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speakup

I am not sure about you, but I am never a huge fan of how government spends our money.

As they take more and more of our annual income, which the provincial government has in spades, since the Liberals achieved power, the spending continues to climb at an even faster rate.

If the Holy Grail for New Brunswickers is self-sufficiency, the formula being used to achieve it must have come from a weird math book at Hogwarts school of magic, because it doesn't make sense in the real (muggle) world. Since taking office, a little less than two years ago, provincial government spending has increased by more than 14 per cent.

They claim a modest increase in spending which is really spin because it is in their first budget, they said they were going to spend 2.8 per cent more than the 6.2 billion in the 2005/06 budget, but glory be, when all was said and done, they had spent 5.5 per cent more, which, in money, is in the range of $350 million.

Same thing happened the next year. They said they would spend nearly

$6.7 billion, and they spent $6.9 billion. That's more than $200 million more than projected, and $700 million more than they took over management of the provincial finances.

"Gee," I am sure they asked themselves, "How did that happen?"

"Oh well, not to worry," I am sure they say to comfort one another. "We raised taxes across the board; income, property, corporate, and small business taxes all went up; the higher gas prices means more tax revenue; a few extra million shekels from the federal government, and, can you believe the luck, an increase in power rates resulted in surprise profits at NB Power. Really, we can spend more!"

The latest budget projects spending of nearly $7.1 billion, a 14 per cent increase in spending in less than two years is not "modest," a word the government is using to sell this budget.

Along with the budget, comes yet another "consultation." This one is about tax reform. I am all for tax reform, but first let's get some spending control. No reform in the world is going to change the fact that government collects all those billions of dollars from us.

Meaningful tax reform requires meaningful accountability and spending controls. Let's not put the cart before the horse.

Paul Chapman is a local freelance writer and his column appears weekly.