......And the Dippers Pull This Off Only Less Than a Month after I Left Saskatchewan???

I wonder what all you Saskatchewanians think of cutting the PST by 2-percent?

More so, I want to know what Jack Layton has to say.............

I bet you that Calvert must have read my MA research paper, titled "The Incidence of GST and Income Tax Changes in the 2006 Federal Budget"!!

BTW, I read an article from The Star Phoenix, and the reporter either got a bad quote out of Ken Cheveldayoff or Cheveldayoff was off his game. Here is the excerpt:

Saskatchewan Party Finance critic Ken Cheveldayoff said voters will remember
that Calvert’s government hiked the sales tax by one point to seven per cent
just after the 2003 election.

But Cheveldayoff said the Saskatchewan Party does support the cut, pointing
out the Opposition has been repeatedly calling for the last increase to be
reversed.

“It’s long overdue and its sustainable if the Saskatchewan economy keeps
growing . . it’s sustainable under a Sask. Party government,” he said.

This is not the first time that I heard the Sask Party is agreeing with the government. I am not calling the Sask Party to oppose for the sake of opposing, but if the Sask Party agrees with the government with most of the major issues, why would people want for a change? Why should people vote for the Sask Party in the next election? Is it just because Brad Wall is better looking than Lorne Calvert?

Cheveldayoff should have said something like "the government should provide a transitional period, at least a couple weeks, for businesses to make adaquate changes to their operations to adapt to the new government policy. Giving a less-than-24-hour notice would create a lot of chaos among small businesses. This is another example showing the NDP does not understand how businesses are managed, etc, etc, etc."

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Posted AT 2:03 PM EDT ON 27/10/06

Saskatchewan cuts provincial sales tax

Canadian Press

Regina — The Saskatchewan government is cutting its provincial sales tax.

Finance Minister Andrew Thomson stood in the legislature Friday and announced the tax will be lowered to 5 per cent from 7 per cent effective Saturday.

Mr. Thomson says the change was made because the province is currently enjoying an oil and gas boom and the government wants to share the wealth.

The next provincial election is expected in the fall of 2007, and the Opposition has said it believes the government will be trying to buy votes until then.

The cut puts the provincial tax one point below what it was when the current NDP government was re-elected in 2003.

© Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Sask. government cuts PST to five per cent
James Wood, StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, October 27, 2006

REGINA – The provincial sales tax is dropping two points in a bombshell announcement by NDP Finance Minister Andrew Thomson.

The tax will be five per cent as of midnight tonight.

The move will cost the provincial government $325 million in revenue but Thomson said the cut is sustainable, not only because of the natural resource revenues that have been filling provincial coffers for the last two years, but mainly because of soaring personal and corporate tax revenue.

Ensuring Saskatchewan residents feel the full benefit of the province’s strong economy has been a key theme of Premier Lorne Calvert’s government in recent months and has been amplified as it headed into the fall sitting of the legislature and a likely provincial election next year.

“When we can have rebuilt the economy to provide this kind of benefit for families, I think this is a remarkable day,” a beaming Calvert told reporters after Thomson rose in the legislature to announce the cut.

It was the second major announcement by the NDP government in two days of the legislative session, following Thursday’s throne speech announcement of a new statutory holiday in February.

With provincial voters expected to head to the polls within the year, the Opposition said the move reeked of desperation from the government after its third-place finish in the Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection in June.

Saskatchewan Party Finance critic Ken Cheveldayoff said voters will remember that Calvert’s government hiked the sales tax by one point to seven per cent just after the 2003 election.

But Cheveldayoff said the Saskatchewan Party does support the cut, pointing out the Opposition has been repeatedly calling for the last increase to be reversed.

“It’s long overdue and its sustainable if the Saskatchewan economy keeps growing . . . it’s sustainable under a Sask. Party government,” he said.

But Liberal leader David Karwacki announced himself flabbergasted that an NDP government would follow the lead of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which chopped the GST by one point this summer and plans a further cut next year.

Karwacki said it would be more beneficial to cut education property taxes.

“We could’ve taken school tax off of homeowners, that massive burden that it places on seniors, that it places on producers, that it places on families . . . this is just a tax break for the most affluent in our society,” he told reporters.

The move means Saskatchewan will have the lowest provincial sales tax in the country except for Alberta, which has none.

The government will raise the taxes on cigarettes and cut tobacco to ensure those prices don’t drop.

It is also reducing the Investment Tax Credit for manufacturing and processing to match the PST cut.

Read more about the PST cut in tomorrow's StarPhoenix.

© StarPhoenix 2006