For those of you who keep an open mind about whether or not your vote might change based upon the fundamental dishonesty of a government, let me share a few things.
As Mark Twain once said, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
I offer, for your consideration, what might fairly be described as all three kinds of lies coming from our Premier and her government.
Firstly - following the most recent budget unveiled by Alison Redford, she was proud to proclaim continued funding of most programs at absurd levels, including a healthy increase for teachers - but no tax increases. As printed in the Edmonton Journal:
An assortment of similar headlines were all over Alberta, suggesting that, yes, we are going to run a continuing deficit, but, hey, at least there's no hike in our taxes.
Now.
How they do that when, also announced, is a further $107 million being paid to teachers who are already the highest paid educators in North America is an interesting question, but certainly our Premier and her party wouldn't LIE to us about this, would they?
And just to help us digest and understand this, in the Alberta Education website, they explain, cheerfully, that our taxes for education have actually been dropping, and to support this, they point out that this budget marks "the 18th straight year that the education property tax mill rate has been lowered or frozen. In fact, since assuming responsibility for education property taxes, the province has cut residential education property tax rates by 64.7 per cent."
Well.
How about that, now?
Not only no new taxes, but in fact our taxes have gone down for education, including this past year, and have been frozen or dropped for 18 straight years.
Well.
Don't I have egg on my face for complaining over the Redford purchase of teacher votes to the tune of $107 million?
But wait...
How to understand these headlines then?
From the Lethbridge Herald, Feb. 22, 2012:
Tax Bills to Take Hefty Jump
Contrary to provincial promises, Lethbridge homeowners are facing an unexpected tax hike. The Conservative government's decision to boost its education levy means the city's "average" property tax bill could increase as much as $120 this year, city council learned Tuesday.
From the St. Albert Leader, Feb. 23, 2012:
Education tax jumpsFrom the Edmonton Journal, Feb. 11, 2012:
According to figures released over the weekend, the education requisition increase for St. Albert in 2012 will jump by more than $2 million, or 9.54 per cent, over 2011.
Property tax increase could hit 7.2%Province wants extra $120 million from education tax
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.
From the Calgary Herald, Feb. 10, 2012:
Although the Redford government boasts about no tax increases or new levies in the budget, its take of education property taxes this year grows more sharply 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 City of Red Deer news release, Feb. 13, 2012:
The Alberta provincial education property tax revenue is forecast at $1.8 billion in 2012-13. The main source of education revenue is municipal property taxes. For 2012, there will be an increase of more than $107 million over the 2011 tax year – the largest increase The Province has made in 20 years.
You like apples? How 'bout them apples.
Alison Redfrod and Ron Liepert proudly unveil the pre-election budget, proclaiming, "No new taxes", and after spending an additional $107 million on already pampered and spoiled teachers, they publish statistics on their Education Website that explain that our taxes are actually going down...
And yet, article after article explaining how home-owners are going to pay, yes, MORE taxes to help pay for the promises Alison Redford made to purchase her Premiership.
How to reconcile this apparent bald-faced lie?
Well, it goes like this.
You are, say, a senior citizen.
And you live in a modest little property in Alberta, a two bedroom bungalow for example.
And while you live on a fixed income, other expenses go up annually - but, thankfully, your mortgage is paid off, and you own your home.
Problem is, your house has gone up in value from, say, $75,000.00 ten or fifteen years ago, to some $200,000.00 today. Same house. Same water heater that needs to be replaced, and shingles that hopefully will hold out for another year or two. But the house is worth more.
Here's the rub.
Alberta property taxes are based upon market value - not your income.
An application of mill-rate to home value. A percentage based upon the "thousands of dollars" a home is worth. So - to explain, Alberta education is proud to say, "We've dropped your mill rate from 2.93 to 2.7 percent."
In other words, if your home value is at a constant, and was worth, say $200,000.00, that would drop the education portion of your taxes from $586.00 to $540.00. Sweet!
But here's the rub.
When your property goes from $75,000.00 in value to $200,000.00 - your "tax decrease" (as described by the Alberta government) goes from $219.75 to $540.00.
So.
Lies.
Damned lies.
And statistics.
Make sure to think about that at ballot time.
9 comments:
We here in Ontario welcome you to the club of useless progressive governments. One they get enough people hooked just try to get rid of them.
Isn't the Wild Rose platform built a lot of hearsay and lies. It's fine for the Wild Rose party to twist the facts, but not the provincial Conservatives. Both parties are equally guilty of twisting the facts.
Once again, the PCs are taking voters for idiots. Let's do some simple math, to help further explain your post:
TR = Tax Rate
MVP = Market Value of your Property
PTP = Property Tax Payable
Then PTP = TR x MVP
The PCs crow that the TR has been going down, or staying frozen. While ignoring that MVP has been going UP (at a greater rate).
Hence, PTP has been going up, as your many newspaper headlines show.
What gets me, is that these PCs must think that they can slip their statistical nonsense past most of the voters. Or at least spin their way out of it, when they get caught, and challenged.
I dunno. It's like they haven't heard about the intenet. Meanwhile, their credibility gets eroded even more.
It's pretty obvious by now, that Redford's gang can't be trusted.
Yes, Kevin’s right. They are hard to shake loose. Just like good old ATA-Archie. He always shows up on every blog that posts something about the new left-wing PC Party and it’s always to spin, deflect and obfuscate on their behalf. I wonder if he does it from school property and on school time?
It's people like Blame Crash will be the reason the Wild Rose party will never go anywhere. Until they get rid of their ultra right wing attitudes and learn theirs other people that live in Alberta other then Calgary they'll never much to anything. As to school Blame Crash from the looks of things you've never step into one. It also looks like some Wild Rose supporters think it's a crime to have any education.
I really got to you, eh Archie. I can tell by your sputtering, mistake laden reply.
And what’s up with you and your dislike of Calgary? Don’t you see how similar your anti-Calgary ravings are to Toronto Liberals ragging on and on about big bad Alberta? Did you pick that up from them?
Now, about your mutterings that I’ve never stepped into a school. Do you really believe that or are you lashing out because you’ve been found out? Don’t you also know that accusing others of being daft for no other reason than because they don’t mindlessly subscribe to the Politically Correct ideology is another sign and dead give away that you’re a flaming liberal? You’re not a new comer from Toronto are you? It sure seems that way.
I knew it a NDPer in dragg, pretending to be a westerner. Keep it up Blame Crash, your just proving a point on the type of people the Wild Rose has attached and in your case they must of dug pretty deep.
Hold her steady there Archie!
You appear to be careening out of control with your ramblings.
On one comment you insinuate that I’m an “ultra right winger” and the next that I’m an “NDPer”! You’re gonna hit the ditch if you don’t keep an eye on the road, or worse yet, through the guard rail and over the cliff.
On a positive note, you and Alison can hold hands on the trip down because that’s what’s going to happen to her and those sneaky bunch of PC-Lib confederates in the upcoming election. Don’t forget your parachute Archie!
Archie;
I certainly hope you are not an educator, as your obvious inability to rationally comment on a post which simply asserts the factual inaccuracy of PC statements would, no doubt, be passed on to students.
At what point in the post do I raise the Wild Rose Alliance.
All I do is show, clearly, that the PC party has taken Albertans for fools in trying to spin their budget as creating "no tax hikes".
Now.
If you would like to show how I'm incorrect in my analysis, I would be happy to be corrected.
If you would like to show how Alberta teachers haven't been the highest paid teachers in Canada, on average, for the last decade, before they received their $107 million payoff, I would be happy to be corrected.
At the same time, if you are going to just use my blog to criticize the Wild Rose Alliance, well, at least you could actually put some substance behind your ramblings.. what "hearsay" do you speak of? What are these "twisted facts" that you allude to?
Please, Archie, please tell me you have something more, otherwise, your pathetic effort at defending the PC party comes across as just sad.
Next you'll be writing that the ATA effort to constantly drain the education budget to benefit teachers' salaries is "for the children"...
If you are going to make a comment to simply display your own ignorance, well, you would be best off just taking another professional development day to work on your rhetoric.
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