As an employee of an organization that tries to keep tabs on the taxing and spending habits of politicians, it is easy to become de-sensitized to high taxes and wasted tax dollars. Given the prevalence of both in BC, and the sheer vastness and volume of paper one can be buried in, it is similar to watching a blizzard - the eyes can become blurred and unfocused.

To combat this, it becomes necessary to produce a little taxpayer's list of horrors now and then. It serves to remind myself of some of the more absurd examples of what happens when taxpayer money and some politicians spend too much time together. Here then, is "cold water" for my own face. You may find the splash of facts similarly refreshing. To say the least, this is an incomplete list, just a random sampling of numbers designed to shock and horrify the reader.

$50,000:
The cost of a 1998 trade junket to China by Premier Glen Clark. (Note the irony: A left-leaning premier went to China last year to convince a country moving away from a command economy to invest in a province moving towards a command economy.)

$484.30:
The extra amount in Canada Pension Plan taxes someone earning $39,000 in 1999 will pay in 2003 at the same salary, thanks to planned CPP increases. (Note: This is a low estimate, since the federal government has continually expanded the amount of income that will be "CPP-taxed," which I've not factored in.)

$377.40:
The extra payroll taxes someone earning $39,000 in 1999 will pay, compared to what they shelled out in payroll taxes in 1992 at the same salary.

$1.7 billion:
The amount of taxpayer dollars spent since 1968 to keep the Cape Breton Development Corporation (Devco) mining high-polluting sulphurous coal for Nova Scotia Power.

$328 million:
The additional cost of getting Devco off the taxpayer dole, including $111 million for mine workers' severance packages, a $69 million loan write-off, $41 million for additional mine losses, another $68 million to "promote the long-term economic development of Cape Breton over the next four years," and $39 million already committed to such an end.

16.3 % 24.6 %:
The unemployment rate range in Cape Breton between 1984 and now despite government (read: taxpayer) subsidies.

$150 million:
Taxpayer dollars lost by the federal crown corporation Canadian Film Development Corporation (Telefilm) in 1998.

$1,324.76:
The extra personal tax someone with a taxable income of $40,000 will pay in 1999, over what they would have paid in 1999, had tax brackets been fully indexed for inflation since 1988. (This is called "bracket creep."

$45 million:
The amount of postal subsidies given to Canadian magazines to "protect" them from being dwarfed by American magazines.

10.2%:
The percentage of US magazines circulating in Canada.

$873 million:
The cost to taxpayers of the Liberal election promise (one of the few that was kept) to kill the Pearson privatization deal initiated by the former Conservative government.

$1.50/$3.00:
The potential new tax on a 90-minute blank cassette tape/blank CD, if several artists' collectives get their way with the Canadian Copyright Board.

$19,085:
The total amount of federal, provincial, and municipal tax (income, sales, property, user fees, and so on) that a 35-year-old British Columbian will pay in 1999 on an income of $40,000.

$16,860:
The total amount of tax that person would pay in Alberta at the same income.