Ontario Budget

This adds 8% to the cost of buying a home, unless it's new construction. That's tens of thousands of dollars! Great way to help stimulate the economy, help out the construction/renovation sector and get people into their own homes.

This also adds 8% to legal fees. In a time of economic uncertainty, when people are losing their jobs and homes which can inturn lead to divorce and family breakdown, it will now cost you much more.

Just 2 ways in which this is a really dumb idea.

I think Tommy has said it best, this is absolutely rediculous.

Increasing taxing families that cant afford food as it is, decreasing corporate taxes while allowing hospitals continue to fall apart,  its simply shameful.

This is the worst budget I have ever seen-- really we are in a resession and the Liberals don't just go with a tax on spending -- no they target it. Not one on goods that can be manufactured outside Canada-- you don't get enough job killing bang with that-- instead you harmonize the GST with an effective whammy on services only -- yep services this way you are sure to smash local jobs.

Did not like Liberals. Did not think they were this fucking stupid.

This is a smoke and mirrors budget.  I did a few interviews today on this budget for a role I have in 3D land and even the reporters were saying WTF.  That is not a good sign.

Even business wasn't too happy about it. How is setting up a whole new process for taxes going to save money. Esp with the feds changing the GST every year?  I love this line from the piece.

"The ontario government is hoping that business passes on it's savings" 

Yes, because we saw how much the manufacturers did that with thier 13% reduction when the GST was brought in. Then dumass duncan had the balls for a TAX CUT in a recession to stimulte the economy? Because people will surely spend it, not like those of us poor will payoff debt or sock it away or the rich throwing it yet again into some meatgrinder hedge fund for some ponzi scam for an african clothes manufacterer. Because those overseas stocks(thanks again goodale/martin/liberals) are great for buying local to help people get back to work.

I agree, with Liberals like this who needs conservatives. Hey here's an idea, lets cut our revenues out from under us from those that can afford it, and try to make up the shortfall by screwing over the poor some more YEAH! How sad does it make you feel to actually wish we had an obama that put a new higher tax bracket. I know I weep when a rightwing american is better than our so called centre to centre left party(or as cons call them commies and socialists)

Ok so when do we start pulling out the gallows for our politco aristocrats and the ceo fucksticks they are propping up? Let them eat cake(or as harris said balogna). 

The Canadian Tax Federation is full of crap.

Anyhow, this is pretty unbelievable.  And yeah, this'll directly affect me in a way I can't afford - legal fees.  I already can't afford the legal fees I've been paying for my custody, access and divorce case.  Now I get an 8% increase.  Thanks, Dalton!  I'll be remembering you fuckwads every time I open my monthly statement from my lawyer.

And hell, I've got a relatively comfortable income and I'm hurting due to high Toronto rent and legal bills.  I can't even imagine how this will affect people who are low income.

Disgusting.

The media are not even reporting the extent of the increases focussing on gas and coffee but not all services-- which will be everything from heating to insurance. For small business commercial rents. Its a huge blow.

madmax wrote:

The Liberal Government is untouchable.  People will complain, but there is no alternative...

And that's why the NDP is judged shockingly derelict in its prolonged failure to provide a vision of an alternative government-in-waiting for Ontario.

"Did not like Liberals. Did not think they were this fucking stupid."

 That's a very serious accusation of incompetence and dereliction of duty against the Universities that graduated McGinty and his clique.    

I would not suggest any of these turds are stupid.

They know the underlying problem has been the legalized theft of expendable income from the working class.

They have consciously chosen to perpetuate it.

Just when are we going to stand up?  When they come for your first born?  Or demad to sleep with your daughters on the night before their weddings?

The sooner we draw a line,  the better.

Tommy_Paine wrote:

"Did not like Liberals. Did not think they were this fucking stupid."

 That's a very serious accusation of incompetence and dereliction of duty against the Universities that graduated McGinty and his clique.    

I would not suggest any of these turds are stupid.

They know the underlying problem has been the legalized theft of expendable income from the working class.

They have consciously chosen to perpetuate it.

Just when are we going to stand up?  When they come for your first born?  Or demad to sleep with your daughters on the night before their weddings?

The sooner we draw a line,  the better.

Stupidity can be aquired after graduation.

More seriously it is hard to imagine an upside to this mess. I can't see this budget being well-recived and I can't see itworking for the economy. Harmonization on the existing base is one thing but that was never on the table thjis is a massive extension of provincial taxatin into services which is another word for the work of Ontarians. You can't import services, you can goods. So this is a tax on jobs in a recession.

Unless we assume that they want to fail, stupidity is one of few explanations. There may be a motive for greed in the objective of moving the tax burden from business to individuals (business for the most part will claim back the ITCs and individuals willnot be able to). However, when you realize that many businesses in Ontario are in the provision of services an across the board increase is damaging at this time so does not leave business as a class ahead. There are arguments in favour of harmonization but most would agree that because it is a significant increase on service taxes rather than goods, the timing is important and a recession is not a good time to do this.

Are they trying to make Andrea Horwath's job easy or what? This budget seems to have something in it to piss off everyone. While I suppose that means they can try to sell it as a centrist compromise, that sort of argument rarely works.

Political conservatives everywhere are upside-down Keynesians these days except for McGuinty. McGuinty and his Liberals are unrelenting Herbert Hooverites with tax the poor and spare the rich policies. 

I was chatting up a number of people during breaks and so on at a large meeting I was at. People who I know were not NDP voters in the last election, or the one before that, were talking about how they liked what they heard from Andrea. 

And no I did not steer the discussion that way. 

I have a strong sense that this is going to be the final straw that will start to bend the camel's back to breaking.  Long overdue that people start examing the reality of Dalton McGuinty's Ontario not the empty and meaningless rhetoric.

"What exactly is Horwath not doing that you think she should?"

First,  I think all the New Democratic leadership from the provinces and the federal leadership should be agreeing on the major plan of attack,  with as much cooperation as possible from interested groups on the left.

And that has to be tailored to what people already know.  There's anger out there, along with fear and anxiety.  Harper, McGinty etc.,  are exploiting it one way,  it's high time someone tried exploiting it righteously.

Let's remember back to Danny Williams telling Abitibi to take a flying fuck at the moon.  Everyone-- not just here-- thought he was a hero.

I think the NDP and other groups are sitting on a huge resource,  and don't know it.

That's billion with a "b".  

But it's not about Williams, but how people reacted to what he said.

Which is what they were going to do anyway.

Andrea needs to make noise about this.  Her silence is noted.

I'd love a link.

RevolutionPlease wrote:

Andrea needs to make noise about this.  Her silence is noted.

Actually she is [url=http://www.thestar.com/article/609927]making noise[/url] and it is being noted (the headline in The Star article to which I linked comes from her quote).

Hello George

I know from personal experience how hard that can be and my heart goes out to you.

I don't see much tax the rich sentiment in the NDP (at least in the great bulk of members)  What does need to happen though is targeted investment through our tax system.  Cutting taxes for large corporations is an investment, a bad investment when done without a single string attached as McGuinty has done.  It is the kind of decision one makes that matters and what it will accomplish. 

That same 4 billion dollars could have been invested in things like long term care, child care and many other things.  Those too would have had spin off job creation in the economy that would have improved the competative position of large employers.  It's all about your choices.  The McGuinty Liberals have made choices based on the very policies that got us into this mess.  Listening to the same crowd that advised government to make the policies that got us into the mess.  We have seen a series of tax burden shifting polices (and really that is what corporate tax cuts are unless you have growth to overcome the cuts, or make spending cuts) over the past couple of decades.  It created a climate and house of cards that was ripe for toppling taking many modest means seniors and retirees nest egg with it.  It was unforgivable and it is time to stop pussy footing around it.

Imposing a consumption tax, with a piddling little bribe that won't come close to correcting the amount taken out will not move our economy forward.  It is regressive, bad economics and its time to call the damn spade a shovel and do some ass whacking with it.

As for the rural-urban split I and others are working on it ;-)