Yay – Little pledges no tax increases

The Herald reports:

Labour will not be raising taxes if elected at this year’s election.

Party leader Andrew Little said his team would have enough income to pay for their election promises now the government was expecting a $1 billion surplus this year ahead of Treasury projections.

He said as a result, his team was not planning to raise taxes if elected.

This is great news, and excellent to see Labour drop their previous policies of walloping higher income earners. Parties should be debating tax cuts, not tax increases.

It really is good to see the Labour Party promise no tax increases – the first time in over 20 years they have done so. This is a real move towards the middle ground, and will make them more electable.

Of course we have de facto tax increases through bracket creep. Almost all workers end up paying a higher average tax rate every year as wages increases and more of their income moves into a higher bracket. Over the past seven years the Government is receiving $2.1 billion a year more through bracket creep, so the first priority should be handing those stealth increases back.

Anyway again it is great to see Labour promise no tax increases. Hopefully Greens and NZ first will do the same.