Ironically, when they tried the same kind of attack ads against BC Conservative Leader John Cummins it resulted in a jump in the polls for the Conservatives.
While not outright lies, the shots taken at Dix involve some selective use of statistics to misrepresent such things as interprovincial migration, job growth, taxes and NDP promises. Nothing can be verified in Clark's weasel ads and if examined closely they collapse like a cheap tent.
False Claim #1: Dix was top advisor to NDP premiers. This will come as crushing news to NDP politicians like Moe Sihota, Joy McPhail, Doug MacArthur and Tom Gunton. The Liberals go to great pains to denigrate the NDP records of two decades ago and they want to make sure they tie Dix to the negative characterizations. Anything to avoid being accountable for their own dismal record and loss of public trust.
False Claim #2: BC under NDP "dead last" in job growth according to Progress Board. These words don't appear in the report and the ad misuses the rate of change in the job to population ratio. Stats Can annual labour force survey data show BC unemployment of 1.5775 million in 1991, 1.9 million in 2001 and 2.3 million in 2010. That means that the annual average compound job growth was 2% from '91 to '01 and 1.8% from '01 to '10. BC experienced lower job growth in 2011.
One of the first things Clark did was to get rid of the Progress Board. It's 2011 report showed BC to be in better shape in 2000 than in 2010. BC had a better ranking in every year from 1990 to 2009 than it did in 2010.
False Claim #3: NDP policies caused mass exodus according to BC Stats. Clark's ad asserts that 50,000 left for other provinces in search of work between 1998 and 2001 according to BC Stats provincial migration flow data. However, the data Clark uses don't show why people leave or come to BC in any given year. Upon closer examination the data show that tens of thousands of people flowed both ways. The numbers fluctuate each year. BC's population had an average annual growth rate of 2.2% between 1991 and 2001 and 1.3% between 2001 and 2010.
False Claim #4: BC Liberals are big tax cutters for average families. Clark's negative ad claims, "Dix wants to raise taxes again." The actuality is that the Liberals have shifted where they get their revenue in a kind of shell game. The cuts they implemented for personal income tax have been considerably offset by increases in more regressive provincial taxes and fees. A family of four making $60,000 per year pays the same MSP premiums as does the same size family making ten times more.In 2000 the MSP premium for a family of three or more was $864 per year; effective Jan. 1, 2012, the family MSP premium tax increased to $1,536 per year, an increase of 78%.
MSP premiums weren't the only taxes to claw back income tax cuts. Tables published in the Ministry of Finance budgets compare provincial and federal taxes by various benchmark families.
The B.C. Progress Board's 2011 report indicated that in terms of real personal disposable income per person, B.C. ranked third amongst the provinces from 1991 through 2007, slipping to fourth from 2008 through 2010.
On the Bill Good show recently Dix said he'd return corporate taxes to 2008 levels, something Clark promised if the voters agreed to keep the HST. Dix also said he was reluctant to consider raising personal income taxes. He said any tax changes would be disclosed before the May 14, 2013 election. An unprecedented disclosure.
False Claim #5: Dix is committed to "billions in new spending." They claim Dix is the source for that figure and have a bunch of dates next to his name. Nowhere on either the website that features the negative ad or on the Liberal caucus or party website can anyone find a list of promises that add up to and support their assertion.
In the speech Dix gave at the NDP's December convention he talked about the financial challenges facing the province and that an NDP government would be limited to what they could accomplish during a first term. He has promised to explain how planned commitments will be financed.
The MSP increases don't do much to negate dramatic personal income tax cuts, which have resulted in BC having some of the lowest tax rates in the country.
ReplyDeleteIn 2000, if you made $50,000, you would have been paying 8.4% on the first 30, and 12.4% on the remainder in tax for a total of $5000
Last year, that same person paid 5.04% on the first 36 grand and just 7.7% on the rest for a total of $2896. Right there, this individual has seen their provincial income tax burden drop by $2104!
To expand and clarify my earlier point, it is not just hikes in the MSP premium tax that have clawed back income tax cuts. In each budget the Ministry of Finance includes a table that compares federal and provincial taxes by province for various benchmark families, for example a two income family of four making $60,000 and a similar family making $90,000. Comparing those tables between the last budget tabled by NDP Finance Minister Paul Ramsey in early 2001 with the last budget tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Kevin Falcon in 2011 shows how much various provincial taxes increased since 2001. The tables show the portion of the property tax that is set by the province so as to fund part of the education budget. For the $60,000 family between 2001 and 2010, the school property tax (net of the homeowner grant) increased by $128. The sales tax, provincial portion of the HST, increased by $458; the fuel tax by $53, and in 2011 that family had a carbon tax that it didn't have in 2001, costing it another $122. Those direct and indirect provincial tax hikes cost the Ministry of Finance's benchmark $60,000 family a total of $1,433. If that family uses BC Ferries it lost more, as it did from Hydro and ICBC increases. The BC Progress Board's 2011 report indicated that in terms of real personal disposable income per person, BC ranked third amongst the provinces from 1991 through 2007, slipping to fourth from 2008 through 2010.
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