B.C.'s High Income Tax. How Does It Compare To What Bernie Sanders Wants?
John Horgan’s NDP government in British Columbia passed its budget Tuesday, projecting balanced books and a surplus for the next three years.
They’re getting out of deficit partly thanks to something that might ring familiar to anyone closely following the U.S. Democratic primaries — a tax on high-income earners.
Horgan’s finance minister introduced a new tax rate for people making the most money in the province, giving B.C. its highest marginal tax rate this century.The new rate is 20.5 per cent , up from 16.8 per cent, for earnings over $220,000.
“Today, we’re asking the people at the top, the highest one per cent of individual income earners, to pay a little more and help B.C. provide families and communities with better services and stronger infrastructure,” said Finance Minister Carole James during the budget announcement.
RELATED
B.C. Govt. And Wet’suwet’en Have Been Negotiating For Past Year
Wet’suwet’en Allies Say B.C. Gov’t Pickets Are About More Than A Pipeline
Hundreds Of Anti-Pipeline Protesters Block Entrances To B.C. Legislature
The government says the increase will only impact around one per cent of earners in the province. It’s projecting a balanced budget on the back of the new wealth tax, with projected surpluses of $227 million in 2020-21, $179 million in 2021-22, and $374 million in 2022-23.
Average folks likely won’t feel the impact — in 2015, the median household income for Metro Vancouver was $72,662, less than a third of what an individual needs to make to be taxed at that rate.
If you’ve been following American politics lately, you’ve likely heard the phrase “wealth tax” shopped around a lot by Democratic candidates, but how similar is what B.C.’s doing to what they’re proposing?
Could Democratic presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and...
