Pat Bell Talks Budget To Chamber Crowd

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

A brief slide show over the noon-hour offered up Pat Bell’s highlights of the new budget

Speaking to members of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, local MLA Pat Bell says his government made a very "conscious" decision in cutting personal income taxes in the 2007 budget.

The Liberals announced in Tuesday’s budget that personal income tax for those earning under $108-thousand dollars annually would be cut by 10-percent, Bell says for a person earning $80-thousand dollars, the translates into almost a $27-hundred dollar tax savings.

The Prince George-North MLA says the cut will act as a further "driver" in what is already a strong economy. "I know many of you in this room are in the small business sector and, when you leave money in people’s pockets, it’s always good for you."

Bell says BC will now have the lowest provincial income tax in all of Canada up to earnings of $108K.  And when that’s combined with the fact that we have the second lowest provincial sales tax in the country, he says it gives B.C. a marketing advantage.  "And you need that to attract skilled trades people and professionals to our province."

One of the main concerns the local chamber expressed after Tuesday’s budget was the government’s plans to continue debt-servicing capital projects, with President Michael Kerr saying members have always been proponents of paying down the debt, particularly when times are good. 

The 2006-2007 surplus is expected to be $3.1-billion dollars and Bell says there are two choices: use the funds capital infrastructure projects or pay down the debt.  Pointing to $5.6-billion dollars in capital projects over the past two years - everything from roads and bridges to health facility upgrades - he admits, "It doesn’t take long to chew up surplus budgets, what this has enabled us to do, is to not see an increase in the debt going forward."

The Liberal MLA points outs BC’s GDP-to-debt ratio - our ability to pay compared to debt - has gone from 20-percent when the party first came to office, to 14.8-percent now, and resulted in credit agencies giving the province its first Triple ’A’ rating in 20-years.  Bell says that rating is significant, reducing our cost of borrowing by about $400-million dollars annually - to put that into perspective, he says, that’s the equivalent of funding two mid-sized ministry’s, like his Agriculture portfolio.

He says the challenge for his government will be maintaining that downward trend in the GDP-to-debt ratio when it gets into the single digits.

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