Are we getting value for our tax dollar? - With update

Very informative article in today's National Post - Education finances in Ontario: A pre-election fact guide, by David R. Johnson, professor of economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and fellow-in-residence at the C.D. Howe Institute:

...With about five million households in the province, and an annual increase since 2003-2004 in education spending of roughly $600 per household, Ontario's per student funding will exceed that of every other province except Manitoba.

Does spending more money per student increase student learning? A vast research literature asks if smaller elementary classes, or more teachers per student, actually improve elementary assessment results. There is little evidence they do...

( . . . )

Ontario spent more money per student than Alberta, had smaller classes than Alberta and obtained poorer results. This and many other similar examples show there is no obvious relationship between the amount of money put into the public education sector and the outcome

Read the whole article - it's quite enlightening.



Meanwhile, we have this report from Marketwire that the Caledonia Citizens Alliance estimates the tab for Caledonia to date around the $290 million mark:

"We are concerned that the Premier has been hiding many of the associated costs of this dispute from the Ontario taxpayers," says Ken Hewitt, spokesperson for the Alliance. "McGuinty's accounting fails to take into consideration the astronomical OPP and Hydro costs that are a direct result of this crisis in Caledonia," continued Mr. Hewitt.

The Ontario Government has not yet released what it calls "other ongoing costs" and claims they are yet to be determined. Frank Stoneman, a local business owner and volunteer with the Alliance expressed his concerns, "This lack of information and accountability from the Provincial Government disturbs me. $290 million is $30 million more than the budget for the Ministry of the Environment in 2006. It's a great deal of our hard-earned money."

No wonder Dalton McGuinty needs 'every penny' of your health tax! (It goes into general revenues.)

* * * *

Update: One of my loyal readers expressed surprise and even outrage about the fact that most of the health tax ends up in general revenues.

This Globe editorial suggests that the opposition parties should be stressing this:

The challenge for Mr. Tory is to convince voters that he can cut taxes without gutting health care and education as Mr. McGuinty alleges he intends to do. The Conservative Leader also needs to remind voters that what the Liberals call "a health premium" is really a surtax that goes into general revenues, with only a notional allocation to health care.

And we have another 'reality check' here:

As for the Liberals, they are playing their own games with the health-tax numbers. Premier Dalton McGuinty says that Tory's plan to repeal the tax would take $2.6 billion out of the health-care system and suggests that would mean fewer doctors and nurses and longer wait times.

But the revenue from the tax is only notionally attached to health care. Levied as a surtax on the provincial income tax, it actually flows into the consolidated revenue fund.

Thus, if the health tax is repealed, the government could make up for the lost revenue by moving other money around.

And from Howard Hampton via the National Post:

“Calling it a health tax was just a ruse,” Hampton said.
In a press conference at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto, Hampton said Dalton McGuinty’s “so-called health tax” puts $2.6-billion a year into the province’s consolidated revenue fund by targeting families who can afford it the least.

Yet Dalton says he needs 'every single penny'.

Why?

* * * *

Hampton accuses McGuinty of hiding Sarnia hospital price tag.

Thursday update: Canadian Taxpayers Federation support 'Remember us March'.