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Now that’s a lot of cash, but here’s the kicker: since the budget was last balanced in 2011-15 the government has spent $3.6 billion on interest payments on the debt. If the government had managed its money correctly, it could have provided a one percentage point cut in the PST for all nine years.Article content
If the government cut the PST by a point today, your tax bill would drop $109. That’s a tank of gas or a trip to the grocery store. Instead, that money is being wasted on interest payments.Why is the government wasting hundreds of millions of dollars a year on interest payments instead of cutting taxes?
The Saskatchewan Party has presided over 15 budget years since being elected in 2007. In 2009, Saskatchewan had its largest debt reduction on record. That move reduced the debt all the way down to $4.1 billion. A great step that was undermined by what came after it. When you spend more than you make one month, you cut back on beer for the next; you don’t go out and finance a new truck. Now, because the government refused to cut back, taxpayers are paying for it.
Interest payments in 2015 were about $266 million. In 2023, they are projected to reach more than $620 million. That’s a 125 per cent increase in only nine years. It’s a problem that will only get worse as interest rates rise.Article content