Ontario Liberals Proposing New Surtax on High Income Earners; Budget in May

So the Ontario Liberals are possibly proposing a new surtax on those making more than $150,000 to try and slay the deficit as reported by Torstar papers:

"With declining tax revenues and a stubborn $11.7-billion deficit, senior officials said the Liberals are considering a new surtax on people making $150,000 and up."

The fact that the Liberals are proposing a surtax rather than another tax bracket is interesting. A couple of years ago the Liberals at the NDP's insistence added a tax bracket for those earning over $500,000 (which has since moved up with inflation slightly). The two existing surtaxes already applied to that new bracket which added another 2% in taxes for income over $500,000, actually meaning that the real tax raise for those earning over $500,000 of 3.12%. So a new surtax would also apply to the $500,000 tax bracket, possibly moving Ontario's top marginal tax rate (combined with federal income taxes) over 50%.

I've seen reports that the $500,000 bracket was supposed to raise around $500 million per year on only 23,000 individuals. Higher taxes for income over $150,000 would hit considerably more individuals than people earning over $500K so it would likely raise considerably more. However with tax avoidance approaches like keeping one's earnings in a corporation or moving to Alberta for its low tax rates means the amount raised will be less than what would be expected if people didn't respond at all to try and lower their Ontario personal income.

Also interesting is that we finally have a guess for the budget date:

"It would be just one element in a budget expected after the legislature resumes April 28 following the Easter break. Because Ontario budgets are traditionally introduced on Thursdays, that could mean May 1 or May 8."

That's a late date by historical terms, likely because crafting this budget has been difficult. Also when the new surtax would come into effect is interesting, as if it were for 2015 earnings that wouldn't have that much of an effect on the 2014-2015 budget.