VICTORIA: The BC division of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today congratulated taxpayers for achieving an almost overall balanced budget. The CTF noted increased revenues to government coffers via taxes, user fees, and miscellaneous fees helped the government balance its main set of books. The numbers were announced in today's release of the first quarterly report by the provincial government.

"Taxpayers have done a tremendous job of achieving a balanced budget on the main books," said CTF-BC director Mark Milke. "Personal income tax revenues will be $339 million over the original budget forecast, business taxes will be $155 million higher than forecast, and natural resource taxes will contribute $246 million more than expected."

Milke expressed disappointment about the overall increase in debt, and noted B.C. is far behind many other "have" and "have not" provinces. "Without a halt to increasing debt, partial balanced budgets are not good enough," noted Milke. "When other provinces announced balanced books years ago, it also meant that overall debt increases stopped."

The CTF noted that Ontario balanced its books last year and also began to pay down its debt. Alberta and Saskatchewan have reduced their debt for seven straight years and Manitoba has reduced its debt for six years.

"Saskatchewan and Manitoba have both reduced their debt, Alberta and Ontario have cut their debt and cut taxes significantly with further substantial reductions already scheduled in personal and business rates," noted Milke. "Yesterday, Alberta announced $1.1 billion in tax cuts. Today, B.C. announced $870 million more in debt for this province's taxpayers."

"Whether its healthcare or tax cuts, B.C.'s slow approach to halting debt growth means British Columbians have fewer and fewer choices. More debt interest continues to gobble up more of their taxes and user fees."