Vaughn Palmer, corporate media’s main BC Liberal spokesman, was on Global TV news today explaining British Columbia’s April 1 tax and fee increases. Noting the number of price rises newly effective, Palmer joked that it would be easier to tell viewers about prices and fees not affected.

Palmer said that, while Liberals had elevated most government impositions, they had reduced income taxes significantly. He explained that people tend to forget lower income taxes because they may only pay attention when filing their annual returns. Trouble is, according to Vaughn, every day people are reminded of higher fees and sales taxes such as HST.

No, Vaughn. The real trouble is that higher fees and broadly applicable consumption taxes are regressive. Income tax is progressive.  A big difference, Vaughn. Look at the graph here and see if you can figure it out.