FAST FACTS - The NDP’s dwindling budget options

The second point is that the move away from income By adhering to Tory’s balanced budget legislation and tax tax toward user fees and taxation of specifi c goods and cut policies, the NDP been able to do little to help either services reduces the progressivity of the tax system. [...] A more appropriate de- Despite the tax reductions this year, the province scription is that this budget has continued the NDP’s prac- is relying on a very dramatic increase of 7.3% in own- tice of reducing income taxes while increasing other forms source revenue to balance the budget. [...] The fi rst is that the tax the province to slip through a loophole in the balanced cuts that were previously promised and enacted this year budget legislation. [...] Critics are eager to pin the NDP’s inability to bal- tax reduction deprived the province of a fairly modest $39 ance the budget squarely at the feet of perceived spending million, but the cumulative effects of the personal income increases. [...] to the size of the rest of the economy, provincial spending In addition, the balanced budget legislation stipulates that has actually fallen from 20.2% in 1999/00 to 18.6% in the money must be set aside for advanced debt repayment, to 2004/05 budget.