Alberta Taxes

[JobHopper]

No to any new taxes or tax increases. I also believe that all level of governments need to do a better job with the tax dollars they do allready get from the taxpayers. Figure it out.

[username]

Originally Posted by Cuz

Just throwing this out there, but how much money do you think we could save by merging the catholic and public systems?

This won't ever happen. The parents with kids in the catholic system would never allow this to go down.

I'd rather spend the money to put my kids in private catholic school than have them go to the public school system.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cuz

Just throwing this out there, but how much money do you think we could save by merging the catholic and public systems?

So, from this thread I've learned the following:

1) CBE gets worse outcomes ($/class-sizes) than CSSD.

2) CBE is larger than CSSD, and should have economies of scale.

3) Let's shut down the small more efficient one and combine it with the bigger one.

4) Profit?!??

Theoretically it should be cheaper to only have one set of admin. I'm ok with this plan, but I think if they do it we should fire the CBE leadership and keep CSSD leadership. In practice I think they'd keep everyone, which is why I don't think its a good idea. (Coming from a non-Catholic with no kids)

[Deegee]

Could start by taking away all funding for private schools.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

The Provincial Government has been reluctant to tax Albertans since before Alberta was a province. It prefers to let municipalities and the Federal gov do most of the direct taxing.

There is a looooong history behind that POV...

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Deegee

Could start by taking away all funding for private schools.

I would support that with the caveat that Charter schools which charge similar student fees to the public system should recieve full per student funding. As if the private sector can deliver schooling at the same cost as the public sector we should allow them to do it.

Any school that charges a tuition should not get any government money.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by GGG

I would support that with the caveat that Charter schools which charge similar student fees to the public system should recieve full per student funding. As if the private sector can deliver schooling at the same cost as the public sector we should allow them to do it.

Any school that charges a tuition should not get any government money.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought charter schools got 70 cents on the dollar compared to public schools so they need to charge 30% of the cost just to hit a level playing field.

To put things into perspective, some small towns have converted their only school to a charter school because the province was going to close it down and bus all the kids to a nearby town or city. The parents then created the charter school to avoid the long bus rides and such. I am not sure why anyone would consider this an unfavorable outcome though.

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by edslunch

The proof is that we don't have enough money to meet the previously agreed budgets for education and other areas. Now maybe those budgets were too high - that's a different discussion - but it doesn't change my main point that basing your finances on fluctuating resource revenues is a terrible way to run the province. Maybe I should have said we have a revenue stability problem rather implying that we simply need more revenue.

When we compare our spending per capita to other provinces we have to consider how much more expensive it is to deliver goods and services I this province vs. other provinces. We have some of the highest salaries in the country, goods are more expensive in Alberta (ask any national distributor of industrial supplies, they will tell you Alberta has separate price list). This is the cost of living in Alberta.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I think the right politician could sell the public on higher taxes but they need the trust of the public first. Right or wrong, a lot of people think the government wastes a ton of money and if you give them more money they will just waste it faster.

To Slave, I can't see a future where Raj is our great visionary leader of the Liberal party who sells the province on a new way forward. I think it will take someone new and probably under a banner that isn't red.

This has been so by a concerted, misleading, dishonest campaign by right wing politicians, nihilistic capitalists, and other sociopaths to build a four decade long campaign to erode the public's trust in government.

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

No to any new taxes or tax increases. I also believe that all level of governments need to do a better job with the tax dollars they do allready get from the taxpayers. Figure it out.

That's the spirit. No compromise! This is how patriots conduct political discourse.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by Deegee

Could start by taking away all funding for private schools.

That's just petty.

Punishing parents and kids who want something different at school (and are willing to pay extra for it) won't solve the shortcomings of the system.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought charter schools got 70 cents on the dollar compared to public schools so they need to charge 30% of the cost just to hit a level playing field.

To put things into perspective, some small towns have converted their only school to a charter school because the province was going to close it down and bus all the kids to a nearby town or city. The parents then created the charter school to avoid the long bus rides and such. I am not sure why anyone would consider this an unfavorable outcome though.

The problem with subsidizing a private school is that more well off people can pay slightly extra for education and recieve benefits. If you aren't satisfied with the public option then you should pay fully for any enhancements. It would be kind of like being able to pay $100 to get to the front of the line for an MRI. You just pay a top up while the government still pays most of the amount. To me the two systems should be separate.

However I am also in favour of private delivery of publicl schools so to me if a charter school was able to operate on the standard per student funding without charging significant additional fees the they should get full funding from the government.

Its the half pregnent nature of the current program that I personally object to.

[JobHopper]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

That's the spirit. No compromise! This is how patriots conduct political discourse.

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. I understand and don't mind paying taxes but there comes a time when you just can't anymore.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. I understand and don't mind paying taxes but there comes a time when you just can't anymore.

Well considering you don't pay any provincial sales tax while the rest of Canada does (to unnoticeable economic effect) there's at least a bit more to go.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. I understand and don't mind paying taxes but there comes a time when you just can't anymore.

What is the point where you just can't pay anymore.

For some reason any discussion around taxes assumes we are somehow in the goldilocks tax zone where anymore is too much and any less will result in a catostrophic cut in services. Neither is true.

The first thing we should do is decide what things we want the government to provide, then find out how much that costs, then set the tax rate, if that rate is to high go back and decide what services we want to cut.

Each tax increase or decrease should be centered around what service we add or removed and the cost of said service. I hate how increases and decrease are always generic. We need to link the taxes to the services they provide.

[JobHopper]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Well considering you don't pay any provincial sales tax while the rest of Canada does (to unnoticeable economic effect) there's at least a bit more to go.

Just because other provinces have sales tax doesn't mean that we should too. It's also the reason or one of that this economy here is so good. Look how many people come to work here from places like beautiful BC, people will give up a lot when they see the bottom line. High taxes will kill the economy or at least slow it down.

[Husky]

End of the day unions are expensive and people get paid way too much.

[malcolmk14]

Since 2008, the number of funded students in Alberta schools has gone up about 1.8%, the number of teachers has gone up 1.4%, administrators up 17.8%, and support staff up 112.3%... something is wrong there.

There's also a much larger proportion of staff in Alberta Education that is over 55, than there was 5-10 years ago.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Just because other provinces have sales tax doesn't mean that we should too. It's also the reason or one of that this economy here is so good. Look how many people come to work here from places like beautiful BC, people will give up a lot when they see the bottom line. High taxes will kill the economy or at least slow it down.

Talking points!

[JobHopper]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Talking points!

Maybe, agree to disagree, but you must know that you're amongst the small minority of people that feel that they aren't paying enough taxes.

I'm out for today, home time.