Recently, I was afforded the opportunity to discuss the Carbon Tax with Environment Minister Terry Lake and independent MLA Bob Simpson on CBC Daybreak.
To say that it was interesting would be accurate but it was also frustrating as, like all good politicians, they had their talking points that they had to stick with.
Nothing was going to deter them.
And yes, I could be accused of the same thing except mine don't originate with any political party or spin doctor in a media relations office.
Minister Lake kept coming back to personal income tax cuts as justification for everything as in "a carbon tax has resulted in cuts to personal income tax. Isn't that a good thing?"
Indeed, this has been the refrain of the BC Liberals for the past 10 years.
Don't like the closure of schools? But we gave you a personal income tax cut.
Don't like the state of our highways?
But you have more money in your pocket and you can choose how to spend it even if it is fixing your shock absorbers annually.
I really wonder if anyone has ever taken their income tax cut and used it to fix a public road...
If the fact that the carbon tax is applied to automotive fuels and home heating bothers you, remember that you have all of those personal income tax savings to offset the increased costs from the tax.
Of course, the fact that the amount of money that you get in personal income tax cuts doesn't even come close to balancing the cost to you of the carbon tax is glossed over.
It is telling that the answers to all the increased costs that the BC Liberals have imposed over the past 10 years - increases in essentials such as MSP or the cost of a driver's license - plus all of the decreases in government funding services - such as fewer schools, longer wait times for trials, and longer hospital waitlists - are all answered with the same flippant rhetoric: But we gave you a personal income tax cut.
It is a one-size-fits-all solution to
everything.
Ironically, in the case of the carbon tax, it isn't even true, despite what
Minister Lake said.
The Carbon Tax is supposed to be revenue neutral. The money taken in by the government is supposed to come back to those paying the tax in the form of rebates or such.
It is accounted for a separate item in the budget document so it is fairly easy to see just where the money is going.
For 2011/12, the revised forecast is for revenue of $960 million.
The total designated revenue measures are $1,152 million. Yup, the government is spending more than they are taking in.
But more to the point, where is the money going?
The "low income climate action tax credit" is $188 million and a reduction of five per cent in the first two personal income tax rates (that is, the rate is five per cent less than it was - not a change of five per cent) accounts for $218 million, with a further $75 million in the Northern and Rural Homeowner
benefit of $200 each.
That brings the total in personal tax measures to $481 million - or 41.8% of the revenue collected.
The remaining $671 million is for business tax measures including a lowering of the General corporate income tax rate ($381 million) and Small business corporate tax rate ($220 million).
In other words, just like with the HST, we are being asked to pay consumption taxes so that corporations and small businesses can have a tax break.
This is one of the things that I don't think this government understands.
I - and I suspect many other hardworking people in this province - do not want to pay consumption taxes on goods that are essential so that
corporations can get a tax break.
I really don't want to be subsidizing business.
I give corporations and businesses enough of my money every time I buy goods and services from them.
The supermarket makes money off of me every time I pay $4.65 for a jug of milk. I don't need to be handing them additional funds every time I fill up or want my house to be 18 C instead of the outside ambient temperature.
This is the point that the minister just didn't seem to get. Indeed, the BC
Liberals don't seem to understand.
Be it HST or Carbon Tax, I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing business at the expense of more important
concerns.
And as for the carbon tax as economic policy, it is a failure. It hasn't re-engineered people's driving habits one bit.
Indeed, our gasoline consumption is up by 10% since its inception.
But at least we have a personal
income tax cut to pay for it.
