B.C. families face tough challenges making ends meet in 2011. A suddenly-hostile government in Victoria has unleashed a host of nasty hikes in payroll taxes and fees. Factor in the HST, the carbon tax, and rising Canada Pension Plan and Employment insurance deductions, and an average family of four with a couple of wage earners will be paying governments an extra $500 to $600.
This news is especially tough to stomach after the B.C. cabinet overturned the 15 per cent personal income tax cut that was supposed to go into effect January 1.
Politicians in Victoria should have gotten the hint that taxpayers were looking for some relief when more than half a million British Columbia voters signed the anti-HST petition. They clearly didn’t.
The B.C. government, under the leadership of Gordon Campbell, deserves tremendous credit for getting government off the back of business: with the introduction of the HST and the January 1st general business tax cut, B.C. employers get better tax deal on their capital than competitors in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Ontario, Quebec and even Korea. And we’re neck and neck with Alberta and other HST provinces in Atlantic Canada.
But competitive tax rates for business shouldn’t come with a Keg-sized provincial deficit - $1.7 billion this year – and a swarm of tax bites, stings and grabs that have wage-earners reaching for the referendum repellent.
Just consider what we’ve had to put up with in the past twelve months: BC Hydro hiked electricity rates 7.3 per cent, and plans to raise them another 10 per cent this year, a yearly jump of $84 for the average Hydro bill. Victoria expects to reap $608 million this year from BC Hydro, a hidden tax increase of 36 per cent from last year, when it collected $447 million. And in Metro Vancouver, the cost of monthly transit passes went up $96 a year for one zone ($180 a year for three zones) - an 11 per cent hike.
Pensioners got some good news from Ottawa – Canada Pension Plan benefits up $25.83 a month from last year starting January 1, to $960 a month, Old Age Security up $7.27 a month from a year earlier to $524.23. A couple getting the maximum annual CPP and OAS benefits are up $794.40 from a year ago.
But the B.C. government raised Medical Service Plan premiums $84, or six per cent, to $1,308 annually per couple. And whether they forgot, or whether they planned to ignore it, the politicians in Victoria didn’t bother to raise the income levels for premium assistance to keep pace with inflation this year.
So if a couple of pensioners happen to see their adjusted income rise above $30,000 because of the pension increase, their medical premiums will go up $328.80 this year, a 33 per cent increase.
That kind of hike should put them in just the right frame of mind to be “the Minister of Finance for a day,” as Premier Campbell put it, when HST referendum day rolls around.
