Every year premier Ralph Klein takes to the airwaves to give his "State of the Province" address.

In one way this year's address was like all those that came before -- there was a great halabaloo over the tens of thousands of dollars the premier spent to give himself a taxpayer funded TV soap-box.

But that's where the similarities between previous speeches and this year's statement ends. Recent months have marked a radical departure from the Klein agenda of old, and this year's "State of the Province" speech seems to confirm that the revolution is now officially dead.

So what was it, exactly, that the premier said or didn't say to indicate that he's given up on taxpayers and fiscal conservatism

Well, to begin with, the premier promised more spending. Increased spending in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But when you start spending more than you're making you know fiscal prudence has gone out the window. Over the last five years program expenditures have grown by almost 30% compared to revenue growth at around 18%. This is the kind of behavior that, sooner or later, produces deficits.

Now Premier Klein wants to spend another $1 billion on health and another $750 million on education - 20% and 18% increases respectively. That's way ahead of Alberta's population and inflation growth. More importantly, these massive spending increases have wiped out the possibility of meaningful tax cuts.

This year's "State of the Province" address contained no pledge or promise of any new tax relief. Instead of spending another $1.75 billion, the premier could have used that money to hand every individual taxpayer in the province a $1,250 tax rebate.

The best the provincial government could do, however, was to reduce property taxes by $46.7 million. So Albertans can count on a whole dollar in tax relief for every $37 in new spending. Jean Chretien would be proud.

And the government's desire to put spending before tax cuts doesn't end there. Oh no. Somehow Mr. Klein has managed to find yet another $500 million (perhaps rising to as much as $1 billion) for a new "Alberta Heritage Foundation for Science and Engineering Research (AHFSER)", even though he can't provide us with more than a couple of nickels in tax cuts.

The AHFRSER sounds innocuous enough but like many funding projects it is meant to subsidize the already ongoing research activities of private companies. A research foundation may not look like a special tax credit or a direct business subsidy but it accomplishes the same thing. So there you have it -- the Klein Tories are back in the business of being in business.

How Mr. Klein's "State of the Province" speeches have come to this is anybody's guess. Perhaps Mr. Klein was never really a fiscal conservative at all. Perhaps he's simply tiered of fighting all the special interest groups that perpetually demand more money. Perhaps his cabinet is getting a little too comfortable with power. Whatever the reasons, it's time for Mr. Klein to return to the policies that got him elected in the first place and re-establish a taxpayer-friendly agenda.