Green,Green, Green, That's The Provincial Budget

By 250 News

The Finance Minister Carole Taylor has presented her 2008 budget, and it is green, green, green.

She says it is a balanced budget and this budget asks the question what kind of legacy do we really want to leave for future generations?

She says the Province has reached a turning point, and the budget presented today will confront and overturn the notion  you have to choose  the environment  or  a strong economy. “That simply is not the case”

It will start with a carbon tax on fuels.  Effective July 1^st,  you will pay an extra 2.4 cents per liter on gas, and  2.8 cents a liter on diesel or home heating fuel.

There will be a reduction of 5% on personal income tax on first 70 thousand dollars of income, meaning a family with $70 thousand dollar income will save $2,000 a year in taxes.

For business, there will be reductions in the general corporate income tax rate.  It will drop from 12 to11 % and over three years will go to 10%.

Small businesses will also see a tax break.  Effective July first, the small business rate will be 3.5% down from the previous 4.5% and by 2011 it will be 2.5%.

There will also be support for lower income earners.    A new   $100 dollar per adult, $30 dollars per child that will be sent to low income earners along with the GST rebates.

Every man woman and child in B.C. will get an up front payment of $100 dollars. The cheques will be sent out in June and come from the surplus from the year just ended.  The cheques to come before the new carbon tax takes effect July 1^st.

The Finance Minister figures the average family will spend about $45 dollars in 2008 in carbon taxes.  According to Taylor, the family will still come out ahead of the money paid in carbon taxes.

The provincial sales tax will be reduced on vehicles which qualify for the federal eco-rebate. That could mean a savings of up to four thousand dollars.

There won’t be any PST collected on fridges, freezers or insulation   to reduce energy use.

We are not completely insulated from the world around us.  The growth  for 2008 is expected to be 2.4%  which will still be higher than the rates set for the rest of the country but down from the  3%  growth  mark  registered in 2007.

.With that in mind, Taylor says it is time to be prudent, with setting aside $1 billion dollars as a shock absorber in the event the situation in the United States should   further deteriorate.

There will be educational tax relief for major industrial properties   saving B.C. industry $24 million dollars as they will pay the same rate as commercial operations.,

More money for geo technical research for mountain pine beetle devastated areas. 

$50 million to Genome B.C.  for research on issues related to climate change.

There  will be tax breaks for  film and television productions  outside the Vancouver and Vancouver Island areas, and  a dropping of the  capital tax for financial institutions.

When it comes to health care,  there will be a new $300 million dollar transformation fund.   Two thirds of all new spending over the next two years will go to health care.  That is nearly $3 billion that will go into health budgets.

On Education,  there will be more dollars per student  and there will be more funding for strong start prgrams so children can  enter kindergarten ready to learn.

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