A different take on our taxation

A story in this paper about a month ago, inspired my new tax rant today.

The story was about how the federal Liberal government is exploring the possibility of taxing soft drinks – or sugar-sweetened beverages if you prefer – in order to help curb bulging waistlines.

Those of you clutching your Pepsi or Coke cans as you read this need not worry that such a measure will appear in the upcoming Liberal budget. It is scary enough though just to think about them considering it.

If they did impose such a tax, they wouldn’t get much extra tax from me, as I drink little pop. However, it would be a big issue for a lot of people whose consumption is beyond moderate.

The old folks used to say, “All things in moderation.”

Too bad the politicians didn’t get that memo as we are very nearly taxed to death, or at the very least, taxed at our deaths.

Before you jump in to remind me that we need taxes to pay for our schools, our health care, and a huge range of other programs and services considered vital to our existence here in Canada, let me tell you that I get it.

It’s about the excess of taxes, and the fact that every time you turn around, the government of the day is finding more things to tax; marijuana will be next.

One thing I will never forget is when erstwhile Finance Minister Graham Steele, of the one-term NDP provincial government,

told us Nova Scotians told him they wanted him to raise the PST by two percentage points, on the heels of the federal Conservative government lowering the GST by two points.

I don’t know about you, but I was never polled on raising the provincial PST, and if I had been, my response would have been a resounding, No!

With the HST newly reduced to 13 per cent prior to this action by the NDP government, who in their right minds would agree to have the HST go back up to 15 per cent?

Our current Liberal government led by Premier Stephen McNeil has not had the courage to reverse this increase in the PST imposed on us by the previous NDP government.

I now call upon the Liberal government to do so in their next budget.

Of course, we’ve been paying taxes since way back to feudal days, but it seems to me those upon whom such taxes were levied were rarely asked if they wanted to be taxed.

Those who impose such taxes have the power to make such decisions, and to enforce them. We should keep that in mind come election time!

Prior to the recent federal election, the new Liberal government promised to restore funding that had been cut to some programs, and to create new programs to stimulate the economy. As part of that promise, we were told the government would run a $10-billion deficit in the first year.

Perhaps I am not preaching to the choir here after all, as this type of fiscal plan just doesn’t make sense to me, and in fact, seems irresponsible; nevertheless, the Liberal government was elected into office.

That said, governments all over the world are sinking deeper and deeper into debt to give their citizens what they want.

I’m not sure when it is going to stop, but it certainly won’t be in my lifetime.

Here’s an interesting idea. What if, as part of the formulation of annual budgets, governments sent each taxpayer a list of tax-supported programs and services, and we were able to pick which of these we wanted our individual tax dollars to support and the level at which we wanted to support them?

I think then that government would finally learn that which is truly important to us, and would also learn the level of taxation we are willing to accept.