Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
It's worth noting that, owing to its sales tax, Saskatchewan is only going to have a relatively small budget deficit this year. And that loony left talking shop, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, has called for a sale tax in the province. And it's doubtful Alberta's credit rating would have dropped with the predictable government revenue of a sales tax offsetting the huge decline in energy revenues.
How much is the delay (and it is only a delay) in imposing a sales tax going to cost Alberta?
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It probably is only a delay but there's a 'careful what you wish for' in this too. Adding a sales tax doesn't uncover a magic pot of money in the province, it's just a tax hike. Whether income, sales, or carbon the impact of a tax hike isn't zero, in fact its pretty big, especially on top of all the other tax hikes we already have.
I also think you also have to ask yourself which government of any stripe has found itself with more cash and doesn't simply spend it in the end. If you dump $6B in the government's lap there may be a year or 2 of 'look what good managers we are' but it'll be quickly followed by wage hikes and pet projects until low and behold we still get the same stuff as before it just costs $6b more. Heck we just added $3b-$6b in taxes and what did that do to solve the deficit problem exactly? Every nickel has become new spending.