To the editor:
They say adversity brings out the best and the worst in people.
The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) has brought out only the worst. Honesty is the biggest victim.
I understood the feds would pay the $1.6 billion over three years. That would mean only a portion would have to be paid back if the HST was abolished this year.
[Finance Minister Colin] Hansen is implying they paid the whole $1.6 billion up front. Which is it?
He says reconstructing a Provincial Sales Tax (PST) department would cost $30 million a year. Did it cost that much to construct the HST sales tax department? I doubt it.
Did they fire all the PST accountants and hire new HST accountants? I don't think so.
So, is Mr. Hansen telling us it will cost $30 million a year to scrape the HST letters off the windows and doors and stencil PST back on?
Hansen claims a major part of British Columbia's expected recovery comes from the HST, whose revenues are projected to keep climbing along with personal income tax until the province returns to surplus in 2013/14.
Since I believe Mr. Hansen got his finance degree out of a Cracker Jack box, let me try to put this in simpler terms for him.
Let's say I earn $3,000 a month and the landlord evicts me so he can raise the rent. Where is that $200 more that I need going to come from?
I'll make do with my old winter coat; I'll buy or trade for used parts to repair my car; restaurant coffees are out of the question; and I may have to buy cheaper food.
As the rent (HST and personal income tax) increases each year, I go further into the hole because wage increases have never kept up with increased living costs.
Let's not forget that corporate taxes are heading towards zero. That means profits will also be heading towards zero because our disposable income is also heading in that direction, so their prices will increase because the shareholders still want their investment returns.
Perhaps I could suggest to Mr. Hansen that we don't have to get rid of the HST? I seem to recall him saying that the feds allowed us to adopt and modify the HST to our liking.
If it's true, keep the HST but remove the added taxes so we pay the same as we did with the PST. We won't have to pay the feds back their bribe and [B.C. Chamber of Commerce president] John Winter will have what he wants and the consumers will still have money in their pockets.
Art Richards, Princeton
