Oh lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
- Janis Joplin
While people with disabilities, arts and community organizations have all been run over by the B.C. Liberal government’s budget and severe cuts, one group is away to the races – the New Car Dealers Association of B.C.
With one stroke of Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s pen, the price of buying a used car in a private sale went up by 5 per cent - that’s an extra $1,000 on a $20,000 vehicle – as part of the government’s Harmonized Sales Tax gouge.
It means there are no savings to be had buying or selling your car privately instead of through a car dealer.
And the government will take $296 million in new taxes from those buying used cars privately over the next two years – if buyers even bother to do so.
But it doesn’t stop there – the B.C. Liberals also eliminated the up to three per cent luxury vehicle surtax on cars over $55,000.
It means ordinary taxpayers will subsidize those buying an expensive new Mercedes Benz or Porsche – previously the tax contributed about $45 million a year to public services.
Meanwhile, arts groups have been cut off from any provincial gaming funding except for children’s programs; many people with disabilities are losing their Monthly Nutritional Supplement for healthy food, glucometers for diabetics and orthotics for those with difficulty walking.
So why are artists, dancers and the poor eating car dealers’ dust?
It may be rather simple – the New Car Dealers Association of B.C. and individual dealerships have contributed more than $554,000 to the B.C. Liberal Party between 2005 and 2009 – including a whopping $282,000 last year alone.
And the New Car Dealers Association isn’t shy talking to the government about its needs – it hired prominent lobbyist Mark Jiles to represent its interests to Victoria since January 2008, according the provincial Lobbyist Registry.
Jiles shouldn’t have any trouble getting meetings – he is Premier Gordon Campbell’s past constituency campaign manager.
Jiles is also president of The Progressive Group – the company owned by Patrick Kinsella – B.C. Liberals’ campaign co-chair
in 2001 and 2005 and the ultimate party insider.
The New Car Dealers also don’t skimp when it comes to supporting the political party best representing the interests of over 360 dealers – on Jan. 13, 2009 they sent $100,000 to the B.C. Liberals, followed by $75,000 on May 1.
And their $282,000 in 2009 followed a massive $107,200 in 2008, making them one of the largest contributors to the B.C. Liberal Party.
But the New Car Dealers offer a valuable lesson to impoverished artists, dancer, and people with disabilities on the best way to be well treated by this government – drive quietly and carry a big cheque.
