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NELSON: HST a bad idea then, bad idea now

FACE TO FACE: Which way will they vote in B.C.'s HST referendum ? Not another HST discussion. Well, yes, but now that Premier Christy Clark has proposed "fixes" to the HST, we all have to talk about it again. Sorry.

FACE TO FACE: Which way will they vote in B.C.'s HST referendum?

Not another HST discussion.

Well, yes, but now that Premier Christy Clark has proposed "fixes" to the HST, we all have to talk about it again.

Sorry. Like you, I would rather have hot needles poked in my eyes than once again discuss the dishonesty and weaselling that have surrounded this issue and frustrated us all from the start.

But when my trickle-down colleague assured me that Premier Clark's hastily proposed HST fixes address all possible concerns about the HST, and that there is now no reason for anyone of sound mind to vote against its continuance, I flinched. Again, sorry.

It is more than an objection to how it was brought in, although that was disgraceful; it's philosophical. Simply put, the HST is a shift in tax burden from business to middle and working class people. It saved businesses $2 billion and cost the average British Columbian $350 per year more.

Premier Clark promises that if we vote to retain the HST, she will give us back some of the money they took from us with the HST, the tax the BC Liberals promised they would never institute. Thus, she's bribing us with our own money.

If ever fully instituted, Clark's HST fixes would cost the province an estimated billion dollars by 2014. Where will that money come from? An increased contribution from business? Not likely. As usual, it will come from cutting spending on health, education and social programs, and from restraining the salaries of nurses, teachers and other public employees, whose salaries and benefits will be blamed for decreased government revenues.

We, the working rabble of B.C. are tiring of paying taxes for business. Clark's byelection scare in ritzy Point Grey and some stark poll results have frightened her into these gimmicky HST promises to try to save the tax, the Liberals' latest gift to business.

I'll be voting "yes" in the HST referendum, regardless of the number of eminent economists who swear that repeatedly lowering taxes on business is great for us all in the long run.

I'll be voting to scrap the HST in favour of the archaic, unworkable PST, the tax that will ruin our economy and kill jobs; you know, that awful tax that costs average British Columbians $350 less per year than does the fabulous, streamlined, economy-stimulating HST.

Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.