To the Editor,
After a year of living with HST, I am disappointed to read how much misinformation is still being peddled by the anti-HST crowd.
From the loss of provincial sovereignty to set our own tax rates, labelling it a tax on the poor, and dreaming up dramatic speculation that the new tax would spell doomsday for the restaurant industry – those are just a few examples of the outright incorrect information that British Columbians have been subjected to.
Without tax reform, we would still be paying taxes based on how many windows and fireplaces we have in our homes, or by how many goats we own.
Retail sales taxes, such as the PST, are draconian and detrimental to the economy. The PST was extremely complex and expensive to administer, had an obscure tax base, taxed investment, was punitive to local manufacturers and producers, and was compounding throughout the economy.
The HST eliminates all of these problems.
The problem that people have with the HST is not whether it’s a value-added tax or a retail sales tax, but rather how much money the new tax will cost them on a personal level. Understandable.
With the income tax cut that followed the HST’s introduction, and now with an HST rate of 10 per cent, British Columbians are now going to pay less tax than under the previous PST/GST tax structure, their personal finances will be better off as well as the economy that our jobs and public sector depend on.
The HST referendum is not a referendum on Gordon Campbell, or the Liberal government, it is a referendum on tax policy. A “no” vote is a vote for needed tax reform, and for lower taxes.
Steele Gorosh
Nanaimo