues would be vastly lower

Thoughts?

06-29-2010, 12:08 AM	#1
albertGQ Franchise Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Exp:	Alberta Government: Spending Problem or Revenue Problem There was a segment on Global News tonight and they mentioned that in order for the provincial government to balance their books, they must find ways to generate revenues instead of cutting expenses. I agree with them that we shouldn't be relying so much on natural resource revenue, but I'm not in favour of what they were proposing. They mentioned that it may be time for Alberta to implement a sales tax. I'm not sure why any current governing party would agree with this. Even if you may think that this is an efficient tax, you must agree that this is an unpopular one. So unpopular that it may cost your party the next election. They also mentioned going back to a progressive income tax system instead of our current flat tax (I know, our current system is not a true flat tax). Ted Morton did dismiss both these ideas when asked, but what do uou guys think? CP has had many great economic and political threads. Does the Alberta government have a spending problem? A revenue problem? Both? Should we look at finally implementing a sales tax? Should we change our provincial tax structure back to a progressive one? One small thing I've been a fan of is to treat our Heritage Fund the way Alaska treats theirs. The income generated from that fund should be reinvested back into the fund instead of going into general revenues. The real value of that fund is declining on an annual basis. If we followed the Alaska model, we would have approximately $100B in that fund now. With a fund that large, our dependance on natural resource revenues would be vastly lower Thoughts? Last edited by albertGQ; 06-29-2010 at 12:10 AM.