Coming to a TV near you: More budget hype

The most-hyped B.C. budget in recent memory has finally arrived. Now get set for the $1.9-million advertising blitz to hype it up even more.

Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson confirmed the price tag Wednesday for the tsunami of TV commercials that will soon saturate your nightly hockey broadcasts, newscasts and reality shows.

This is shocking to absolutely no one familiar with the Christy Clark government’s now-standard practice of spending millions of your tax dollars on “public information” ad campaigns.

With a vote rapidly approaching in May, these commercials are bound to bear an uncanny resemblance to Liberal Party re-election ads.

But the government will simply say it is their civic duty to spread the good news about Tuesday’s budget and its $900-million cut in Medical Services Plan premiums.

Starting next January, the government will chop the hated MSP in half for people earning a combined family income of $120,000 or less.

Clark is calling it “a billion-dollar tax cut for the middle class” — a line sure to be repeated in the TV pitches.

But here’s something you won’t hear in the commercials: some benefits of the MSP cut will actually flow to employers.

The MSP cut impacts about two million people. About half of those people actually have their MSP paid for them by their employer.

In many of those cases, it’s actually the employer who will pay less MSP, not the employee. The government argues those employees will still come out ahead because MSP is a taxable benefit when paid by an employer.

Here’s an example from the B.C. finance ministry: An individual making $60,000 must currently pay $900 a year in MSP. If their employer pays the MSP for them, that employee would then pay $253.80 in taxes on that benefit.

When the same individual’s MSP is reduced to $450 next year, the tax bite for the employee would also be cut in half.

The bottom line: The employer will save $450 while the employee will save just $126.90.

The government says these employees or their unions can then “have a conversation” with management about sharing the savings. But it all pales in comparison when you consider how much the government has jacked up the MSP over the years. Government revenue from MSP was $954 million back in 2001 when the Liberals came to power. It’s now $2.3 billion — a 143-percent increase.

After walloping B.C. taxpayers for so long, it was extraordinary to hear Clark say Wednesday that it actually hurt her more than it hurt you.

“I just think it’s a terrible tax,” Clark said. “I also hate MSP.”

Yet MSP taxes continued to soar through the stratosphere since Clark became premier six years ago.

I suspect that’s another little detail that won’t make the script of the TV commercials soon to flood your living room.