Premier Gordon Campbell was very clear with reporters yesterday that running a deficit would mean a 10 percent pay cut for cabinet ministers, but a former NDP strategist says Campbell is exaggerating.
Campbell went into some detail about how B.C.'s Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act works. Each year twenty percent of cabinet ministers' salaries are held back, he said. They get 10 percent released for meeting their ministry's budget, he said, and the other 10 percent for a balanced government-wide budget.
Yesterday Campbell announced the province will run deficit budgets. He said, “Cabinet ministers will take a 10 percent reduction in their salaries if there's not a balanced budget.”
But in a column today, economist and former NDP strategist David Schreck pointed out the 20 percent hold back only applies to the part of their salaries that cabinet ministers get for their cabinet work.
All MLAs get base pay of just over $100,000. Ministers get an extra 50 percent, while the Premier gets an extra 90 percent. It is only those bonuses, for being Premier or a cabinet minister, that are affected by the hold back, Schreck wrote.
By Schreck's calculation, a deficit means the cabinet ministers will only lose 3.3 percent of their overall salaries, adding that's “peanuts compared to the 29 percent pay raise MLAs gave themselves in 2007.”
A call to Campbell's press secretary was not returned by posting time.
“Claims about cabinet ministers facing a pay cut are . . . all about the election,” Schreck wrote. “It adds insult to injury for the Campbell government to pretend that its members are making a personal sacrifice.”
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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DPL
3 years ago
David is a whiz with numbers
David is a whiz with numbers and as he explains it, they make sense to even me. Gordo says a lot of things many usually covered with snake oil. He should be working on a used car lot.
quarry bay
3 years ago
Ministerial accountability act.....
Gobbily goop.....
& straight years Gordon Campbell has had supplimental budgets brought in to bump up the ministries shortfalls.
All in the name of making sure his cabinet ministers never lost pay.
Last years supplimental budget was 1.30 billion dollars.
That means that the ministries over spent by 1.30 billion dollars.
This years supplimental budget is expected to dwarf last years supplimental budget.
So the 5 billion dollar deficit Campbell is going to run will break down like this.
1.5 billion dollar supplimental
1.5 billion for olympic costs
500 million for P3s
200 million more for ministry budgets
600 million for infrastructure
Translink/ sea to sky/ will gobble up the rest
The 1 billion dollar loan the province is taking out for the(hedge) fund,the Macquarie group will not be taken out of the budget,that will be added to our MASSIVE CREDIT CARD DEBT
quarry bay
3 years ago
Campbell/ Breaks his own deficit record
Read it here,Gordon Campbell,BCs all time leading debtor beats his own record.
http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2009/02/bc-business-leaders-back-campbell.html
Gordon Campbell to run 5 billion dollar deficit followed up by a 4 billion dollar deficit--Read it here
http://www.theprovince.com/news/deficit+reach+billions+Campbell/1247275/story.html
The great Money Manager Gordon Campbell
As Donald Trump would say.....
"Your Fired"
quarry bay
3 years ago
Campbell is out of control....
Port Mann project balloons from 1.5 billion to 3 billion dollars before even a stick is in the ground.
And as i reported earlier,Campbell is borrowing the money(putting it on our credit card)he is not taking it out of the 5 billion dollar deficit budget.
here is the story...
http://www.vancouversun.com/Port+Mann+price+billion/1249988/story.html