a_majoor said:
The biggest problem isn't that they don't get enough revenue, its that spending is out of control. Spending is being sent to "sexy" portfolios like education, healthcare and nebulous things like "productivity", rather than the basic grunt work like Infrastructure. Even the "sexy" portfolios are poorly managed, the amount of money being spent on health care in Ontario is sufficient to run a third world nation, but the vast majority of the money is eaten by "administrative" costs, so the hapless taxpayer doesn't receive very much "health care" at all. Similarly for education, and many of the industrial planning initiatives like ethanol plants are simply corporate welfare (since it takes more energy to make ethanol than you ever get out of it, you can see this is really sending tax dollars up in flames).
No no, I agree with what you're saying - and a lot of is is certainly because of applying outdated ideology to running a modern province. I recently became aware of how badly this province is run - especially in the health portfolio. Anecdote: A friend who runs a doctor's office says that after processing forms for patients, she's completely shocked that people with refugee status get *everything* paid for - far more benefits than an actual citizen, including optical (ie. they get their fricken glasses paid for.) After processing a number of these patients, she made the common-sense conclusion that a lot of these refugees are simply soaking the system for the benefits. That's messed up - there are bona fide users of the system waiting for hours to deal with a bona fide health problem, and then there are these leeches who get the bells and whistles paid for. (My Q: how on earth can a federally-determined status (refugee) be hamstringing provincial spending (health?) It may or may not be included in the confusing deal we call equalization, but no normal Canadian can ever possibly understand how that megaloth will ever work. I guess that's why the federal conservatives are champing at the bit to just hack at it.)
The Provincial governments could cut very deeply and reduce taxes. This would inconveinience the people at the trough, but the resulting economic boom would more than absorb these people back into the productive economy. The same could be said at the Federal level as well.....
I dunno, I think that simply cutting taxes in a system so corrupt (the fat is so integrated with the meat) is a recipe for people to falling through the cracks and therefore political instability... Harris tried to do that, and ended up with a revolt on his hands. I think the idea of cutting taxes and "making do with less" definitely works more on a federal level than a provincial level because most federal portfolios don't influence the day to day running of mainstream society - downloading has made running a province more complex, the energy portfolio alone is causing serious problems, especially with the cap on rates. So while a GST cut might work, cutting the PST could directly result in stuff like brownouts, which would scare away investment and forestall any economic boom.
[quote author=I_am_John_Galt]
Please enlighten me!!! What the what is this?!?! The amount you can raise taxes before the population revolts? [/quote]
Shoot, now I'm coming off sounding like a hoity-toity know it all... sorry dude. (Well, I spose if I actually want to become a PAFFO, that's not necessarily a bad thing...
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Based on what I know, the federal government, as the grand tax collector of this great nation of ours, makes tax policy decisions in conjunction with political effect and areas of constitutional responsibility. This federal government has made it simple: we feds are responsible for this, so we'll tax for this. We're taxing too much, so we're cutting those taxes. What they're saying to the provinces is this: you're responsible for all of this, so tax your population appropriately so they're taken care of. So by cutting the GST, the feds are saying to Ontario: if you have problems, raise the PST. (And, if that causes political problems, well hay-ell, that's your problem, innit?
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It's just that based on stuff that I've observed over a period of time, it's not that simple for a province. Ontario in particular has been so badly run that moves like cutting taxes or raising spending on a provincial level results in badness all around. On one hand, there's definitely a political effect (the revolt.) On the other hand, the province is in charge of far more day-to-day responsibility today than, say, 10 years ago. The way I see it, since the NDP had the reins, ideology - both left and right - has virtually crippled the running of this province for years, and now we're left with a soft, pink, badly run mess where these decisions no longer have a logical effect. Raising taxes will piss people off, but it doesn't necessarily fix the problems. Cutting taxes should piss less people off, but because the province is so badly run, spending needs to be cut, and if you're not smart like Harris, you'll piss more people off. The result is political instability, which ensures little to nothing gets done - we now have a province with high taxes, high spending in areas that should have less, cut spending in services in areas that should have more, subsidized stuff where there should be none (e.g. energy.) And don't get me started on municipal funding and operation...
I'd love to get a provincial government with political will (that sure isn't Guinty McDalton's crowd), they could 1) raise the PST to cover the suck portfolios including energy and health 2) with that cash, announce that the health care premium will be done away with, which will bolster the govt politically, 2) with that cash, come up with an energy deregulation and production plan (like Eves should have) so that the treasury is no longer drained by this suck portfolio (not to mention showing the world that Ontario is no longer a soviet energy basket case) while ordinary people won't be facing triple the energy bill. Then get to work cutting the fat out of the meat, especially in health care - and coming up with a productivity plan that actually *means* something (it's only nebulous if you pay lip service to the term, and spend money on that lip service.) And come up with a taxing system that allows municipalities to tax, like they do in New York, for example. Oh, and move towards privatizing health care so the leeches will wither at the trough. Oh, and monorails for all!
As others have pointed out, Canadians are grossly over-taxed due to successive governments waste of tax dollars without proper safeguards in place! (Think gun registry, adscam etc., etc.) To simply advocate throwing more money at a problem is typical NDP, Liberal crap!
