We are not entirely sure whether Ontario Premier Wynne is just breathing hard or seeking to achieve new heights. She told reporters the other day that the Liberals are going to have an aspirational budget. And just because Microsoft’s Canadian spell checker does not recognize the word, the Oxford dictionary does. It simply means it is something earnestly desired.
The next Ontario budget is now expected at the beginning of May and that will likely trigger a June provincial election. Whether the budget plan will be something that Ontario voters want to earnestly desire is going to be the main question. Opposition Leader Timmy Hudak is nothing if not consistent and he promises to condemn it before he even hears what is in it. As far as Tiny Tim is concerned the budget could be ghost written by the late guru of the right Milton Freidman and Timmy would still reject it.
Meanwhile Andrea Horwath of the New Democrats stays noncommittal but knows she will do herself no good by continuing to support the Liberals. This will be her one chance at the Premier’s chair in the Legislature and she does not intend to mess it up.
That leaves the heavy slugging to Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa. He is expected to fix the Liberal government’s budgeting problems. This could include expediencies such as to reprofiling taxes into new revenue streams. One of those new streams will be money for items such as Toronto subways. Since this is money that would have normally been earmarked for requirements in mundane areas such as education or healthcare, Charles is going to have to very creative as to how he makes the budget work.
One obvious suggestion is to expand the surtax currently imposed on citizens making over $500,000 per year. It is now expected to include people who make over $150,000 per year. (That last figure might be adjusted as the politicians figure out where it is that incomes move from middle class to wealthy.)
Since Canadian politicians have got into the shell game of not taxing voters and not paying for anything that the voters might not notice, they have discovered that borrowing is also an option. They figure that if the voters can max out their credit cards, why not have the government join them?
Maybe, if we are lucky, our great-great grandchildren will get the bills and wonder about the stupidity of their ancestors.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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