It is fair and square. We democratically voted and we will now go back to our old tax system of PST/GST to replace our present HST.
The big plus to all of this is that the referendum legislation of BC, which was designed to fail, but has never really been tested, has shown us voters that if we really are disgruntled about the direction our leaders are taking us, we do have recourse apart from a provincial election every four years. This should help to stave off any more stupid moves in the future.
But now what. It is interesting that a new tax can hit us over night, but getting rid of an onerous tax will take 18 months. This is about how much time it will take to gather enough money to pay back the feds the incentive money they gave us to get on the HST bandwagon in the first place. Why are we squawking about paying it back? There is only one tax payer, the worker. There is only one government, but divided into federal, provincial, and municipal. If my tax dollar, that I gave to the provincials, is now being given to the federals, it is still my money going to government. So lets get over that aspect of it. What remains to be seen is how the old system, after 18 months of set-up will eventually change to reflect the much needed, but lost revenue of the HST. It will be political suicide to handle this issue badly. And then it will be the downfall of us all if the NDP get in because we are still angry about taxes. Let's be smart here. We all know that as us 'boomers' are aging, the implications to government spending are huge regarding health care and the fact that we will collect pension and will no longer pay into the CPP. As selfish demands for more services keep coming, it will have to be paid for, either with more taxation, cuts in other areas, or with debt. None of these options is palatable. Had we kept the HST, at least it would have been streamlined, and streamlining is all about efficiency, something that is sorely missing in all levels of government today.
No comments:
Post a Comment