Bob Simpson on the 2012 BC Budget

Earlier today -- Cariboo-North MLA Bob Simpson gave his assessment on the 2012 BC Budget and from his comments - it seems he's destined, like his former NDP MLA colleagues, to vote against this budget as proposed by the BC Liberals

See MLA Simpson comments below:

Be Careful What You Wish For:

This week’s provincial budget is both a result and a reflection of our times.

It’s a result of decades of the mantra that government and taxes are bad, free trade and “competitiveness” are good. It’s a reflection that this agenda has led to economic collapse and governments that no longer have the revenue needed to deliver the public services people still expect from them.

Let me be plain: the fiscal restraint in this budget is necessary if we don’t want to go down the path of other governments that gave in to the pressure to cut taxes but haven’t controlled their spending.

We can’t have it both ways: years of tax reductions and robust public services.

Problem is: this year’s budget cuts and its continued attack on household disposable income (MSP premium increases, BC Hydro increases, etc.) will only compound the current recession. Too many families are living paycheck to paycheck to absorb more direct costs and pay for services they once used to get from their government.

The government had alternatives.

Instead of raising MSP rates again, it could have raised the corporate tax rate now (instead of “maybe” in 2014). In a natural resource constrained world BC doesn’t need to have the lowest corporate tax rate. The government could also charge more for access to our natural resources and slash business and corporate subsidies.

The Finance Minister could have raised income assistance and disability rates; this is government-enforced poverty and every dollar invested (yes, invested!) in this would end up in small businesses and local economies and would reduce costs to government in areas such as health care and the justice system.

There’s going to be a review of the carbon tax, but the government could have ended the sham of its carbon neutral claim and stopped forcing the public sector to buy carbon offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust. In this time of increased fiscal restraint the continued transfer of your tax money from public service budgets to questionable private sector projects must end.

The Finance Minister called this budget a “paradigm shift.” It’s not. It simply reflects the end game of a four decade old paradigm of tax cuts, deregulation and the transfer of wealth to the very few.

This budget is going to hurt. Unfortunately, the pain is going to be felt most keenly by those already hurting as a result of years of “fiscal restraint” compounded by the current recession.