There are no more conservatives
Alberta's Conservative government brings down a budget with a 12% increase in spending -- 10% operating, 37% capital. At the same time, it has the gall to announce:
In 2007-08, the Alberta government is taking steps to strengthen its fiscal management practices by ensuring there is a disciplined approach to spending and tight limits on in-year increases to operating expenses.Ah, but just wait until they get their majority...
4/20/2007
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Oh you get me ready in your 56 chevy
Why don't we go sit down in the shade
Take shelter on my front porch
The dandy lion sun scorching,
Like a glass of cold lemonade
I will do laundry if you pay all the bills
CHORUS:
Where is my John Wayne
Where is my prairie song
Where is my happy ending
Where have all the cowboys gone
Why don't you stay the evening
Kick back and watch the TV
And I'll fix a little something to eat
Oh I know your back hurts from working on the tractor
How do you take your coffee my sweet
I will raise the children if you pay all the bills
Chorus
I am wearing my new dress tonight
But you don't, but you don't even notice me
Say our goodbyes
Say our goodbyes
Say our goodbyes
We finally sell the chevy
When we had another baby
And you took the job in tennessee
You made friends at the farm
And you joined them at the bar
Almost every single day of the week
Chorus
I will wash the dishes while you go have a beer
Where is my Marlboro man
Where is his shiny gun
Where is my lonely ranger
Where have all the cowboys gone
Yippee aw, yippee yea (3 times)
If Hitler has Albertans he would not have needed to burn down the Reichstag.
Harper and Stelmach know the can screw their Alberta base and they keep getting the votes anyway.
Yes the PCs are spending like crazy, and if there is a tax break in the thing I can't find it, and it is troubling to me...
But the thought of Taft and the Liberals ever getting their hands on all our money makes me tolerate JUST ABOUT anything the PCs do.
I'm surprised that you don't have your appearance on CBC last night up yet AC.
I thought you did a great job of laying out how economically dangerous going full-tilt in support on Kyoto may be.
As for the issue here... it's a pretty sad day when even Alberta stops being conservative.
actually there are some tax breaks. the post-secondary tax credit goes from $600 to $475 while the charitable donation tax credit goes up to 21%.
but yes let's not let that get in the way of the huge spending.
personally i'm not entirely opposed to targeted expansions in certain government infrastructures (e.g. roads, schools, public transport), so if that's what they're doing, it's not entirely a bad thing.
one thing that has become a fad in both BC and Alberta is subsidized housing, or "affordable housing" as proponents like to call it. this has got to be one of the most useless socialist ideas ever, but unfortunately it's as enticing as it is useless. this budget's pandering to subsidized housing doesn't help the situation one bit.
wait. that should read "the post-secondary tax credit goes from $475 to $600". damn.
I'm sure it's an interesting dilemma, having all that revenue, that every other premier in the country would love to have to deal with.
Three points that bear mentioning...
a) Everyone forgets (rather conveniently) that Klein pulled in the spending reins pretty tight in his early days, his main goal to pay off Alberta's public debt.
Which he did.
b) The province is undergoing growth pains right now that are pretty much unimaginable anywhere else in the country. The demands on infrastructure must be, and in fact are, incredible.
And thus a considerable amount of increased spending is going into capital projects.
c) Cutting taxes even further in Alberta likely would only aggravate the situation by enticing even more immigration to their province.
Remember, they have no provincial sales tax, and the lowest provincial income tax (to boot, one rate fits all).
Just sayin'.
Alberta has not been conservaative for the last 30 years. The government stays in majority power because it succeeds at being as centrist as needed to maintain its dominance. Stelmach may be the first true conservative but he is hampered fixing the infrastructure debt left by Klein in his vigor to achieve a debt free Alberta.
Whatever happened to the idea that all that "revenue" is actually money that belongs to someone else, namely the taxpayers?
The link to "Taxes" says, among other things:
"Other tax initiatives include:
- the annual indexing of personal income taxes for inflation,...
- an increase in the small business income threshold."
http://www.gov.ab.ca/budget2007/index.cfm?page=1634
Now, had they included a capital gains tax cut, or the index thereof, then the Alberta government would have seen a huge boost in tax revenues. But what has been proposed is significant nonetheless.
They should have ditched the Healthcare Premium.
Save a lot of families over a thousand dollars a year.
It was something that some PC Leadership candidates proposed.
It is something the Alliance, Liberals, and NDP have all proposed.
It is a hated and inefficient tax.
steve l:
"one thing that has become a fad in both BC and Alberta is subsidized housing, or "affordable housing" as proponents like to call it. this has got to be one of the most useless socialist ideas ever, but unfortunately it's as enticing as it is useless."
ya, totally, poor people should just freeze to death...useless bums!!! never mind that in vancouver it costs less to provide a homeless person with a social housing unit and a welfare cheque than it does to leave them on the streets commiting crime. crazy socialist do-gooding bleeding-heart rational policymakers.
why don't you explain to Andrew Coyne how affordable housing is supposed to be as affordable as the gun registry, Canuckistan?
oh and it's all very flattering to know that you're still following me around and stuff, but really, i don't know you that well.
Springer gets it. We in Alberta paid off the debt too fast and ignored other realities. Original plan - pay it off in 25 years...actual plan - done in 8...not good management but good luck on gas prices more than oil and a single-minded government focus.
It was terrible public policy execution to fast track the debt and deficit but every time a surplus was applied to the debt the government not only got a bounce in the polls - it often set a new plateau.
Lots of blame to go around...lots of catching up to do now especially on public infrastrucure. The reality is we have the money to do it...other reality is we are going to be paying for it through the nose and adding to inflation as we proceed on the much needed public infrastructure.
Stelmach has made th epoliticl decision to pay for neglected maintenance and build public infrastructure that is needed to respond to the population growth. I agree with him. Just wish we didn't have to do it under these circumstances.
The really bad news is that the wealth in Alberta is not trickling down enough or is it coming quickly enough. The social cohesion is straining and the prosperity gap is growing. Affordable housing is a must but only one area in need of attention.
Now we have moutain pine beetle that it well on its way to destroying the BC forests and now well entrenched in Alberta. This summer is the telling year to see, not if, but how fast we will see the Alberta section of the Boreal Forest turn red and then maybe burn. This is an emerging ecological disaster of Biblical proportion.
And all the while Harper is playing voodoo economics over Kyoto by issuing misleading costing reports and speculation on economic implications as a diversionary political tactic to finesse his stupidity over his earlier denial over climate change. Shame!
Ken, you had me at ". We in Alberta paid off the debt too fast and ignored other realities."
And lost me again at "And all the while Harper is playing voodoo economics"
Harper isn't the one playing "voodoo economics," and if you truly live and work in Alberta, you either (a) know that or (b) are on drugs.
Be careful Andrew, as I am told the Conservatives are sensitive when it comes to constructive criticism.
Constructive criticism is criticism which targeting the Liberals.
i don't know what behavioral implications there are supposed to be when people are "sensitive to constructive criticism" but i guess i have to do my part, so...
hear me roar Mr. Nicholls -
RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!1!!!!!11!!!!!!!!
are you all burnt to a crisp now or what?
Hitler didn't have to burn the Reichstag, and indeed didn't burn it. It was burned by a Dutch tourist as an anti-Nazi protest.