Quote:
Originally Posted by darklord700
Seriously, this budget achieves nothing. When oil prices go back up, we'll be left with smaller deficits and the higher taxes will remain. Prentice didn't offend the under $50K income earners but made enermies with everyone making more then $50K and the public sector.
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Enemies? I like to think most Albertans have finally come to the realization that we have to get off the addiction to royalties. The last 10-15 years in this province have been a kind of false economy, like a family paying their utility bills and property taxes out of a good run of VLT winnings.
The finance minister was interviewed on the CBC yesterday, and he offered some of the government's reasoning on the pace of tax increases and budget cuts. If they cut too much of the budget, putting more Albertans out of work when the O&G and private sector is already engaged in mass layoffs, it could nudge the economy into full-blown recession. If they raised taxes too rapidly, the drop in consumer spending would also hurt the economy. So the government is trying to walk a middle path, using borrowing and a deficit financing for two years to bridge the transition. And what I expect to see at that point is the top two income tax brackets increased to something like 12 and 14 per cent. That would still leave Albertans with the lowest taxes in the country.
I think most Albertans are waking from the delusion that they can have top-flight infrastructure and public services paying the tax rates of rural Arkansas.