Xort wrote:
bootlegga wrote:
I can and did - without a sales tax! I just made a few cuts here and there, then increased income and corporate taxes by 1% and gas taxes by 4 cents/litre.
I did it without a sales tax! I just added a tax to the price of a retail good!
I feel like somehow I've failed this world.
You did it without a full sales tax, I will give you that. But in honesty you can admit that you raised a single item sale tax?
~
Oh and Bootlegga, what do you do if the resource revenue drops by 25% after you made your budget and everyone keeps screaming at you for not predicting the drop?
Adding a fuel tax is like a user fee IMO. If you use lots, you pay lots, use little, pay little. Because of this, I think it's better than a sales tax on everything.
A sales tax hits everyone - although if a credit is built into it for lower income citizens, then it's very progressive and the wealthy tend to pay more than average people (due to the higher cost of luxury goods). However, sales taxes are verboten in this province, so that's why I didn't use one here - just as Redford's government is unlikely to.
Admittedly, my surplus is small and could easily be wiped out by a change in oil prices - but that's why I went with a pessimistic (low) oil price, not an optimistic (high) one. If prices rise as expected, the surplus grows, if not, then we're covered.
I'm guessing your last comment is one based on the predicament the current government finds itself in. Some people have speculated that they knew prices would drop and used bogus figures to allow them to pay for campaign promises. Others feel the province is a victim of outside influences. I feel it's a mix of both (they expected a price drop, but not such a large one) and I don't really blame them too much.
Of course, I would have preferred they be a little more realistic and not wear rose-coloured glasses when drafting the budget, but that budget was a political one. Everyone wanted big spending promises in the last election, so that's what all the parties (including the Wildrose) gave the electorate.