Oct 20, 2013

Municipal Elections - Where should Health and Education spending come from?

Municipal Elections are tomorrow, time to think about taxes.
I noticed on my last Gas bill that I was getting charged $8 per GJ Carbon Tax. I added my other sources of carbon use and came up with 28 tons of carbon per year. Should I be paying $224 per year in a Carbon Tax? Should I be charged $224 for releasing the heat trapping "greenhouse" gas? Does society benefit from this Pigouvian tax (sin tax)?
Alberta's carbon tax rate is set at $15 per ton, but they are only taxing the big oil companies. B.C. rate is $10 per ton (2.41 cents per gas litre) which gives B.C. over 1 billion in revenue per year. They are adding this carbon tax to the everyone's bill.  NASA climate guy James Hanson thinks this is a good thing. As water starts to freeze and cattle start to need hay a 3 to 5 degree increase might be a good thing, at least up north.
I think I agree with the tax even if it hurts me. What do you think?