April 23 2012: Alberta Provincial Election

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Slava

Ya, well in reality the Liberals should own this issue. David Swann paid money back before the uproar (actually donated to charity I think) and Raj Sherman paid the whole amount plus interest weeks ago. The Liberals were the only party who voted against the pay increase in 2008 as well.

You're 100% right, the Libs should own the high ground on this, the other parties joined in to avoid the attacks during the election which was the smart thing to do. I don't think any of them look good in this but Redford looks really bad changing her position constantly.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by AnybodyButPC

Sorry for appearing to be trolling. I perused an number of forums and this one looked like it had many intelligent and knowledgable people who might be able to shed some light on my concern. Our PC MLA won't talk to me and our WR candidate is busy fighting an election battle. Redford and the "new" PC's scare me

People are always a little suspicious of brand new members who suddently join a hot topic conversation. Your username probably helped a little too.

Stick around, this is a mostly civil place to argue

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Non-renewable resource revenue accounted for nearly 28% of the province's income last year. If you can figure out a way to reduce government spending by over 1/4 while still providing a decent level of service to the population, I'd love to hear your ideas.

My god would I ever love to cut 1/4 of our budget!

Off the top of my head:

• 10% Salary Roll back for all public employees
• Elimination of 25% of management positions within bureaucracy
• Freeze on bonuses
• Cut operational spending 10%
• elimination/privatization of several useless provincial departments (HRC, Carbon Capture fund, venture capital fund, health superboard, etc.)
• Hiring freeze
• Cut cabinet and comittee's
• invite private partnership/competition into infrastructure development

That should get us pretty close?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

My god would I ever love to cut 1/4 of our budget!

Off the top of my head:

• 10% Salary Roll back for all public employees
• Elimination of 25% of management positions within bureaucracy
• Freeze on bonuses
• Cut operational spending 10%
• elimination/privatization of several useless provincial departments (HRC, Carbon Capture fund, venture capital fund, health superboard, etc.)
• Hiring freeze
• Cut cabinet and comittee's
• invite private partnership/competition into infrastructure development

That should get us pretty close?

You think that would save $10B a year? I would say not a chance that comes close, but if you have numbers and can show I'm wrong, I'm interested.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

10% Salary Roll back for all public employees

Hey Walmart lover, why don't you roll back your own salary? Huh?? Tough guy!

[GP_Matt]

I don't think it would be possible to reduce spending by 25% without dropping all salaries by close to that amount. That might sound like a good idea but I certainly wouldn't support it and I don't think you will see any political party suggest anything that drastic.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I don't think it would be possible to reduce spending by 25% without dropping all salaries by close to that amount. That might sound like a good idea but I certainly wouldn't support it and I don't think you will see any political party suggest anything that drastic.

That and some of those are one time or limited time savings. You can't have everything saved in year one and then spend it all in year two, although resources might help you make that work.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

[LIST][*]10% Salary Roll back for all public employees[*]Elimination of 25% of management positions within bureaucracy

WRA sure won't get any public sector employee votes. I think this is a dangerous strategy that could do them in.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by darklord700

WRA sure won't get any public sector employee votes. I think this is a dangerous strategy that could do them in.

I believe that those are the poster's ideas, not the WRA.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by sevenarms

I believe that those are the poster's ideas, not the WRA.

I can confirm that those are indeed not Wildrose ideas.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I can confirm that those are indeed not Wildrose ideas.

Thanks, that's much better.

[Cowboy89]

The only way a government closes a budget gap that big is over the course of a generation and essentially by stealth through inflation.

http://www.despair.com/inflation.html

[Slava]

Who knows? The money has to be cut from somewhere!

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by darklord700

WRA sure won't get any public sector employee votes. I think this is a dangerous strategy that could do them in.

They weren't getting them anyway.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Slava

You think that would save $10B a year? I would say not a chance that comes close, but if you have numbers and can show I'm wrong, I'm interested.

It certainly is close:

Off the top of my head:

• 10% Salary Roll back for all public employees 1.5 billion
• Elimination of 25% of management positions within bureaucracy .5 billion
• Freeze on bonuses .1 billion
• Cut operational spending 10% 4 billion
• elimination/privatization of several useless provincial departments (HRC, Carbon Capture fund, venture capital fund, health superboard, etc.) appx. 3.5 billion
• Hiring freeze
• Cut cabinet and comittee's .1 billion
• invite private partnership/competition into infrastructure development 1 billion (could easily be more)

Most of this is taken right from the 2010 budget documents. It certainly is in the realm of reality to cut 25% of the budget. It would take some pain and asking public employees to contribute back to the taxpayer, but it could be done.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

It certainly is close:

Off the top of my head:

• 10% Salary Roll back for all public employees 1.5 billion
• Elimination of 25% of management positions within bureaucracy .5 billion
• Freeze on bonuses .1 billion
• Cut operational spending 10% 4 billion
• elimination/privatization of several useless provincial departments (HRC, Carbon Capture fund, venture capital fund, health superboard, etc.) appx. 3.5 billion
• Hiring freeze
• Cut cabinet and comittee's .1 billion
• invite private partnership/competition into infrastructure development 1 billion (could easily be more)

Most of this is taken right from the 2010 budget documents. It certainly is in the realm of reality to cut 25% of the budget. It would take some pain and asking public employees to contribute back to the taxpayer, but it could be done.

Lets pretend it works. What happens in year two? I hate spoilers....but you spend more money. Those wage rollbacks begin going the other way. The hiring freeze can't go forever and the list goes on. Thats IF this even works for a year. My guess is it delivers way less than $10B and realistically you would be slashing an enormous amount to reach $3.5B in total.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I don't think it would be possible to reduce spending by 25% without dropping all salaries by close to that amount. That might sound like a good idea but I certainly wouldn't support it and I don't think you will see any political party suggest anything that drastic.

I don't think it's necessarily that offside. Consider that the public sector is the only sector that didn't experience large scale layoffs during the recent downturns, and their salary growth has far outpaced everyone else over that time too.

Either that, or eliminate 25% of all positions. Why not let them choose?

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Slava

Lets pretend it works. What happens in year two? I hate spoilers....but you spend more money. Those wage rollbacks begin going the other way. The hiring freeze can't go forever and the list goes on. Thats IF this even works for a year. My guess is it delivers way less than $10B and realistically you would be slashing an enormous amount to reach $3.5B in total.

Sure, we should spend more money because next year we will spend more money? Makes sense to me.

Lots of these savings would last in perpetuity (elimination of huge and wasteful departments).

You could tie salary increases to inflation. I never budgeted any savings for hiring freeze anyways. Learn to live within a realistic budget. These kinds of things happen to families every day, and yet it's impossible for a government to do the same thing?

Its about prioritization, efficiency and delivering on core accountability. Something the PC's are terrible at.

[Resolute 14]

threehundredeight's latest projection has a PC minority, but with Wildrose carrying a higher percentage of votes. I'm somewhat reminded of a couple federal elections ago when the Conservatives rushed out to majority territory early in the campaign, and scared left wingers flooded to the Liberals to stave off the scary agenda.

But the thing is, it won't happen here. The Libs and NDP don't count for much, so Redford won't win many "Anybody but Wildrose" votes, because they are pretty much already in her camp. So the question is, can she figure out how to unify her party and come up with something that resonates in three weeks? Who would have ever figured the PCs would be in this position?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

threehundredeight's latest projection has a PC minority, but with Wildrose carrying a higher percentage of votes. I'm somewhat reminded of a couple federal elections ago when the Conservatives rushed out to majority territory early in the campaign, and scared left wingers flooded to the Liberals to stave off the scary agenda.

But the thing is, it won't happen here. The Libs and NDP don't count for much, so Redford won't win many "Anybody but Wildrose" votes, because they are pretty much already in her camp. So the question is, can she figure out how to unify her party and come up with something that resonates in three weeks? Who would have ever figured the PCs would be in this position?

The Lib and NDP are roughly twenty percent, even at this point. If a guy like me is thinking about it then I'm sure I'm not the only one.