Its not the people's fault. The government need to understand there should be other sources of revenue other then taxation. Govern the property tax for example, import taxation of foreign country products. Regulate the city's infrastructure, facilities and transport systems thru market competition, not monopolization, etc.

That's what made me laugh in the mid-term elections state side.

The Tea Party wanted to shrink the budget, eliminate deficits and lower taxes.

Great plan.

Anytime they were asked, what are you going to cut?

Defense? Nope, we believe in a strong America
Medicare? Nope...we believe in a healthy America
Education? No.
Infrastructure? No.

So what then? Well, gov't in general. No one can mention one substantial program to cut.

It's the same here...lower taxes and no cuts to social programs and maintain a balanced budget.

How about I can offer you two of the three?

Different levels of government control these services. Do you happen to pay property tax yourself? If you did, you would already know it's "governed" by your municipal politicians.

And are you really serious about opening a city's infrastructure to privatization? :lol

I agree that different levels of government already control these services. Its a matter of how they control it. You build up a huge multi layer bureaucracy, and pay them overly high wages for doing squat, its bound to fail. Look at most capitalistic societies, and how they run the system.

Why not open city's infrastructure up to privatization? As long as its properly managed, its a win win situation. Privatization means letting stakeholders run the system, instead of fat asses who "think up" idiotic ideas without a tight grip on estimating costs, budgets, and impact. and when it fails, they just slap their fat asses and move on up their corporate chain. Think Translink.

Did you know all the Japanese rail and transport system revscene is so fond of and so well built are all privatized? Even highways, and tunnels.

Another example is the MTR and bus systems in Hong Kong, considered also to be one of the most efficient in the world. Its cheaper and faster (interms of getting from A to B, not speed) then anything in Canada. That too is privatized. As are most Electric, Gas companies in these societies.

^^ but what does this have anything to do with HST and the discussion in this thread....?

A very big maybe right there. The less regulations in what we call a "free market" the more prevalent the boom and bust effect has on the economy. You have listed the positive of privatization, yes things is almost more efficiently run that way, however, the situation in Canada is much different from Japan or Hong Kong. In Canada, we have to protect ourselves from the corporate power houses of the United States, if the Canadian government deregulates certain laws to allow for more privatizations, we would have things built in Canada, imported to the states, and sold back to us at an significantly higher cost. Prime example would be Chrysters 300C, built in Ontario, I believe, and then sold back to us at a higher cost than it does in the states. On a related note on privatization vs regulations, milk companies in the states are allow to inject a growth hormone (rBGH) to their cows in order to produce more milk. Studies after studies have shown that it increase the chances of breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, etc. Due to the lack of regulations in diary industry in the states, these hormones are allowed to be used, however, in country such as Canada, and actually the rest of Europe, where the government leans more towards the right side of the political spectrum, these hormones are banned. Milk, of course, is cheaper in the states, but at the cost of potential health hazard? I will pass. Oh, and the eggs, they are probably pretty fuck up too.

http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/milk.htm

/off topic

It makes no sense to get rid of HST now since it is has already been implemented. It is also a waste of MONEY, as it is previously mentioned, and time just to, again, sugar coat some bullshit so it is easier to swallow. We all need to pay for whatever is already spent, there is no way out of this, unless you move out of BC. In a scenario such as this, it is ass backward to spend money to save money. At this point I support HST, and I lament how shittily it was sold to us.

We need a nuclear fallout to happen so we can stop bitching and start living

I'd rather pay more for my food than fight for it.

That's just you. Warlords like me have food handed to us.

Wow, about the only time I'll agree with OH.

The government has a choice of taxes: income, corporate, consumption, ... I would prefer consumption taxes raised and like that income taxes will be lower next year.

I would like to see a more European VAT that is variable depending on what you buy. Less VAT on necessities, more VAT on luxuries.

You're not paying attention. The government gave BC $1.6B to enact the HST, which closes a big hole in our budget. If this is given back, this hole must be closed with more taxes.

I'm glad you said it - if I had I probably wouldn't have been as nice and been banned again from AC/OT :D

:thumbsup:

Liberals repealing that Tax Discount for $72k earners

just announced on CBCNews

yup here it is

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/a...-tax-reduction

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The proverbial carrot that Premier Gordon Campbell dangled in front of millions of British Columbians has been suddenly yanked away.
Two weeks after Gordon Campbell stepped down as the Premier of British Columbia, the BC Government's Executive Council has decided to suspend the 15 per cent reduction in personal income tax rates for the first $72,000 of personal income that was promised in Campbell's televised address last month.
Quoting the outgoing premier in a statement released today, the Executive Council says, "in order to ensure the Executive Council has maximum flexibility to set government's economic and fiscal agenda, Cabinet has decided to suspend the planned tax reduction."

NDP Leader Carole James says, "To pull back on that tax cut now, it shows that the government is entirely focused on damage control, on their own problems, and sadly it's British Columbians who are hurting because of that."

The Canadian Federation for Independent Business has also reacted saying it's very disappointed to learn that they say politics has trumped good public policy and has created unnecessary uncertainty for businesses.

The tax reduction would have taken effect January 1 of next year, provided it received legislative approval. It would have become the second largest personal income tax relief measure in BC's history.

Campbell says the government will still roll out a throne speech and budget in early February, but won't announce any programs until a new party leader is chosen later that month.

There will also be what the Executive Council calls a "status quo" budget, with no new initiatives beyond what is statutorily required.

bunch of liars and crooks

Jeez I don't see any chance of the Liberal getting in again for a while. HST, and now a cop out on the proposed Income Tax cut.

and thats completely ignoring the semi-retarded drinking and driving fiasco

There is also poll taxes and wealth taxes.

And the HST does vary depending on the product.

NDP and Carole James would be worse lol. Handing out money to the poor and taxing heavily on the riches and the medium class. How many of these riches and medium will stay here then? O and yea as Carole James said she won't cut any programs, she will cut taxes but then where is the money come from? Do they grow on trees?

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in those meetings. I think they know the HST is going to be defeated in a referendum, cause really, who wants to vote to pay more tax? Thus to stay in power they'd have to undo the HST, which would leave a huge hole in the budget - adding income tax cuts only makes the hole wider.

What I'd want to know is why they proposed income tax cuts in the first place.

The only thing I could think of is this.

http://www.antoniothornton.com/image...rrot-stick.jpg

I think we're the donkey.

I would vote to keep the HST, if the Income tax cut was put through accordingly. Since it's off the table at this point, of course the HST will end up being repealed.

Liberals completely botched this entire thing, the NDP are not better, but I will say they completely screwed themselves out of the next election.