This column was originally printed in the Winnipeg Sun on Oct. 10, 2015

It would probably be a bit contrary to the Thanksgiving spirit to loudly worry about the mashed potatoes running out while scooping up another heaping plateful.

All of Manitoba’s political parties are worried about the province’s finances. The NDP government’s solution was to make taxpayers pay more by raising the PST without the legislatively required referendum. The Conservatives and Liberals have suggested trimming government spending.

Here’s the thing: while all of the political parties are worried about the province’s finances they’re scooping up their own helpings of taxpayers’ cash.

Manitoba’s political parties give themselves a taxpayer-funded allowance. The money is divided up in rough proportion to each party’s share of the vote. And the budget for the allowance is up to $600,000 per year.

To their credit, the Progressive Conservatives oppose this taxpayer-funded allowance, while the others are willingly cashing the cheques. Of course, it’s a bit like saying no thanks to another dinner roll after generous helpings of turkey and stuffing because the reality is that taxpayers are forced to give political parties much more than just the allowance.

Taxpayers not only endure annoying attack ads during elections, they’re paying for half of every commercial. Political parties say they’re spending their own money raised through donations from supporters to fund their campaigns. And that’s partly true. But what they rarely mention is that after the election they send taxpayers a bill for half of their campaign costs. When the counting was done for the 2011 election, the political parties forced taxpayers to fork over nearly $1.4 million to cover campaign costs.

But none of this is even the main course.

Political parties give their donors a very sweet deal. If a Manitoban gives $400 to a charity such as World Vision, the provincial government will reward that good deed with a tax credit that could save the donor up to $56 at tax time. Now, if that same Manitoban gives $400 to a provincial political party, that donor will get up to $300 back when they file their taxes.

The tax credit for giving money to a political party is nearly five times higher than the tax credit for giving money to people who care for the hungry and poor.

It’s hard to imagine even the most dyed-in-the-wool partisan arguing that it’s better to give to political parties than to charities. But for those over-dyed hacks immune to that matter of fairness, there’s the hit to the provincial treasury to consider. Last year the tax credits for political donations totaled $1.3 million. And that was a low year. The four-year average is nearly $1.8 million.

Add it all up and Manitoban taxpayers are forced to pay political parties an average of about $2.6 million every year.

There are those who will argue political parties can’t live without taxpayers’ money. There’s no sympathy for that argument here. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation survives on voluntary donations and there are no tax receipts for our supporters.

If politicians want credibility on their ability to handle the provincial treasury, they can start by getting their hands out of taxpayers’ wallets when they’re financing political operations.