From the budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Ron Liepert: "I will point out, Mr. Speaker, that these higher tax revenues are a result of Albertans and Alberta corporations doing better and thus having higher
taxable incomes, and not because of any tax rate increases by the province." (highlighting mine)
From the document itself: "Budget 2012 introduces no new taxes, or tax rate increases." (underlined by PC's)
Premier Alison Redford: "Budget 2012 is about investing in Albertans with no new taxes or tax increases"
Clear enough or did you want to see about 1 million more examples? (more on this Google search later)
But none of that is the truth as taxes are going up, at least the education portion of your property taxes.
From the Calgary Herald: Although the Redford government boasts about no tax increases or new levies in the budget, it hikes the province's 2012 education property tax take by more than at any time in the last two decades.
Alberta taxpayers will shell out $1.8 billion in education property taxes to the province, an increase of more than $107 million over the 2011 total.
From The Edmonton Journal: 'A jump in the amount Alberta takes from education property taxes means the levy on a typical Edmonton home could go up at the highest rate in three years.'
'The province intends to collect an extra $120 million from education taxes this year, including an additional $38 million — or 10.8 per cent — from Edmonton ratepayers,'
'it means the total average Edmonton property tax hike could hit 7.2 per cent in 2012'
There is no way around it, this is a tax increase, but it gets worse. Not only did they lie about it but this arrogant bunch has the audacity to take it one step farther by trying to pass off the blame and heat onto our municipalities who are the ones that have to collect it. You will see this tax hike show up on your property tax bill, which will get mailed out in Edmonton on May 18 probably AFTER the election) and by then your vote will have already been counted.
As I eluded to earlier the lying and the arrogance are not the worst part of this. They will, or perhaps it would be better stated as, they have already gotten away with it. How could they have gotten away with it since I am obviously reading about it here and in those article linked above you ask? That is easy because the word has already gotten out that the Alberta 2012 budget contain no tax increases and that has already been in every newspaper, on every radio talk-show, and on every television news broadcast both here in Alberta and from beyond when they reported on the 2012 budget. (see Google search linked above) This is what Albertans first heard and even though it is not true it is what most will remember hearing about the budget, that it did not raise taxes. All the PC's have to do now is just continue to repeat the lie and the deception will live on.
It really is brilliant, in a totally underhanded way mind you, but you have to give the PC's credit because after being in power for 40 years they do know all of the tricks on how to hose us without most of us even realizing it until it is too late.
Get the word out. Don't let this deception stand. I fear for what may be in store for us if the PC's do get elected to a majority again since we already know that they don't tell the truth and refuse to give straight answers to direct questions on the subject of taxes.
Real life leadership my ass.
Previous blog on budget 2012
Bonus: I asked Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk a simple question on Saturday night.
AA: " Speaking of facts, how is this NOT a tax increase? http://bit.ly/y5Dwae" (link to Journal story)
His answers, or rather his lack of a straight answer and his sad attempt to spin me (maybe he should have taken one of those social media seminars at PC campaign college this weekend because trying to spin a political blogger is not a bright thing to do) shows that he knows the truth that there are tax increases in the budget, but will do anything he can not to admit it.
TL: "It is all in the Budget. Open and transparent. Read it. How is that a hidden agenda?"
AA: "Those weren't my words. So about my question: How is this http://bit.ly/y5Dwae not a tax increase?"
TL: "That is investing in world class education for our children. Would you cut
AA: "Didn't ask what it was for, mention cuts, or why I won't 'think of the children'. Your refusal to answer says it all.
(No reply)
You can read the twitter thread yourself here
5 comments:
After 40 years in power, the PCs are the masters in blaming others.
Just like the 50+ illegal political contributions... 'blame the people who made them, not the PCs for cashing the cheque'
Albertans are not stupid.
We have a choice now.
Wow, not even a single PC cheerleader is willing to challenge my post. Considering that some of them would argue that the sky was not blue if Redford said so, I am a bit surprised to say the least.
Just read a story on the campaign school redali held. Seems 40% of the candidates this election will be first timers. That is around 32 newbies. What happened, did serving ones lose their nomination race or did smart ones quit.
Then she says she will work very hard to see all those nominated get elected. Who does she think she is, Ralph K. Posters and buttons have her wearing a parka, does that mean a winter election.
They have also named 3 candidates for the senate election. There will be a lot of new, strange names on our ballots.
I pray, if she wins, it is a small minority with the WRA a strong opposition.
I remain confident that these clowns can be taken down--at least to a minority. The Calgary Herald editorial was highly critical of this budget, so that's a good sign for me. Unfortunately, the REDmonton Journal looks like they are going to be carrying the water for the PCs, as they cut REDford a huge amount of slack, with this:
As a result, the betting here is that Redford's government is serious about tackling the resource-revenue issue that causes that eye-popping margin of error on Page 61.
Anyway, one more thing about Flanagan ... back in the summer of 2009, when Iggy was threatening to vote non-confidence, Flanagan commented that this might be a good two election strategy. I.E. weaken Harper further, in a quick election, then finish him off in the next one. Flanagan added that Iggy should never admit publicly that this was his plan.
As we saw, Iggy backed off. But my point is, Flanagan just might have this two-election strategy in mind now. It makes sense, given how far behing Wildrose is, in number of seats. Concentrating on a limited number of winnable seats, is probably the optimum strategy.
I've got a lot of faith in my fellow Albertans. This election is about bringing back the Alberta Advantage, making us proud of our politics again, and showing the proper conservative way forward for the other provinces.
It's difficult to understand why the Alberta PC's would insert an NDPeer as their leader. Even more difficult to understand why anyone calling themselves Conservative would vote for an NDP Premier.
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