Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply declare a good chunk of your income to be tax-free? Well, that’s what your MLAs have been doing, while raking in (and abusing and misusing) your tax dollars (and not doing their job at all).
A former politician speaks up:
[Ray] Speaker, who served nine terms in the Alberta legislature, told commissioner Jack Major the one-third portion of pay that MLAs receive tax-free was initially provided to cover their expenses, but they are now reimbursed for those costs. Eliminating the tax-free portion, currently more than $26,000, and replacing it with the cash equivalent will cost the province $1 million, but it will make MLA pay more transparent, Speaker told the former Supreme Court judge at the first of seven planned public hearings on the issue.
A job in politics shouldn’t be a trough at which pigs stuff their bellies until they burst. This is true of federal, provincial and municipal politicians.
Taxpayers deserve better – in fact, if anyone deserves preferential tax treatment, it’s the taxpayers, not the politicians.