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.
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