UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES
This budget reflects a kinder, gentler picking of your pocket than the PCs had planned. If you drink and smoke, you’ll shell out more. But post-secondary tuition is frozen, and hikes to land titles, vital statistics and motor-vehicle fees are history. Wri
INCOME TAXES
As already announced, the NDP scrapped the flat tax in favour of a progressive income tax regime. The extra revenue it provides — $450 million in 2015-16 and $906 million the year after — will come from high earners, those with taxable income of $125,000 and up. If you’re also single, you get hit hardest. By 2017, a single earner with $180,000 in taxable income will pay an additional $1,400.
However, those with taxable income below $125,000 remain unchanged at 10 per cent and won’t pay more or less.
Low-income families get a major break. A one-earner family with two children and just $30,000 in taxable income will pay $589 less in 2016 and $1,178 less in income tax by 2017.
The basic personal and spousal tax credit amounts rose by 2.4 per cent for 2015, but the tax savings are minimal, just $42 in each case.
SIN TAXES
It’s the go-to revenue pool for every government, and the NDP are going there with relish, starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Following up on the sin tax hikes implemented by the Tories in the spring, the NDP have raised tobacco taxes by $5 per carton of 200 cigarettes to $50; bumped the tax on loose tobacco by 3.75 cents to 37.5 cents per gram; and hiked cigar taxes to 129 per cent of the taxable cost of the cigar.
They also increased the liquor markup by five per cent. It amounts to an additional two cents on a bottle of beer and 18 cents on a 750-mL bottle of wine with some variations.
The increased sin taxes are expected to deliver an additional $35 million in 2015-16 and $83 million in 2016-17.
Though not really a sin tax per se, the government is hiking taxes on locomotive fuel by four cents to 5.5 cents per litre; bad news if you happen to own a locomotive. On the plus side, there is no increase in the tax on aviation fuel.
FEES
The NDP reversed some of the fee hikes planned by the PCs, holding the line on the cost of marrying, divorcing and dying, though not necessarily in that order.
The reversals represent considerable loss of revenues over three years from those the Tories had hoped to collect — $490 million from land titles, $109 million from motor vehicle fees, $92 million from vital statistics for services like the issue of birth, death and marriage certificates.
A reversal on school board fees, starting in 2016-17, will cost the province $90 million over two years.
The work on this file actually started last spring when the NDP scrapped the Tories’ planned health-care levy that would have cost many Albertans about $200 per year.
But the government is leaving traffic fine increases and court filing fees instituted by the Tories in the spring in place.
FAMILY SAVINGS
The government plans to increase support for children and families most in need, but there will be a bit of a wait.
The introduction of the Alberta Child Benefit in July 2016 will provide families with one child up to $1,100 per year, and an additional $550 for each of the next three children. Families with income of $25,000 will receive the maximum benefit of $2,750 annually.
The benefits start to phase out at a family income of $25,500 and are fully phased out at $41,220.
The program will offer $195 million annually and should support 235,000 children.
Enhancements to the Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit starting in July 2016 will further benefit low-income working families with kids. The maximum combined benefit of both programs amounts to $4,737 for a working family with four children.
There is $297 million in the budget for child care in 2015-16 and another $175 million targeted to subsidize $25 per day child care by the end of this budget term.
HELP FOR STUDENTS
Finance Minister Joe Ceci had good news for students and their bill-paying parents.
“University and college students are able to resume their studies benefiting from a twoyear tuition freeze — a big relief from planned increases that would have made post-secondary education even harder for ordinary families to afford,” he told the legislature.
There is also $228 million for Student Aid programs in 2015-16, which will support scholarships for 47,500 students and grants for 16,000. A total of $579 million will be available in student loans in 2015-16.
Beginning in 2016, the NDP will reduce each family’s share of K-to-12 school fees with $45 million annually. Another $20 million in 2016-17 and $40 million in 2017-18 will support a targeted school nutrition program.
Restored funding will also support about 380 new teachers and 150 support staff throughout the education system, keeping pace with higher enrolments.