In defense of T.J. Burke's "sucks" blog
Long time readers know I'm a pretty conservative kind of guy. I'd probably throw my support behind a conservative party unless I'm given a compelling reason not to.
The PC's in New Brunswick keep throwing those reasons.
They have a solidly strong opposition in the number of members yet they've still been just plain useless.
The latest one is them going on the attack against T.J. Burke for his now infamous blog post that property taxes suck. The blog has since been pulled.
Now you knew political hay would be made of this one and that's fine but for PC MLA Bruce Fitch to say, "Is he (Burke) just sitting there complaining, or is he going to do something about it?" is hypocrisy at its best. Skyrocketing property taxes began on your watch Mr. Fitch and the previous government did NOTHING about it or would even admit they "suck" so to pull this holier than thou routine doesn't fool anyone.
I'd rather have an MLA who lives in the real world, knows something does suck and at the very least raises the issue so it gets discussed, than a group of politicians who only view this as a political opportunity to score some cheap points instead of offering some realistic ideas.
By the way before I let the Liberals off the hook, Minister Greg Byrne has obviously been appointed to speak on the issue and told media this, "I have had many conversations with the minister (Burke) and he certainly recognizes that the property tax assessment system is a fair system and that the asset that you have and the asset that he has, is his best asset."
No Burke doesn't. He thinks property taxes suck and that something should be done. That's exactly what he wrote and given some petitions floating around, many New Brunswickers agree. There's nothing wrong with him reflecting what citizens are saying. That's what an MLA is supposed to do and muzzling him as the Liberals have done is ridiculous.
By the way, T.J. Burke's blog has not been updated since the "sucks" blog was pulled. I suspect he may be a little gunshy and the blog will either die or become so sanitized it will be useless. I hope I'm wrong. We need more frankness from our politicians and less spin.
Crossposted - CanadaEast
posted by
Spinks at 11:41 AM -
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34 Comments
To be honest spinks, I'm surprised it took them [NB PCs] this long to make political hay out of that blog post.
In an intense media environment, like Ottawa, that post would have been critiqued instantly and discussed ad nauseam. However, as we both know, that is part of the problem up there with the PPG and opposition. They're quick to pounce so as to score a few quick political points.
On the flip side, Mr. Burke should have been aware of the consequences of breaking ranks with his comrades in public like that on such a hot button issue like "taxes". One his administration has been continually attacked for ever since they dropped that controversial first budget.
I guess what I said on your blog in March still stands: "Great to have him onboard. Although, judging from experienced bloggers like Monte Solberg and Chuck Strahl who started 5 yrs. ago while in opposition, they said it was too hard to keep up a blog while maintaining a disciplined message as a member of the cabinet. Although, they are under a lot more scrutiny as they are under the watchful eye of the PPG (and the PMO. hee hee). One slip up by a Tory and you're gone in Ottawa. Not sure the same rules apply to the provincial Liberals in New Brunswick with their boss and the press." ;-
12:17 PM
I was wondering when somebody was going to mention Mr. Burke's 'missing blog'. What it means we don't know. However, writing a blog saying 'taxes suck' isn't exactly DOING anything. That's the kind of populist rhetoric that has Charles praising anybody who is nice to him no matter WHAT their policies are.
As for the tories, he's right. Mr. Finch was not the one writing that 'taxes suck', which means at least he's not hypocritical. He's quite right to say that as a member of cabinet in government, Mr. Burke should be doing much more than just saying something so that (some) New brunswickers think he's 'feeling their pain'.
But Mr. Burke may not have been aware that Fredericton has the lowest property tax of the big three cities, and has a pretty much average property tax when compared across the country. EVERYBODY is going to say 'taxes suck', but Mr. Burke obviously had second thoughts about this, as people often do. If I were making 60 grand plus, I certainly wouldn't be complaining about a $2000 property tax bill(especially if I just got a raise and my own govenrment just raised other taxes!).
Obviously it was a real fear that any contention would have quite an effect on his blog-which is unfortunate, and perhaps terminal. It's clear that Mr. Burke 'got a talking to', which is always embarassing for government, mainly because it was a pretty benign statement that would have been quickly forgotten.
12:17 PM
"the blog will either die or become so sanitized it will be useless"
Ah, then Canadaeast.com can sign him up to further mollify their readers.
12:20 PM
Oh, and one more thing, regardless of what you think of his missing "taxes suck" post (if your were originally outraged by it and see it as hypocritical or if you were inspired by it and see it as a good thing because he spoke his mind), I still think that TJ Burke should explain himself either way because, in the end, this will stick to him not his government. In other words, people will not trust his motives ever again unless he comes clean on why he pulled the straight forward (and accurate) post.
I'm calling you out TJ...what's it going to be?
1:20 PM
I was going to blog this issue but I was waiting to bump into the Blogger General and asked him?
This is definitely not T.J style of shutting up?
Something is wrong here?
Wike? People got to learn NOT TO PISSED OFF A BLOGGER!!!
:p
3:04 PM
I have to agree with Spinks about the Tory response. It's pathetic.
I have not seen or heard a credible alternative to the governing Liberals. I can go to any school yard or badly ref'd hockey game and hear the same crap thats passing for reasoned opposition.
For Pete's sake. Get organized and present some decent policy alternatives, its not like its that hard, given the Graham government performance to date!!!
And what nonsense is Byrne spouting?? What does "the asset that you have and the asset that he has, is his best asset." mean???
3:38 PM
I ain't afeared of you Charles! I've said that to you numerous times, its not what politicians SAY, its what they do. To use your own example Hitler got rave reviews all over the world because he was so charismatic and 'such a nice guy'.
I don't know but I suspect Mr. Byrne's line was a jibe-meaning that Mr. Burke's brain compares more favourably than Mr. Fitch's brain. So again, this is why people are turned off politics-that street goes both ways. Go watch CPAC some day, even where the REAL power is has no more maturity.
But saying that DOES make Mr. Burke sound more populist, and having it removed sounds like party shenanigans, so I don't think Mr. Burke comes off looking worse than his party.
And to be fair, the opposite of a policy is often to NOT implement a policy. Why would the tories 'hang themselves' with policy when they don't need to? Obviously they would NOT have implemented the educational reforms, and they did LOWER taxes, so their 'position' on matters is pretty clear.
Plus, just today they said they wanted a referendum on uranium mining and other specific policies are no further than looking at private members bills at the legislative website.
Once again, people are reacting (or overreacting) to what the Irving media sees as important and carrying it over to blogs. If you want to talk policy, go look at the policymakers and not the media filters.
4:18 PM
Whoops, I meant that Hitler got rave reviews in the early thirties BEFORE the war. Yikes.
4:19 PM
why are yu blaming anybody elese,it was TJ that removed it not the Pcs;he owes readers an explanation.
6:31 PM
Just a correction, it was bloggers that broke the "blog removal" story mike, not "Irving media".
6:34 PM
You are Irving media Spinks!!!
:P
lol
7:06 PM
Good reason to be anonymous. Have ot
sympathise with Burke. Thought he was being honest which is hard to be as a politco. Found it refreshing, too bad he pulled it. "Taxes suck." This doesn't mean they may not be necessary. Radiation treatment, chemo suck but... Everyone should lighten up. All the drama over what anyone might say at the local coffee shop.
7:06 PM
Actually, this whole story would be a dead issue if it weren't for spinks. It was a great get...let's admit it.
Which makes me wonder...how hard are the MSM "really" looking when it comes to this government?? Remember, they're getting paid to break stories open. Spinks does it for the enjoyment...or should I say, to better inform the public.
As he knows, you can't wait around for a story to drop into your lap, ya gotta do your research...and most importantly, ya gotta dig. So why are there so many lame stories flowing out of our three main rags in the last two years?
Anybody? Bueller?
7:34 PM
With all due respect to Mr. Fitch I DO believe the Lord government promised an assessment freeze in the run-up to the last election. I'm surprised Mr. Graham didn't promise the same thing, only to reneg as he did on the energy rebate. I am neither PC nor Liberasl...just looking for SOMEONE who gives a damn about the little guy.
9:00 AM
There was talk about somthing like that wasn't there anon? I can't remember if it actually became part of the PC's official platform or not though. I'm thinking not only because they haven't been saying "we would have done something about it as mentioned in the last election."
I'm with you though. The whole lot of them tick me off these days. The thing I liked about Burke's blog was that at least he was offering up some frank honesty. That's far better than the spin-job gobbleygook of Byrne and the politicial posturing of Fitch. I'm really sick of being taken for a sucker by politicians and hacks.
9:45 AM
I'm with you Spinks.......the "party line" spouted by Mr. Byrne was nearly enough to make one retch. I honestly do not know how those of us who are crawling along in years will continue to "make do". I'm sorry Mr. Burke was so obviously muzzled....party solidarity and all that, of course. But, as you note, his reaction was honest, refreshing and coincided with the reaction of just about every property taxpayer in the province I suspect. Perhaps Mr. Byrne enjoys bein g over-taxed....of course he has perks the rest of us do not....maybe that helps?? Seems to mer the assessment freeze was in te Lord platform but I can't prove it at the moment. The new PEI government put such a freeze into effect........people on fixed incomes will not be able to keep up with property taxes, the cost of home heating products, gasoline and the rising cost of all products being trucked in. Sorry, Mr. Byrne....Mr. Burke is right.
11:50 AM
What he really wanted to say...
"Your asset is also my asset, in fact I can tax and tax your asset again and again. Your asset is the best asset I have."
11:57 AM
Assessment freeze won't help. All the municipalities have to do is raise the rate. You have to hold the municipalities accountable for their spending- or misspending. If they had the right priorities and residents saw results for the money that's one thing but when they don't and it disappears into an administrative maw...well. The assessment issue is really a red herring which distracts from the real issue.
1:33 PM
An assessment freeze would help families temporarily ww (with their consistent rising assessments), especially since there were minimal municipalities that raised taxes in New Brunswick in '08. Which is why you hear so many ppl blaming the province saying "our local property taxes haven't gone up, but our property bill keeps getting bigger every year." in other words, they would be blaming the local level, if it were the reverse...but it isn't.
As for the PC's, we should cut John Betts a bit of slack since he did introduce Bill 17 --- an Act to Amend the Assessment Act --- in the past spring sitting. And because property taxes are hitting record highs in some areas of the province, it's time all MLA's got behind this bill regardless of petty party loyalty. If passed, this bill would offer some temporary relief for taxpayers via a property assessment cap. Moreover, it would take some of the financial stress off property owners until the government can come up with an alternative municipal tax assessment arrangement like they have in other jurisdictions such as Britain, California, Florida and Israel.
4:51 PM
We wouldn't need tax increases if our tax dollars were spent in a way that any good private business does business.Reports, studies, assessments, they all cost us money.
7:36 PM
.......and if governments (this one included) would stop handing out millions to their "friends" who just happen to get in over their heads with "elite" golf courses!!!!!!!!!!For instance.
7:37 AM
I guess now we recognize the problem Bernard Lord was faced with. There was no depth in the ranks, no strength from the bench. The Conservatives have shown zero political skill since the two or three big guns left.
Volpe is not a leader, he's a pitbull, and that's how Lord used him. I don't know what's going in internally there, but how come no one can come up with some decent opposition? Is the media missing it, or not reporting it? Are they coasting?
Perhaps if they did what TJ Burke was doing, and started reading some blogs they may get in touch with the real world a bit and get some material to work with. There is often good stuff in here, which is what I think TJ was trying to tap into.
We could be the official opposition! (Charles for party whip!!)
As for TJ's recent muzzling, what troubles me is the constant control of the message. I also wonder how much influence the public service had in removing the item, and for his not posting in a bit? They like to filter the communication between the public and the politician. This environment was unfiltered.
"Taxes suck" is something even politicians should agree with. We need to have them, we all agree on that as well, but it doesn't mean we have to like them. In fact, if we don't like them then politicians should not like increasing them and they need to look at every other reasonable alternative before taking more than the 50% of my money that they already get. (When's tax free day again nbt?)
You would also think that they'd be happy to have the heat removed from the health and education departments for a bit, and focus on something that really doesn't matter.
TJ responded to his tax bill like every other human responds to tax bills, and he shared that feeling in a very human way. I want to hear my politicians say taxes suck, and that they are going to find the best way to make them suck the least.
8:30 AM
This post has been removed by the author.
8:59 AM
When's tax free day again nbt?
Good question, Paul. It has landed on June 14th two years in a row, but methinks it may be a little closer to the month of July (late June) then in the past (especially with NBers paying a full year and a half of higher personal income taxes and small business owners making personal claims on higher taxes as well).
2:47 PM
'Tax free day' depends who you listen to. It's always been the CTF who published it, but now the CCPA did a study that has tax free day as actually being March. It's pretty easy to tell when your day is, just check your tax return. Mine was in mid April.
And just a note, go to the PC party website and read all their press releases-if you want policy or to know what they are spending their time doing there is lots there. Don't go by the media because lots of it doesn't get in.
7:35 PM
You can't go by your tax return mikel...The consumption taxes, fees, property taxes on top of the income tax...and on and on...It's well into June for the average person.
7:42 PM
'Fees' are not taxes-unless they are mandatory. I'm including ALL money that goes to government, that includes property taxes, and the CCPA also included those and came up with april. The percentage of the canadian household budget going to taxes has actually been shrinking. Food costs, mortgage, utilities, vehicles, etc., are where the bulk of household income goes-all of which are private costs.
Compared to europe, canadians are VERY lightly taxed, and getting less so (and of course losing out on any services that could come with them).
Unfortunately, it seems that this issue has pretty much killed TJ's blog. Nice going spinks:)
9:44 AM
Oh sheesh mike, you were mistaken, no big deal. Taxes do include all those things paul mentioned. You cannot go off your income tax return to figure it out.
10:04 AM
Your income tax HAS your provincial tax. The only thing it doesn't have is your municipal tax and consumptive taxes. I didn't say THOSE because obviously nobody is going to sit down and figure all that stuff out just to make a point. It takes five seconds to do it with your income tax return.
However, the CCPA DOES count all those consumptive taxes and municipal taxes, which is why I mention April (which is the average).
10:30 AM
Exactly! Those are still part of the overall tax burden. Thanks for adding that. For you mike that's as close as I guess I can expect to you admitting you made a mistake.
10:41 AM
Duh, yeah geez, I wasn't aware that consumption taxes were actually 'taxes' and part of your 'tax burden'. I thought that was money that was sent as payola to Mars.
I heartily recommend that people dig out all their reciepts and figure out their tax freedom day, they'll be surprised. But consumptive taxes can be minimized-don't drink, smoke, gamble and keep driving to a minimum. Besides those consumptive taxes are minimal, the vast majority of governments taxes comes from income. Even municipal taxes add only three weeks to the average (even less for married people).
9:07 AM
Oh, mikel, give your head a shake. I filled my oil tank, which was near empty recently. It cost me $1000.00. Over $100 of that was HST, on top of the excise taxes already on the fuel. A tax on tax. Save for groceries, which are about 9% of their household spending, the rest has a least 13% and, like in the case of the gasoline everyone puts in their cars, you pay more.
I don't think you have thought this through...
11:16 AM
Like I said, if individuals want to do their own research project and figure out their own, go to it. They can even post the figures here and get help doing it.
The 'average' canadian doesn't even USE oil for heat anymore. It depends how long that oil lasts for, but that's still only, at most, $200. That thousand dollars is just about what we pay for heating each year, so $200 a year on taxes is pretty slim-a two or three days pay for the highest utility.
And of course that is the main problem with the taxpayer federations (and Statscan) numbers-using 'average' figures.
If you 'average' a millionaire and an impoverished single mother you still have an average that looks like two $500,000 wage earners. The CTF tax day does that kind of thing with figures all over the place.
For an example of that, statscan recently released figures showing that the 'average' canadian household spent $48,000 on 'goods and services'-that's almost the median income amount, only twelve grand less than 'average' NB household income (and I doubt the whole amount goes to goods and services).
So obviously that's messed up. More on that here:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/Article
News/story/CTVNews/20080226/
household_spending_080226/200802
26?hub=Canada
Consumptive taxes are HIGHLY variable-if you have wood heating its far different than oil. If you smoke and drink you'll pay LOTS more in consumptive taxes. If you buy lots of 'stuff' you pay more. If you want to limit that, those are individual choices that a person makes.
However, as the above report shows, 20% is paid 'on average' on personal taxes, other taxes would bring that figure to 'maybe' 25%, which is April.
But again, averages are misleading, the 'average' between alberta and New brunswick will be VERY misleading.
10:13 AM
In a Province such as N.B. where nothing much does go up except taxes, transfer payments and mansions built out of chipboard, one has to wonder where does it all go?
You can't find a doctor. The only really good hospital in the region is in Halifax. The education system has declined steadily, and patronage is a religion unto itself, controlled by select families.
My Son has to travel 35 miles one way to school and only got text books for half his courses. At the same time the system supports a university that turns out students who don't know simple law.
In the past 4 yrs. my property tax increased 50% in a rural area, to a point where it equals that which is paid in the cities. For this, I get summer garbage collection at my doorstep. The rest of the year I have to carry it to the highway. Nothing else.
I moved back a year ago after being away a long time, and now remember why I moved away.
The growth of the business of Government is the provinces greatest failing and the greatest hindrance to it's people. And for this you don't get more, except taxes. The population doesn't grow. The tax base doesn't grow. Business and income generating opportunities are hindered and sometimes stymied by over regulation, and those regulating, generally have no private industry experience and therefore don't understand that they are supposed to serve the people, not the institution they work for.
A short list of absurdities would include differing rates for natural gas, Coleson Cove and no inquiry, $70,000 bills from property appraisers for 2 or 3 building lots in conjunction with the highway project, a safety minister who thinks its a good idea to spend tax monies creating the dept. of snowmobiles and ATV's, and then there's the duplicity which is a huge hindrance for a province of this size.
Better hope this economic downturn doesn't get too serious, especially in Ontario. I expect the West isn't going to roll over and pay for everyone governing above their means. The folks from Ontario have been conditioned to the current structure, but the Albertans and their ambitious neighbors are a different breed.
A leader with some significant real life experience would also be an encouraging move.
3:21 PM
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