Having read a great deal of information about the HST, I have come to the conclusion that it is not a good idea, period-full-stop. Here are my primary reasons:

1) Lying to the populace is not acceptable for a government. The Liberals said in their election campaign that they were not going to bring in the HST. Soon after they were elected, they brought it in. Either they were stupid and naive to think it wasn’t going to become an issue in BC, or they think we are stupid and naive enough to believe their claim. Maybe both. Either way, this is not the first time the Liberals have gone back on an election promise (remember when they said they weren’t interested in privatizing BC Rail? Oh yeah) and it is up to the populace to send a clear message that we do not accept this behaviour. What better way than to sink the sacred ship?

2) The HST introduces taxes on a bunch of stuff that wasn’t taxed before, which raises cost of living for consumers. Our economy, whether Gordon Campbell likes it or not, actually depends on consumers buying stuff. Things like houses, massage services, consulting services, etc. which were not taxed provincially under the PST and now are. There’s about 100 things being taxed now that weren’t taxed before, provincially.

3) Despite increasing tax on certain items, BC will actually lose money on this tax shift. Estimates of the total amount vary, but essentially the “tax revenue + federal bonus – rebates – HST credits” received in BC’s treasury will net less than what the treasury would receive under the existing tax scenario. Where’s the brains in that, in a time when our treasury is already taking hits, and cutbacks are rife?

Here’s what Gordo and his pal Colin should have done instead:

1) Announce the PST will be ditching its current antiquated system of collection, remittance and commission, and switching to the same model that is used by GST: Collect tax, track input tax credits, and remit the difference. No commission to collect. Businesses would still benefit from the input tax credits on the PST, which is the really big economic bonus of this tax. Businesses won’t have to deal with a complicated remittance system, which will streamline operations and probably make more businesses likely to collect and remit PST thoroughly.

2) Anything with PST on it right now keeps the PST, at the same rates as before.

Bingo – it’s a zero-sum game for consumers, and businesses get the economic boost that Gordo so dearly loves. Our treasury reaps slightly less tax revenue at first, with reduction in the amount of bureaucrats needed to babysit the PST system because it’s SIMPLE now. The economy can grow, create jobs etc. and replace the tax revenue lost from input PST credits with income taxes instead. (If we could afford to do input tax credits through HST, we can afford it through PST).

Incidentally, the petition in support of the HST Extinguishment Act is doing quite well.  As of May 9, 69 out of 85 ridings had achieved the 10% of registered voters signature required by Elections BC. I was curious about those ridings who have not passed the mark, and so I did some number crunching and comparisons. I looked at all the ridings and compared the results on the petition with what party MLA sits in the riding, and where the Liberal cabinet members sit. The results are shown here: http://ow.ly/i/1D48 (feel free to retweet).

It’s mostly urban centres which haven’t passed the 10% mark, and the skuttlebutt is that urban centres started collecting signatures about a week after rural centres. There doesn’t seem to be a big difference in what party MLA is sitting in the riding – among urban centres NOT passing the 10% mark, it’s about an even split between Libs and NDPs. So it looks like it’s just about the petition organizers in those ridings needing a little longer to get organized and get out the votes. Gordo’s riding, by the way, hasn’t passed the mark, but it is not among the slowest. Given that it’s in Point Grey and most people are probably working fulltime outside the riding, I’d expect it’s difficult to find people and get them to sign. Tomorrow, I’ll run the numbers and make a chart showing the performance of urban vs suburban vs rural ridings.