Budget’s tax increases will dull N.S. competitive edge: opposition
Posted Apr 7, 2010 05:20:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The deficit is lower and revenues higher, but opposition leaders say the 2010 budget will make Nova Scotia less competitive.
The latest financial plan for the province includes, as expected, a two per cent hike to the hst, which will make Nova Scotia’s sales tax the highest in the country.
Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil says that’s not the only problem in this budget – he also takes issue with the new 21 per cent tax bracket for households earning more than $150,000 annually.
“We already have a problem attracting doctors and other specialists, Mr. Speaker,” he said in the legislature Tuesday. “We have the second-highest tuition, the second-highest student debt, and for all of that, this government just created the highest tax burden on those professionals in this province.”
McNeil went on to ask Premier Darrell Dexter during question period how he plans to keep professionals from leaving the province.
“(The budget,) in fact, does away with the surtax on the very professionals that he’s talking about,” said Dexter, pointing out that the 2010 budget eliminated the high-income surtax on taxable incomes of more than $83,000.
Tory interim leader Karen Casey also said the two per cent HST hike has dulled Nova Scotia’s competitive edge, leaving Nova Scotians with less disposable income.
“The programs and incentives that are (in the budget) for seniors and low-income families to address the poverty issue are all good measures, but absolutely no need to do them,” she said. “They simply offset the HST increase.”
Casey acknowledges the major challenges facing sectors such as health care, but says she can’t support raising revenue on the backs of Nova Scotians. She says the NDP should have done more cost-cutting within government departments, pointing out that 12 of 18 will have their budgets increased this year.
