Sala fails budget test

When you flunked a test in school, you could try to soften your parents’ reaction by pointing out that your classmates did worse.

Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala can barely make that argument.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation just released its annual report cards for all provincial finance ministers. Sala is tied as the second-worst-performing finance minister in the country, based on his latest budget.

Sala received an overall grade of D- this year. That’s a slight improvement over the F he received last year, but still not good enough for taxpayers.

Finance ministers were graded on spending, debt, debt interest costs and tax relief. And Sala finished near the bottom of the class because he continues to balloon the debt, ramp up spending and make life more expensive for Manitobans.

Sala is increasing the debt by $3.2 billion, to $39.7 billion by the end of this year.

That debt comes with an annual interest bill of about $2.4 billion. That works out to almost $1,600 per Manitoban. That’s the second-highest per person debt-interest cost in the country (only Newfoundland and Labrador’s is higher).

The Manitoba government spends more on debt interest than on everything but health care and education.

It’s the third-largest line item in the budget.

Debt-interest payments cost taxpayers about $6.5 million per day. That’s about the equivalent of Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey’s annual salary being lit on fire every single day.

And the debt keeps growing because Sala keeps spending.

That $3.2 billion in new debt should have set off alarm bells inside the finance minister’s office. Instead, Sala increased spending by $1.5 billion more this year.

If Sala had simply held spending at last year’s record spending, the government could have reduced borrowing by about $1 billion this year.

Manitoba is now spending more per person than any other province in Western Canada. Other provinces are still delivering services at a lower cost. Manitoba has no excuse.

And there’s the tax relief. Or rather, the lack of it.

Premier Wab Kinew’s government is touting its sales tax cut on ready-made foods, such as rotisserie chickens, as a way of making life more affordable. That’s a good way to provide relief to families at the grocery store, but it conveniently leaves out the bracket-creep income tax hike the government snuck in last year.

Bracket creep is a stealth tax hike. It happens when the government stops indexing its tax brackets to inflation. Inflation then pushes taxpayers into higher tax brackets and raises their tax bills, even though their purchasing power has not improved.

In total, all the tax relief announced in Sala’s budget will save taxpayers about $71 million annually.

Bracket creep cost Manitoba taxpayers $82 million last year. The cost of the tax hike will keep increasing until Manitoba indexes tax brackets to inflation again.

Sala is handing you pennies with one hand while taking dollars out of your wallet with the other. That’s a sneaky and underhanded tax grab that certainly isn’t making life more affordable.

Kinew promised to lower costs for Manitobans when campaigning in 2023.

A Manitoba family making $75,000 a year paid the highest taxes in Western Canada when the NDP were elected. That same family still pays the highest taxes in Western Canada today.

Taxpayers have waited long enough for action. Taxpayers can’t afford another year of the same lousy homework.

Sala can earn better marks next year because taxpayers are clear about what he needs to do — pay down debt, stop spending more per person than every other government west of Ontario and reverse his sneaky, bracket-creep tax hike.

That’s what delivering looks like and Manitobans deserve a finance minister that delivers for taxpayers.

Gage Haubrich is the Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.