$29b of surpluses

Yes that’s right. Today’s PREFU shows that Labour is planning to overtax New Zealanders by $29 billion over the next four years. To be fair around $8 billion for the superannuation fund should be set aside, but it puts the lie to the suggestion tax relief is unaffordable.

Also worth remembering Treasury usually under-estimate the surplus by around $2 billion a year, so over four years the cumulative surplus could well be over $35 billion which is over $20,000 per household. And also recall Cullen has a slush fund of $12 billion for additional expenditure hidden away in the forecasts also. At this stage the numbers get astronomical so I won’t even calculate them.

Incidentally the OBERAC surplus for 2004/05 has grown again to $8.3 billion. A year ago Treasury forecast an OBERAC surplus of $5.7 billion so in fact $2.6 billion over budget. But do we get any back – oh no!

This is almost a once in a generation opportunity to permanently lower tax rates in NZ. Labour can and will find increasingly bizarre ways to spend the tax take or redistribute it to hand picked people if re-elected. If an $8.3 billion surplus is not high enough to lower tax rates, then they will never ever ever ever lower them.

PREFU shows core crown revenue under Labour forecast to increase by $19.1 billion cumulative over the next four years. It is not too much to ask for a portion of that increase to be given back to those who pay the tax.

Hell we should not have to ask and beg for our money back. The Government should be taking the initiative here.