NDP won’t back down on so-called school tax

The poor, rich people who own $3-million homes in Vancouver may not be getting much sympathy for their tax revolt, but that sure hasn’t stopped them from fighting the John Horgan government with sound and fury.

Angry homeowners once again confronted David Eby this week at a public meeting, where the attorney general defended the government’s “school tax” on expensive homes.

“It’s an NDP class war against people they perceive as having money,” fumed Point Grey lawyer Wes Mussio, whose house is valued at $6.4 million. He will owe an additional $11,600 in school taxes a year.

“They may call it a ‘school tax’ but that’s a joke,” Mussio said. “The money goes directly into general revenue.”

He’s right about that. The “school tax” label was applied back in the 1980s, when local school districts levied and collected local property taxes. But that was changed in 1990, when the Social Credit government of the day started collecting the tax and never bothered to change the name.

The politicians like it that way because “school tax” makes it sound like a dedicated tax earmarked for education. Which it isn’t.

This is not the first time an NDP government has jacked up taxes on expensive homes as a way to raise general revenue. The NDP government of the 1990s did the same thing and got the same reaction from furious homeowners.

Back then, the NDP got rattled by the protests and backed down. This time, the government is standing firm.

“The tax is part of the government’s fiscal plan,” said Eby, whose Vancouver-Point Grey riding contains many rich and riled-up voters.

“The government is investing in things like schools and health care to make life better for British Columbians and we will continue to do that.”

The New Democrats appear to like the political optics of the opposition Liberals standing shoulder-to-shoulder with wealthy homeowners, while people who can only dream of owning a house side with the government.

Now the opinion polls appear to back the government. A new Research Company poll suggests two-thirds of British Columbians support the tax.

But the impacted homeowners are raising the spectre of wider tax grab.

“Once they get away with this, just watch: they’re going to lower the threshold,” predicted Mussio.

“For all those people out there thinking, ‘This is great, make somebody else pay, not me’ — you better hold your breath, because they’ll be coming after you next.”

Mussio and his fellow homeowners point to a new campaign by UBC professor Paul Kershaw to bring in a new tax on homes valued at $1 million and up. The antischool-tax group Wake Up B.C. has suggested in ads the government could implement the idea.

That brought an angry response from Finance Minister Carole James.

“The ads are a complete fabrication,” James said Wednesday, while slamming the group for spreading “misinformation.”

The homeowners have clearly got under the government’s skin. But don’t expect the NDP to back down.