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Loading...Tax the Rich! Ontario NDP Forces New 2% Tax Hike for Top Earners
The minority Liberal Government in Ontario survived a budget vote today. While the Conservatives refused outright to support the budget, the New Democrats (NDP) agreed not to vote against the budget if certain conditions were met. The key item they were asking for is an increase in the provincial income tax rate for people earning more than $500,000 annually. To keep his government from falling, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty agreed to NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s proposal and introduced the tax hike into the revised budget.
According to Reuters:
Premier Dalton McGuinty said the extra revenue from the tax hike, which he pegged at around C$470 million, will go to reducing Ontario’s deficit, estimated at C$15.3 billion for 2012-13. But the revenue estimate met with skepticism from some analysts.
“The actual net revenue take will almost certainly be less (possibly quite a bit less) than the static, nobody-changes-their-behavior estimates of C$450-C$550 million per year,” BMO Capital Markets said in a note to clients.
Many media outlets are calling the tax increase a bad tax plan, citing concerns that the impact will be greater than two percent (since the surtax some Ontarians already pay will also increase as a result) or that rich Ontarians may just leave the province and invest somewhere with lower tax rates. The fact that the additional taxes will be used to help lower the deficit (instead of paying for social programs) is also controversial. Some are supportive, calling it fiscally responsible, while others note that the additional taxes will not actually help the Ontarians most in need of financial assistance.
In the Toronto Star, Columnist Linda McQuaig noted that “it’s hard to fight a class war without a billionaire onside”, noting that at least President Obama has Warren Buffet on side. While they may not be on the list of richest Ontarians, Horwath does indeed have some top earning Ontarians fighting with her. Just last month, the Canadian group Doctors for Fair Taxation called on the Canadian and Ontario governments to increase the taxes of Canadians earning more than $100,000, with a sliding scale tax increase for the top 10% that would bring in an additional $3.5 billion annually for the federal government and $1.7 billion for the province of Ontario.
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Read more: 1%, 99%, Andrea Horwath, canada, canadian politics, Dalton McGuinty, ndp, ontario, tax, tax the rich
Photo credit: Greencolander on flickr
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+ add your ownThis would be a North wind I'd welcome in the States. How refreshing, to see that a government actually does work for its people.
it's about time!!! (that the 'rich' get taxed... and not find some way of weaseling out of it)
ditto if it also applies to corporations
it's a start!
It is about time but not merely enough for the very rich..Now there is a woman with balls..Some male politicians should take notice..
The troll is trying to suggest he's making over 500K when in fact he's total white trash - trailer trash, if that!
Jeffrey, how long have you been without oxygen?
Luxembourg is a tax haven is it Jeffrey? With a Company Tax Rate of around 30%, an income tax rate of 6%-39% (compared to 0%-35% for the United States) & a VAT/GST rate of 15% (compared to 0%-10.25% for the United States), I call *bullshit* on your claim. Though Luxembourg does have an unemployment rate of 5.2% & a Debt to GDP ratio of around 20%. So again another country that disproves your link between low tax & high unemployment!
"Austria, the Netherlands and Germany again have much lower corporate tax rates, and the talk is about tax cuts, not tax increases as it is in the US."
Gee, Jeffrey, you idiotic troll-for someone who demands people back their every claim with data, you're pretty damned good at making shit up & providing nothing to back your position-as was the case with your original claim re: Florida getting Canada's doctors. A claim you have yet to verify. Personally, though, I think the best thing we can do is ignore someone who is clearly just a paid propagandist for the GOP & their ultra-rich followers.
...and still Jeffrey the Troll never lets facts get in the way of a good story. For instance, he compares the whole Eurozone's unemployment rates-which makes no sense at all. Lets take a look at the various Countries-by Corporate Tax Rates vs Unemployment Rates & Debt to GDP ratio:
Germany: Tax: 29.8%, Unemployment: 5.7%, Debt to GDP: 82%
Sweden: Tax: 26.3%, Unemployment: 7.5%, Debt to GDP: 38.4%
Norway: Tax: 28%, Unemployment: 3.2%, Debt to GDP: 48.9%
Finland: Tax: 26%, Unemployment: 7.4%, Debt to GDP: 49.3%
Iceland: Tax: 20%, Unemployment: 6.9%, Debt to GDP: 130%
Denmark: Tax: 25%, Unemployment: 7.9%, Debt to GDP: 46.5%
France: Tax: 33.3%, Unemployment: 10%, Debt to GDP: 86.5%
Now, lets compare those to the basket case European Economies:
Spain: Tax: 20-25%, Unemployment: 23.6%, Debt to GDP: 70%
Italy: Tax: 31.4%, Unemployment: 9.3%, Debt to GDP: 120.9%
Ireland: Tax: 10%-25%, Unemployment: 14.3%, Debt to GDP: 108.4%
Greece: Tax: 22%-25%, Unemployment: 21%, Debt to GDP: 165%
So, based on those numbers, I see no link at all between low company tax & either low unemployment or low Debt to GDP ratios-though if anything the Countries with the lowest tax rates seem to trend more towards worse Unemployment & debt outcomes (with Italy being a notable exception).
As for Canada, their unemployment rate has been below that of the US since around 2009, yet there is no evidence that their tax rates (which are effectively 26%, if you look at Provincial
A baby step in the right direction. Good luck to the NDP. The wealthiest are not job creators. The trickle down theory didn't and doesn't work.
"It is one of the great paradoxes of history that
the 'Have Nots' tend to be satisfied when they get a little,
while the 'Haves' are not satisfied unless they get a lot."
Dr. Mardy Grothe
"Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction.
It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches."
Samuel Smiles
"Monarchies are destroyed by poverty;
republics by wealth."
Louis-Marie Prudhomme
(1752 - 1830), French librarian and journalist
Deregulation and greed brought us to the economic crisis both in the US and global and it's not over.
See the following on Financial Regulation Timeline:
http://www.netrootsmass.net/selise/financial-regulation-timeline/
Long article but very enlightening.
Also see: Brooksley Born, Head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Interview
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/interviews/
born.html
"I think the profits made by the over-the-counter derivatives dealers, by our largest banks and investment banks, were the upside of this. And that was shortsighted. It was short-term benefit for a few major institutions at the expense of all the people who have lost their jobs, who have lost their retirement savings, who have lost their homes." Stated by Born in her interview.
And now the Republicans want to go back to deregulation.
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