GCTV is now on the air! Gordon Campell during television address. Premier Campbell’s prime time rerun won’t be renewed
By Bill Tieleman, 24 hours columnist
Premier Gordon Campbell spent 15 minutes encouraging viewers to turn the channel on his hyped half-hour television address Wednesday before delivering the only news of the night.
Campbell lectured viewers about why they are apparently too dumb to understand that the hated Harmonized Sales Tax is a good idea, complete with charts and graphs for the 80% who still don’t get it.
But then came the only hard news – a 15% income tax cut – which he should have led off with to hold the audience.
Campbell also vaguely promised to increase spending on early childhood learning after admitting that one in three kids are not ready for Grade One when they get to school.
Welcome changes but why no details on a positive plan most would approve of?
Campbell’s recycling old statistics – like how much he has cut income taxes since 2001 – left the impression the premier was merely defending his record, not cutting a new one.
Campbell also hinted at rumored radical changes to school boards but didn’t explain.
With the premier’s personal approval rating at just 9%, this television address was mostly a disappointing rerun not fit for prime time – and likely to be cancelled next season.
[This column ran in today's 24 hours newspaper]
UPDATE - Will HST referendum question make voters choose between eliminating new income tax cut or HST?The real question now is the HST question - will the government with Elections BC approval make the upcoming HST referendum questions read as follows:
"Do you want the BC government to cancel the HST, which would require it to also cancel your 15% income tax cut? Yes or no?"
The value of the 15% income tax reduction effective January 1, 2011 is estimated at saving those making over $72,000 about $616 and $354 for those making $50,000 a year - about the average in BC.
But the HST has been estimated to cost the average BC family $521 according to a Statistics Canada model developed for the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper.
The Times-Colonist stated that: "A household with an annual income of $40,000 to $50,000 will pay $253 more because of the HST, while households in the $80,000 to $90,000 range will pay $1,128 more annually."
Even after the income tax cut, that would leave many British Columbians paying more taxes thanks to the HST.
But it also likely means the Campbell or Campbell-less BC Liberals would have to cut public services to pay for the income tax cut, which will cost the government $568 million in lost revenue the first year and rise to $638 million by 2013-14.
It's also important to know - as economist David Schreck aptly points out - that the tax cut goes proportionately more to wealthy British Columbians because it applies to the first $72,000 of income, not just to those making UP to $72,000.
Schreck estimates therefore that 50% of the tax cut benefits will go to just 20% of British Columbians and guess who they are? The richest 20% of course!
Of the $568 million cut in taxes in the first year those making over $72,000 annually will get $284 million per year.
And while Finance Minister Colin Hansen has claimed BC will have an estimated $2.1 billion in higher corporate tax revenue over the next three years, that's far from money in the bank.
The income tax cut likely means public services will be slashed to ensure BC's existing deficit does not grow further.
Meanwhile, 799 people have viewed the premier's TV show on YouTube at this point and pundits have been most unkind in reviewing the performance - not a great investment so far for the $240,000 plus cost to taxpayers to produce and air the 22 minutes snoozer.
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24 comments:
PAB seems to have disabled the comments/feedback option over at the Youtube link provided. Hmm.
Go to YouTube, look up Richard Nixon's 1950s CHECKER's SPEECH and compare it to Gordo's bit of sequel to "Tricky Dickie" from last night.
Soon Gordo will be doing other re-caps of Nixon's best speechs, including the . . . I AM NOT A CROOK one.
But no matter how Gordo plays it when you look at that face and "those eyes" you see Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho going on about his dear mother as he sharpens the bread knife.
And why did he not talk about his dearly departed dad also?
Or is that another Campbell family pyscho-secret?!
The GREAT SATAN
Huggies "estimate" of the future taxation money from business is just as trustworthy and reliable as his "estimate" of the deficit before the election. NOT!
Huggies is just as vile and disgusting as King Gordo.
I'm confused. Can we use one "gold" standard. Its being reported in the Vancouver Sun that the cost of last night's lecture was $240,000, or to be more accurate: "Campbell said Thursday that it amounts to about five cents per person in the province."
I can understand that ... five cents per person ... but this I don't get, its apples and oranges:
"households in the $80,000 to $90,000 range will pay $1,128 more annually." what's the typical size of a family, is it four. Can't we get these numbers as a per person calculation..
"HST has been estimated to cost the average BC family $521" duh
Can El Gordo give us the numbers as a family?
Campbell's calculations seem to change with the minutes. To make himself look better he keeps going for a larger number to divide his cost to the taxpayers of BC.
I doubt that. Someone is getting a bit too paraonid over a little thing.
Who would be bothered to read comments in You Tube anyway?
Well, that would be fun. You could pretty well guarantee recall of every sitting Lieberal MLA if he tried that one. I hear we get a look at the first draft question soon. Can't wait....
King Gordo says " 5 cents per person" for his pathetic attempt at bribery....hey Gord..i want my 5 cents back
I'm finding it very hard to understand why he has ANY support from his party. Does he have something over each of them. He really isn't helping matters at all.
Campbell refused to link a possible negative result of the HST referendum with a rollback in the 15% cut in provincial taxes when he was on CBC Radio this morning.
I can't imagine he'll ever increase income taxes - after all they're progressive and that kind of tax is anathema to Campbell and his puppet-masters.
So, feel free to vote NO on the HST secure in the knowledge that, for someone making $50,000 a year, a 15% reduction in provincial tax will pretty much cover your weekly costs for the carbon tax as of July 1.
Cost which have been, up to this point, pretty much a dead loss. Not to mention a complete loss for the environment....
But don't, for gosh sakes, expect that $7.00 a week to also cover the additional HST you'll have been paying on, for example, a family meal at a family restaurant since LAST JULY.
Oh Gordon, you're such a kidder!
I want my nickel back. it wasn't work it, it was boring. campbell looked like he was going to have an anxiety attack, or maybe his nose was going to grow.
The tax reductions will do nothing to improve the quality of life for the children of this province, who for the past seven years have had the dubious honour of being the poorest in Canada.
For children to be able to meet the standards set for grade 4 students they will first need adequate food, clothing, shelter, etc. With 40% of taxpayers not even making enough money to pay provincial income tax how will their children do.
With a huge deficeit and a reduction in income, almost $600 Million a year, due to the tax cuts, how will the government pay for education and medical care?
All those new roads and bridges sure look nice but this province still has the most poor kids in Canada, seven years running.
Small business in BC was only pay 2.5% income tax on their taxable income, now they pay nothing. Well they those businesses just got a 2.5% raise but those on min. wage at $8 an hr got no raise and neither did those on social assistance.
What I heard the premier say was small business is more important than children living in poverty.
what I heard the premier say was the top 20% of taxpayers get a nice reduction in taxes but the children of B.C. get nothing.
School boards are still closing schools while top wage earners and small business receive more money from the government.
$22 Million is being cut by the government from group homes. Where will these disabled people go? But hey, big business has had a tax reduction, on their taxable income, from 16.5% to 10.5% in the past decade.
The charts looked cute but the increase in money spent was only to cover the usual increase in costs due to increases in products, taxes, salaries, etc. There wasn't any REAL NEW money.
I want my nickel back and I'd like it to go to a food bank because food banks need every nickel they can get because there is an ever increasing need for their services.
What a snoozer. Literally, I dozed off about 10 minutes into his address. Same old crap, what a waste. Show me just one person who was opposed to HST before the speech but was won over by it even the slightest bit. I don't think that person exists, more likely to find a leprechaun riding a unicorn.
What a snoozer. The review should have been cut to a couple of paragraphs. "Premier Campbell announces 15% tax cut effective Jan 1,2011" That's it, nothing else was even worth reporting.
There was of course the usual Tieleman spin on it complete with what ifs and misleading gobbledygook math. I'm sure the numbers were all correct, just the conclusions were a bit wonky as usual. Those that will be paying more HST than they receive tax cuts are the $80K-$90K range that are among the richest 20%.
Oh, here come the anti-PAB crew now. Save it bozos, you're as boring as your deity. Read his column again with an open mind. You'll see that he had nothing useful to say, just like Campbell had no purpose to his speech.
Some fear-mongering, only the one suggestive question not based on any reality and the numbers that add up to nothing. Stop wasting our time until you've got something to say, Bill. How's the recall going? No, not the HST nonsense, the other one, to recall the BC Rail trial?
MAYBE the 15% is coming from TOO much HST being collected by the BC Liberals.
I am laughing at 1:44 pm. Of course PAB disabled the comments, no chance in hell they would have allowed the low level dirtbag comments that typically accumulate on lefty blogs to soil the Premiers youtube. The Premier does just fine soiling himself.
Campbell's Cheating Charts Caught
The Vancouver Sun's Chad Skelton writes:
One of B.C.’s leading experts on tax policy says the charts Premier Gordon Campbell used in his TV address gave such a misleading picture of tax rates in this province that, had they been turned in by his students, he would make them do the assignment over again.
“If a student did this, I would say this is deceptive, maybe intentionally deceptive,” said Jon Kesselman, an economist with Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy. “I would say: ‘Fix this and resubmit.’”
James Brander, an economist with the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business, agreed.
I've heard, but can't confirm, Colin Hansen was not consulted about the 15% tax cut, or at least was not given much notice, prior to the premier's TV address. Moreover, I've also heard, but can't confirm, that the outgoing and incoming education ministers were not at all consulted about the education-related plans contained in Dear Leader's TV address.
If a leader is going to spend 8 months secretly planning the overhaul of the energy ministry, without consulting the most obvious player -- the minister himself -- then it stands to reason that the same might apply to policy matters related to other ministries. Of course, Bill Bennett, unlike Hansen or Abbott or MacDiarmid, has always been a hothead, so it further stands to reason that not every minister that's bitch-slapped by the premier is going to react in the same maverick way.
Isn't it also interesting that the premier's press secretary, Bridget Bimbo, is quietly replaced just one day after this epic TV address. And to think I actually used to have respect for Belle Puri.
Question: Did Martyn Brown really go willingly to tourism, or was he sent quietly and not-so-willingly out to pasture because he made the obvious strategic suggestion to his boss that he step down in the interests of party's (read: business lobby's) future? Is all this talk about how he wanted out, how he saw the writing on the wall, how he was mentally wounded by the Basi/Virk trial - is that all just more smoke and mirror spin emanating from the premier's office?
Interesting times. Stay tuned.
Why bother debating words that came out of the mouth of someone that is known as a habitual liar. Best to continue with the job of getting rid of the rot at the top and try and make this province a better place to live in.
Oh, and I heard the number of those that tuned in to be about 220,000. Really dismal!
Everyone who reads Bill's column should also read:
AN EXPERT SUMMARY OF THE BC RAIL SCANDAL FIASCO
- What's Left Out
(October 27, 2010)
http://houseofinfamy.blogspot.com/
My friend Bill Tieleman has delivered the piece on
the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial that we’ve been waiting for.
Acknowledged as one of the best-informed observers watching and prying into the meaning of the BC Rail Scandal, Bill Tieleman’s wisdom needs to be studied by everyone who cares about British Columbia. His October 26 article, “Hung Out To Dry” is one of the best summary articles written to date.
But its flaws are dazzling.
Mr. Tieleman (like all the mainstream press and
media people) studiously avoids a few absolutely central matters..."
More at: http://houseofinfamy.blogspot.com/
Anonymous 6:59 is verrry interesting when he uses the sudden dumping of the BC Rail Political Corruption like a "win" for the Campbell Gang ... similar to the Recall process.
So he openly admits that the Campbell Gang "won" something significant, when the trial was dumped under circumstances as dubious as the original BCR-CN deal itself.
[voices off-stage saying "Ooops! Ooooops!"]
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Don't be knocking Tielman. If it wasn't for him and all the other good bloggers, we would be blind sided and not informed. It's hard enough to keep track of all the dirty tactics Campbell is using right now. The work these good bloggers do, is very time consuming. Hours and hours, of research goes into their blogs. So, yakmaster, if you think you could do better at blogging information, to the BC citizens, than Tielman, etal... Fly right at it. Do your own web page, I would be interested in reading your blogs.
Would the NDP should they become government increase taxes? They most likely would. THey did in the past.
AnonoMouth @1:44 sez:
"Who would be bothered to read comments in You Tube anyway?"
I imagine for the barely literate such as yourself, it would be a REAL bother to read comments ANYWHERE! Are you ready for grade five?
BC Mary, I think we're all of the opinion that Campbell and friends were involved in underhanded if not illegal activities surrounding BC Rail. Is anyone of any importance in the Liberal Party serving time or ostracized to the point that their political career is over? They have got away with their shenanigans. It's a foul smelling victory but yes they have "won".
And dollars to doughnuts, no amount of whining for a do-over will bring a public inquiry to see the light of day. As much as I believe it should happen, it's as big a waste of time as the Liberal Recalls planned for the New Year. I wish you all the best of luck with those as well but I will be surprised if any let alone 6 or more succeed. Perhaps you simply misunderstood the sarcasm in my previous entry.
Anon 10 AM, I thank you for the invite, my own blog is stalled in the planning stage. It's being held up by a pesky little problem, not enough cash. I won't bore you with the details. In the meantime you can heed these words, or not as is apparently your choice.
If you believe that Tieleman is providing a service to our province then you have been blind sided and are not informed. I concede that he receives information faster than I would but he has no more to offer than what is in other mainstream media. All the dirty dealings in politics you get here are in your newspaper and on your TV and Tieleman is part of it.
So yes, I think I will keep knocking Tieleman, it's the least I can do at this time for the good citizens of BC. When he is ready to start fighting for real change, I'll be supportive.
To understand what that means I suggest you look at the meaningful work being done at Vancouver Media Co-op. They and their supporters challenge the crap that Campbell feeds us while Tieleman sells it as filet mignon.
listening to Mr. Campbell make me realize what no one, not even you are saying.
The HST debate is not about people not wanting to pay more taxes....
it is about business, Big Business not wanting to pay taxes.
this tax takes more from bc residents and returns less money to the government in tax revenue as a business owner that kind of agreement is bad business.
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