Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironhorse
Alberta budget in 2003: $20.8 billion with $21.9 billion in revenues
Alberta budget in 2012: $41.1 billion with $40.3 billion in revenues
Does anyone know where to get the spending break down for these numbers?
I have trouble believing that inflation and labour caused the budget to nearly double in 10 years. My salary certainly didn't, and neither did my capital budgets at work.
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Well lets look at the statistics from Statistics Canada, from 2003-2010 the average individual income in Alberta went from $26,500/year to $36,760/year, representing a 38% increase, not even factoring in the past two years of growth. It would be fair to say that salaries have increased by roughly 45-50% over the previous decade.
Furthermore the population of people who file taxes in Alberta and their dependants has increased over the same period as well from 3,075,990 in 2003 to 3,544,590 in 2010, representing a 15% increase in population... which is a double edged sword because the government generates more revenue through taxation but also supplies more services such as health care and infrastructure.
Then factor in inflation, increased cost of fuel and playing catchup with infrastructure and you can see how useless raw numbers without a frame of reference are at proving a point.