Chapter 4 Media Article

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=55246e93-c30e-48e1-aaaa-52900496437d&k=0

B.C. unveils tax-cut budget

Recently, BC's government revealed a $36 billion dollar budget which includes a 10% personal income tax cut. The government stated that the rationale behind the tax cut is to ease the housing problems that our province is experiencing; partially caused by our province's strong economy. It's expected that BC will end its current fiscal year with a surplus of $2.8 billion dollars. The budget is expected to produce a surplus of $400 million dollars, after $750 million dollars is set aside as a contingency. Capital spending is projected to increase by $600 million dollars. Premier Gordon Campbell has constantly been accused of cutting back on social programs in recent years and using rhetorical means persuading the public that the money is needed to help rebuild the province's economy. However, BC's economy is currently booming. As Liberal Finance Minister Carole Taylor said, "There are too many families who don't feel like they are sharing in the benefits," Therefore BC's government is proposing to cut income taxes by 10% i hopes of relieving homeowners, low-income renters and the homeless over a four year period. BC's Liberal government is proposing that this tax cut would generate $1.5 billion dollars from the income tax cut. This new spending money that the Liberals will have would include a $27 million dollar year round shelter beds for the homeless and $38 billion dollars for those at risk of becoming homeless.

This article is strongly reflective on the progressive tax in Chapter 4. The 10% income tax cuts' sole purpose is to provide relief for those who are low income earners; reducing the amount of tax they pay from their income. The philosophy of progressive tax is the increase of tax waged on the increase of income of an individual. More specifically, the more income an individual earns, the higher you move up tax brackets; paying more taxes from your income. The 10% reduction would serve to help low income earners and the homeless save a little more money.

Politics is not easy. Making decisions are often quite difficult for politicians, considering the fact that they have to take into account the many different views and opinions of the general public. Essentially, income taxes will always be a burden on the shoulders of all taxpayers. Having a 10% reduction on income taxes would be a tremendously support for some people, and for some people it wouldn't really make much of a difference except that extra $40-50 dollars to spend on that DVD they always wanted to buy or take their wives out to a nice Italian restaurant. There's always going to be a plus/minus side to every decision, but even a bigger one when it involves the government making a decision that has such a big influence on the economy. Surely, there will be many in BC's population who would salute the Liberals like the Nazis saluted Hitler because of this major decision to cut taxes. However, they should also take into account the enormous debt that BC is carrying and this would only add more oil to the fire. For others like my dad, this tax cut is not so much a big deal to him, as he sees it as extra cash for his son (me) to use for a week of gas. As citizens of BC, we should consider that the Olympics will be a heavy burden to pay off for my generation, and with the recent announcement of the tax cut, these two combined will make my generations lives a lot more harder as we have to pay more taxes to pay off the provincial debt. There are many advocates against the tax cut, one of whom is Jim Sinclair of the BC Federation of Labor saying that the tax cut would do nothing to ease the homelessness problem. Finance Minister Carole Taylor says, "We are committed to not letting our debt grow faster than the economy," However, I am quite skeptical of her statement. There is only so much that governments can do regardless if the same politicians are elected for another term. Only so much are in our hands to control and although BC's economy is booming, we may face many other social or economical problems in the future that are yet unpredicted today.