The National Post

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New Brunswick shows the way for tax reduction
The National Post

Bravo to the Liberal government of New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham. Almost alone in the Western world, the Graham government has chosen to make personal and corporate tax reduction a pillar of its economic stimulus plan amidst the current global downturn.

Also, at a time when most governments are looking to ease unemployment by adding jobs in the public sector — a move that in the long term will do little more than bloat government payrolls, fatten public-sector union coffers and add billions in pension obligations — the N.B. Liberals have decided to trim the province’s civil service by 700 positions, arguing that it must be the private sector that grows the province out of recession.

These moves will make N.B. one of the most tax-competitive jurisdictions in Canada.

In the United States, President Barack Obama is demagoguing Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis to justify huge new tax grabs from the wealthiest Americans, who already pay nearly 90% of total federal income taxes. Cities, provinces and whole nations across the continent are being urged to increase their revenues, so they can spend extra trillions and add hundreds of thousand of workers to the public payroll to jump-start the economy. And there are few things governments find easier to do than raise taxes and grow their own girth.Which is why Tuesday’s New Brunswick budget is so remarkable.