Ted Morton wants to be your premier. The Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidate is of the hardline bent, believing that only less government is better government and that taxes are at best a necessary evil and at worst a socialist plot.
So you might expect it would cause a stir when he said recently that he might be persuaded to offer a referendum on a one per cent sales tax for the Edmonton region, to pay the government portion of a new sports arena in a rejuvenated capital city downtown.
The idea does have points in its favour: it is a dedicated tax with an end date built in; it is 100 per cent visible (making the recipients 100 per cent accountable); and it is instructive in that it shows just how powerful a one-point sales tax can be. Morton calculates just one per cent of total sales in the Edmonton region would raise the needed $100 million in a couple of years.
Imagine, all these years without a sales tax in Alberta and we discover one per cent in the Edmonton region alone is worth $50 million in revenue a year.
But as you know, there’s no such thing as a good tax in Alberta — especially a sales tax, wherein the rich pay more because they buy more, and the poorest people get an annual rebate.
Morton probably suspects such a referendum would never pass, so his conservative credentials remain secure.
Hector Goudreau, Alberta’s municipal affairs minister, was unequivocal on the matter: no way will municipalities be given any more tax powers, period. “The citizens of this province have told us very clearly they do not want additional taxation powers given to individual municipalities,” he said.
Which is kind of amusing, because Goudreau is only municipal affairs minister until the Alberta Tories elect a new leader. And he may be entirely out of government in the election to follow.
Soon enough, there may well be someone else in his office declaring that Albertans have spoken very clearly: they absolutely want reform of municipal taxation powers. Taxing property values to finance the operations that provide the vast majority of services people receive is positively medieval, but there you are.
The government much prefers the status quo, where they can hand out tax money at their own whim in one place and deny it at another — witness that Calgary got millions for the Stampede grounds, but zero so far to Edmonton for an entire new downtown.
Premier Ed Stelmach says he wants to clear this up before he steps down as leader in a few weeks. His mode is the old-fashioned Tory way: deny everything for as long as possible, and then suddenly burst forth with millions of unbudgeted dollars.
Actually, Danielle Smith, leader of the Wildrose Alliance, has a better idea. She proposes a dedicated lottery to help pay for the new home of the Edmonton Oilers.
Call it a tax on fools (I know I’ve paid my share), but it would be 100 per cent visible, accountable and voluntary. It could become part of the mortgage on the building, paying it down over the years the building is used.
If the lottery was anything near as powerful as even a quarter point sales tax, it could eventually be used for other major facilities to bolster, say, an Olympics bid or a world’s fair.
At this point, Smith looks more likely to become premier in a popular election than Morton — and she thinks even the Tories have gone all lefty.
So we’re all probably safe on the tax front.
One suggestion: when you institute the lottery for the new NHL arena, could you make season tickets one of the subsidiary prizes? That’s the only way most Albertans would ever get one.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.