After 2012, the B.C. government reduced the personal and spousal deductions by up to 15 per cent for tax purposes. In contrast, the federal government increased their deductions by about two per cent in line with inflation expectations.
The B.C. government’s action is the same as raising the tax rate for B.C. taxpayers without telling them. With over 2.5 million taxpayers in B.C., this will bring in $250 million each year just based on the lowest B.C. tax rate of 5.06. So if you count the higher tax brackets, it will likely bring in much, much more.
This is more than the $250 million that is expected from the proposed transit tax of a 0.5-per-cent increase in the PST.
We need to ask the finance minister why the government did this. To recover from the HST fiasco? To cover settlements with teachers and health care workers? For LNG projects? To balance the budget? The Site C dam? Or a war chest for the next election?
The government has already collected an additional $250 million a year since 2012 and now they get the Mayors’ Council to support a new proposal to collect even more money from the B.C. taxpayers over and above increases in property taxes, medical premiums, BC Hydro, ferry rates and bridge tolls.
There is no doubt we need transit improvements, but I feel there should be a “Plan B.”
That’s why I’m voting “no” in the upcoming referendum.
Wally Forder, Surrey
