$1:
“Retail sales tax increases to increase to 8 per cent on July 1 for a period of 10 years.”
“Basic personal tax exemption to rise by $250; spousal and dependent exemptions also go up by $250.”
Wonderful for everyone, we all lose.
$1:
“School property taxes to be eliminated for all seniors by 2015.”
Since it is mainly the middle and upper class who own homes and the upper class can more easily afford it this is a hit on the middle class. Not to mention stupid since we are telling the very people who benefitted from having seniors pay for their education as kids that they have no responsibility to do the same. But hey, it’s a big voting block of course.
$1:
“Effective at midnight tobacco taxes are going up. The increase is four cents per cigarette to 29 cents per smoke”
Lets not forget they just increased the price of liquor also. Put these together plus the fact people get mugged for a six pack in Winnipeg already and robbed all the time for smokes, this will just increase crime.
$1:
“Minimum wage to rise 20 cents to $10.45 an hour Oct. 1”
This was already much higher than some other provinces when cost of living was factored in and there is no evidence that the NDPs past minimum wage increases have done anything to reduce poverty or make life better for those on low income. Mainly this is economic in nature, if more people can afford limited products the cost of products goes up. However since the middle class does not get similar wage increases (for the most part) their spending power goes down and the lowest earners spending power really does not get better. Erosion of the middle class.
$1:
“Government spending is expected to increase by 3.1 per cent as revenues rise 3 per cent.”
This is interesting considering they don’t know how much money they will have. True they might predict revenues up 3% but they don’t know how much they will lose funding other budget items such as the school tax elimination for seniors (
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/specia ... 47311.html ) . If you don’t have all the numbers how do you predict the net outcome?
$1:
“The Department of Justice will receive a budget hike of nearly 10 per cent due to an increased inmate population.”
Uhh except the inmate population has actually been going down over the last half year. Although we are still over rated capacity by a lot.
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