T he provincial government has released its 2011-'12 budget and it's one which has to generally be looked at as one most people can live with quite nicely.
There will be those groups which had hoped to see more.
We see that locally in words from Dwayne Reeve, the Good Spirit School District Director of Education. When looking at the overall education dollars outlined in the budget he commented, "It does mean we're going to have to try and scale back on what we're doing and take a look at how we can try and deliver services. I think for education, they missed the mark in terms of the operational expenses. I know there are many other positive things in the budget, but from an operational standpoint in Good Spirit School Division, it's not going to be status quo. ... We're going to have to face possible cutbacks."
Reeves comments illustrate one of the biggest challenges the government faces when it sits down to create a budget, how to balance where it invests our money.
We at times forget that the revenue of government is finite. In fact, as individuals and business people we generally call for the revenue stream to be tightened down in the sense we want to see tax cuts. We want more of the money we earn in our own pockets, and less flowing to the government to fund services such as education, health, highways and social services.
And the Saskatchewan Party did listen on the tax reduction side of things in the budget. The document outlined reduced income taxes for individuals and families by increasing the basic personal and spousal exemptions by $1,000 each, and by increasing the exemption for dependent children by $500 per child.
But that still leaves the fundamental question about balancing spending. It is all well and good for specific groups to stand up and suggest more money should have flowed a specific way. Education, health and agriculture are three general areas where we often hear calls for greater spending.
Often the reasons why groups want more money does have merit.
But, the question that those asking for more money seldom answer is where they would suggest the dollars should come from. The pie of dollars is a set size, and if one piece is cut larger, then another piece must be made smaller. So if a suggestion like that by Reeve for more operational educational dollars, which makes good sense since education is a base for all of us, where would you draw those dollars from. Would we want less spent on health? Highways? Social Services?
While such a question is difficult to answer, in terms of the recent budget, the Saskatchewan Party has managed to throw some good news to most.
The idea of paying less tax is always well-received, and in an election year isn't all that surprising.
Add the completion of a promise to reduce the education portion of property tax, more dollars for municipalities, which helps fund local services, and a reduction of the provincial debt that is good news for our future, and you have to think Premier Brad Wall and his cabinet pulled off a solid financial document without too great a pre-election largess given this fall's trip to the polls.
