Oil prices have gone way down, so royalties as a percentage of oil prices have gone way down. And so the Alberta government suddenly has way less money to spend. What's their answer? Cut a little bit of spending (14.7bill last year, down to 14.4bill this year, for a 0.3bill reduction, or a 2.05% reduction). And then make people pay more.
So what are we paying more?
Health Care Levy
Well, we have to pay a health care levy now. Since we're (mostly) all programmers here, this is the formula:
income over 50k times 5%, max $200, plus
income over 70k times 5%, max $200, plus
income over 90k times 15%, max $200, plus
income over 110k times 15%, max $200, plus
income over 130k times 25%, max $200
or as Excel would show it:
min(max(income-50000,0)*5%,200)+min(max(income-70000,0)*5%,200)+min(max(income-90000,0)*15%,200)+min(max(income-110000,0)*15%,200)+min(max(income-130000,0)*25%,200)
They could've just as easily said income minus 50k times 1%, max $1000 ( in Excel: min(max(income-50000,0)*1%,1000) ). That would've been so much simpler to calculate.
Thorin's family will probably pay $600 more because of this
Fuel Tax
$0.04 added to every liter of fuel sold. How much you wanna bet the price at the pump goes up six cents instead of four, just like how the price at the pump went down four cents when the wholesale price went down five cents several times in the past year? I'm not that upset over this one, tax on gas was much lower in Alberta than other provinces. But I'm sure the gas station owners will gouge us and blame the higher taxes.
Thorin's family will probably pay $160 more because of this
Tobacco Tax
This one won't affect me, but I like how they say they plan to make tobacco more expensive so that people won't buy it, but then plan an increase in revenue because people will keep buying it.
Education Property Tax
This could turn into a large bill, but will probably be a couple hundred bucks for those that own a house or condo.
Charitable Donations Tax Credit
You won't be able to claim as large of a credit on charitable donations as before. This'll be $82.50 less you can claim per $1,000 in donations.
Thorin's family will probably pay $80 more because of this
Tax On Insurance Premiums
Holy crap, I didn't even know there was a separate tax on insurance premiums. Imagine you pay $1,000 per year for property insurance. You used to pay $30 in taxes on top of that, now you'll pay $40 on top instead.
Thorin's family will probably pay $54 more because of this
Income Tax
We'll slowly move away from a flat tax to a tax-higher-income-at-a-higher-rate tax (what is called "progressive" taxation). But honestly, it'll barely affect most of our tax bills.
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Thorin's family will probably pay $894 more in taxes thanks to the changes, about $75 per month, plus whatever ends up happening with the education property tax.
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Now guess what the Government of Alberta is doing to the corporations? Nothing. That's right, no increase in the corporate tax rate because they might make less profit than before (but they're still making profits!), while the workers will end up with less money to take home. Seriously. Ugh.
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One thing I think they did almost right, though, is increasing money going to lower-income families who still have at least one person working.
http://alberta.ca/budget-revenue-explained.cfm#revenuechanges
Yeah, I think their approach is totally flawed. Also reducing spending on heathcare and education. The two areas that are ALREADY super underfunded and falling apart. So stupid.
Hopefully we can elect a less spineless government in the near future, but I doubt it, jets and secret penthouses for everyone!
Also increasing tax on highly addictive substances SOUNDS like a good idea all it does is force the addicts to make trade offs, it does little to curb use
Quote from: Mr. Analog on March 28, 2015, 08:06:09 AM
Hopefully we can elect a less spineless government in the near future, but I doubt it, jets and secret penthouses for everyone!
Also increasing tax on highly addictive substances SOUNDS like a good idea all it does is force the addicts to make trade offs, it does little to curb use
It also disproportionately affects lower income people.
Budget "solution" is to increase revenue.
This province does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Too many people screaming for their special project to keep a-running damn the costs... Too many politicians afraid to say "this is not a necessity" and put anybody out of work who relies on the inefficient administration of a program or service.
And yet straight-faced these same politicians mug for the cameras and say that public sector employees need to take a pay cut to bear some of the shared burden. BS! Look up the last 5 years history of public sector. Jobs cut, wages frozen. While cost of living skyrocketed.
These PR BS'ers misdirect with dishonest comparisons. Getting paid more than other provinces is apples vs oranges; getting paid way less than equivalent PRIVATE sector jobs is apples vs apples.
Ideally, acknowledging that many public sector employees are getting virtually the same take-home pay as they did 5 years would also be nice, but I ain't ever expecting *that*. Heck, some days I gaze deeply at my 200 hours of accumulated vacation (since it's tough to ever use up much of it since I and most of my colleagues are doing virtually double job duties of 5 years ago, after a bunch of fat was trimmed from government a few years ago... along with a virtual wage freeze for that same period -- but not bearing enough of the burden that we never caused eh? EFF EWE, PR BS'ers) and wonder why the %!$@ I am not just jumping into the private sector. But hey, they still haven't totally shredded my pension that I am forced to pay into 12k per year -- only remaining camel-straw, methinks.
[/rant]
And NDP radio ads tug at your heart strings and imply that all these can keep unchanged if only we increase the taxes on the productive segments of society (but not natural resources royalties, of course ... what?) No easy solutions to a problem if you aren't asking the right questions...
Whew, though, sure is nice the "cost of living" only increases like 2-3% per year (officially anyway) ... so that means I have imagined the cost of bread doubling in less than 10 years? Ditto for bread, etc.? And rent everywhere going up almost 50% in the past 5 years, that's just weird math I guess...
Remind me again (between tire-shredding pothole runs) why I'm still living in this awesome-climate low-rent excellent-public-transit filled-with-courteous-drivers metropolis? :wall:
Have you compared this with trying to live in the lower-mainland in BC?
Quote from: Darren Dirt on March 29, 2015, 01:30:08 PM
Budget "solution" is to increase revenue.
This province does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Too many people screaming for their special project to keep a-running damn the costs... Too many politicians afraid to say "this is not a necessity" and put anybody out of work who relies on the inefficient administration of a program or service.
Special projects like Education, and Healthcare? Both are getting cut fairly significantly.
Quote from: Lazybones on March 29, 2015, 02:01:15 PM
Have you compared this with trying to live in the lower-mainland in BC?
@%&# is pretty @%&#ty all over the place. Thinking a log cabin out in the woods be lookin' mighty nice...
Quote from: Tom on March 29, 2015, 02:04:05 PM
Quote from: Darren Dirt on March 29, 2015, 01:30:08 PM
Budget "solution" is to increase revenue.
This province does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Too many people screaming for their special project to keep a-running damn the costs... Too many politicians afraid to say "this is not a necessity" and put anybody out of work who relies on the inefficient administration of a program or service.
Special projects like Education, and Healthcare? Both are getting cut fairly significantly.
Zoom in, not on the high level but on the details. Once a sub-program or special project comes into existence those who are in charge of administering it have a vested interest in not just maintaining its ongoing existence but indeed its growth. Just have to look at the increasing # of bills that are introduced and eventually passed in provinces and states and how rare it is for those to be even known about by most of the public let alone undone. Being vague on purpose, Alberta isn't special for this I guess is what I am saying. Just more visible on the radar right now due to budget conversation going on.
And idk what is really a "solution" to the ever-growing mess, tbh. [ EDIT: heck, maybe gotta be open to this sacrilege (http://daveberta.ca/2015/01/alberta-provincial-sales-tax-prentice-pst/)? ]
Grumpy Darren was grumpy.
Hungry Darren is no longer hungry.
Also, while I ate I watched this and pretty quickly felt better about my situation. At least I'm not on a weird Japanese game show like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFs8fzimWFE#t=5m22s (bonus points for watching in Chrome with "1.5x" speed!)
I think one of the problems with this budget is that while individuals have to pay more tax, corporations don't, because as per the budget speech, if they make less profits, they might lay people off. Notice the concern is not that they won't make profits, but just that they won't make as much profit if they have to pay more tax.
They are a bit naive as well in that. With the oil downturn, its going to affect everything so people will be laid off anyhow. Raising the taxes of corporations a little bit isn't going to change their behavior. It might if you raised it significantly, but i don't think anyone is asking for like a 10% flat increase. Really though, as long as there is money to be made, there will be companies, and there will be jobs.
Profit is revenue minus expenses. Wages are expenses, as are taxes. The companies alluded to in the budget are making profits, therefore they've already paid for all their workers. If they pay more in taxes but are still profitable, it has zero effect on whether there's money for the workers. All it affects is income for the owners (individuals for small companies, shareholders for large companies). Alberta's corporate tax rates already have extra buffers for small companies, so really, a corporate tax increase would only affect the shareholders of large companies, aka people who don't actually work for a living because they sit around all day investing in companies.
Raise the tax rate for businesses.
Of course, that means donations will go down or to other parties.
Quote from: Thorin on March 30, 2015, 06:42:13 PM
Raise the tax rate for businesses.
Of course, that means donations will go down or to other parties.
^ KEY. Anyone who watched House of Cards (especially Season 2 and/or 3) knows how always-front-and-centre that is in the minds of virtually every politician and their strategists, above virtually all other considerations (most of the time, if not all). "Representative" is such an accurate label/title -- but the question is,
of whom? :(
There's a TV series from Amazon Prime with John Goodman ("Alpha House") where his character (a long-sitting Senator) says (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Alpha+House+John+Goodman+90+percent) this very revealing quote:
"We spend 90 percent of our lives begging for money and whoring for votes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w6ZEpeAyPk), in order to hold on to jobs that are 90 percent begging for money and whoring for votes."/MicDrop
Have to also consider that politicians live in an echo chamber, built and protected by lobyists. Many actually believe the tripe they parrot. so if a bunch of businesses say they will move or be harmed by a raise in taxes, they start to believe it, without even bothering to verify it.
Quote from: Tom on March 31, 2015, 03:43:06 AM
Have to also consider that politicians live in an echo chamber, built and protected by lobyists. Many actually believe the tripe they parrot.
Or they just fire whoever in their inner circle is a voice of dissent ;) #FrankUnderwoodSeason3GreatExample
You know how as part of the Budget there was talk of a bunch of increases to fines for stuff that minimum-wage earners might have trouble paying when (like anyone does) they occasionally eff up?
Well, could be worse -- Edmonton etc. = not as bad as some municipalities when it comes to how badly things can spiral downward for an "offender".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjpmT5noto <-- Last Week Tonight ANGER-INDUCING "Municipal Violations" ep (you think the "Predatory Lending" ep pissed you off? Well at least those were private for-profit companies imposing such blatant hamster-wheel evils upon poor folks who made a [poor] choice to utilize their services! What if you have no choice?)
But... imo it's still pretty bad.* I can't remember the exact numbers, but how you can justify around one full-time week of minimum wage being a fair punishment for someone going the speed of traffic flow (e.g. going 65 in a 50 when everybody thinks it's a 60, and they are all going around 67-69) ... luckily in E-town it seems you can pretty consistently "show up and agree to pay less than the full amount".
* research tells me not quite as bad as I thought; 35% increase pretty much across the bad is of course ridic, but the minimum fines are still pretty low. But a stop sign ticket? $233 now? INSANE.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1906267/alberta-budget-2015-what-will-your-sins-cost-you/
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/03/26/some-alberta-traffic-fines-to-increase
"
Fines for traffic offences are going up an average of 35 per cent.
Fines for speeding* ? which currently range from $57 to $351 ? will increase to $78 to $474.
For violations involving emergency vehicles or for speeding through construction zones, you could be hit with a ticket as high as $949. That?s up from a maximum of $703.
"
* but the question is, what range from the posted limit are MOST of the speeding violations? http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/11/12/edmonton-city-council-wants-to-see-tally-on-low-range-speeding-tickets
^ TBH it's actually really TOUGH to find out this kind of info ... heck, even just finding out how much the fine is for speeding? No easy task:
http://canadamotoguide.com/2013/02/12/the-cost-of-speeding/
Quote
Editor ?Arris and I were talking at the office on a tea-and-crumpets break and thought we should do a write-up on the cost of speeding across Canada. We were looking to find out which provinces were the most expensive to speed in, and which provinces had the most punishing demerits system.
Sounds simple, right? You?d think this sort of information would be available in about 30 seconds of searching government websites ? and you?d be wrong.
Only two provincial government websites provided a clear picture of what it would cost to speed, for each kilometre over the speed limit ? Quebec and Newfoundland. Go figure.
While the information for other provinces may be out there, readily accessible, I wasn?t able to find it, and I spent a lot of time looking for it. Information like this should prove a valuable deterrent to dangerous driving, but for some reason, provinces don?t seem to make it easy to find.
It's 26 months later, and it still seems to be true. I did a bunch of Googles and then searches on both Edmonton's and Alberta's websites and all I could find was how to PAY your fines, not what amounts I should expect to be charged for whatever violation. #wtf -- example: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=speed%20site%3Awww.transportation.alberta.ca
From 2011 I found this post...
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?p=3152378#post3152378
Quote
Speeding 15km/h over limit - $89.00 - 2 Demerits
20km/h over limit - $124.00 - 3 Demerits
25km/h over limit - $150.00 - 3 Demerits
30km/h over limit - $177.00 - 4 Demerits
40km/h over limit - $264.00 - 4 Demerits
50km/h over limit - $351.00 - 6 Demerits
Over 50km/h - Mandatory Court Appearance
And the article above managed to put the convoluted info together best they could (back in 2013)
(http://cdn2.canadamotoguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Big-50.jpg)
But I don't think either of these are even close to accurate now (even before the May 2015 changes) -- because going 20 over the limit is NOT less than $200 for sure, in fact I'm pretty sure going like 11 over right now is in the neighborhood of like $175 isn't it? If photo radar for the most part only nails you if you are going 11 or 10 or 9 over the limit, then it doesn't much MATTER if the "minimum" fines for going 8 or less over = a pittance, right?
aha? finally found "it" I think, via the "Legislation" page @ http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/525.htm
http://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=1989_233.cfm&leg_type=Regs&isbncln=9780779739943
^ PDF.
PROVINCIAL OFFENCES PROCEDURE ACT
PROCEDURES REGULATION
Alberta Regulation 233/1989
With amendments up to and including Alberta Regulation 228/2014
Page 51-52: Part 28 Traffic Safety Act (speeding offences)
Table
Km over limit Amount of specified penalty (in dollars)
1 50
2 52
3 54
4 56
5 58
6 60
7 62
8 64
9 66
10 68
11 70
12 72
13 74
14 76
15 78
16 90
17 96
18 99
19 105
20 108
21 113
22 119
23 122
24 128
25 131
26 136
27 140
28 145
29 150
30 154
31 163
32 169
33 177
34 184
35 191
36 199
37 206
38 215
39 222
40 230
41 238
42 245
43 253
44 260
45 267
46 275
47 283
48 290
49 298
50 306
... so apparently the TICKET is a lot more than just the "Amount of specified penalty", it seems to have a ton of admin costs added? Maybe a presumed court cost? (Which would explain why you can just pay a lot less before the court appearance)
Thorin do you know of an actual amount for a recent speeding ticket, to compare to the above?
PS: when it comes to the amount over the limit that are most offences, I found this:
Alberta Speeding Convictions and Collisions Involving Unsafe Speed 2004 - 2008
http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType48/Production/SpeedReport2004-2008.pdf
This PDF has a ton of tables, looks like the majority of speeding offences (52%-60%) were 16-30 km over (and 24% were 1-15 km over) ... but almost none of the offences happened between 3am and 7am #shock
Hmm, I seem to have better Google-Fu than the reporter from that article from two years ago.
Speeding fines in Alberta are set out in AR 233/89 Part 28 (page 51): http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Regs/1989_233.pdf. The prices there do not include a 15% surcharge for the Victims Of Crime Act; those are added into the quick-reference sheet found on the Alberta Transportation website: http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType44/Production/splquickref.pdf
That second link is accurate up to March 23rd, as a photo radar ticket was issued for a car under my name on that date. 23km/h over the limit, $140 fine, just like the quick-reference sheet says. Also, I WAS NOT THE ONE DRIVING.
edit: In the time it took me to buy and consume chicken (to eat for lunch, of course), you found the same as me.
Didn't see your question to me before I posted, Darren, but yeah, 23 over is $140 including surcharge. 15 over is $89 including surcharge. These are confirmed amounts from photo radar tickets in the last two years (NOT ME DRIVING).
11 over is $80, not $175 (although it's $160 in a construction zone or passing emergency vehicles, since the fine is doubled), 20 over is $124, not more than $200 (or $248 in a construction zone / passing emergency vehicles).
Quote from: Thorin on April 02, 2015, 01:07:02 PM
Didn't see your question to me before I posted, Darren, but yeah, 23 over is $140 including surcharge. 15 over is $89 including surcharge. These are confirmed amounts from photo radar tickets in the last two years (NOT ME DRIVING).
11 over is $80, not $175 (although it's $160 in a construction zone or passing emergency vehicles, since the fine is doubled), 20 over is $124, not more than $200 (or $248 in a construction zone / passing emergency vehicles).
I think my queries were based on the fact that my only recent first-hand experience was with my son getting a ticket for going something like 55 in a school zone (can't remember exact amount of his ticket, coulda sworn it was close to $200 or slightly over that). idk.
So overall I guess it's not quite as bad as I thought (i.e. the amount of the fines goes up very linearly from "+1" thru "+18" it's an increase of either 2 or 3 bucks per km. For some reason +18 is $99 and +19 is $105 , but after that it goes up by either 3 or 6 bucks per km... Not some kind of weird tiered thing which I had always had an impression it was (e.g. maybe every +10 level there's a surcharge of $100 or something -- that's what I thought was happening)
Thanks for that comparison to an actual ticket!
55 in a school zone would be 25 over, which is $150. I don't think it's doubled for school zones, just construction zones and around emergency vehicles. Paying it online has some fee attached as well, but the ticket itself would be written for $150.
Hmm, speeding fines are supposed to have gone up by approx 35% on May 1st 2015, but I can't find a schedule of the new fines anywhere. Also, a lot of the links on the Alberta Government website no longer work for the Transportation department, where traffic legislation could be found. So I don't know if it actually happened, since the increase was part of Jim Prentice's budget, and, well, he rage-quit after the NDP wiped out his party. So you'd think the budget he tabled didn't actually make it through to fruition.
On the other hand, a member of my household (NOT ME) got a ticket for 19 over that before May 1st was $120 but is now $163, which is roughly 35% higher.
So maybe the budget that Prentice and the PCs lost control of Alberta for ended up being quietly instituted mostly as is?
My guess is the machinery to increase the ticketing was already in place by the time the budget changes were announced and has been set that way until things get sorted out at a higher level, which could take months