Paige MacPherson is the Atlantic director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. (Submitted)
Taxpayers should be pleased with the new 2019/2020 provincial budget tabled in the legislative today.
Not only are there no tax hikes, but the province is reducing its debt for the first time in 13 years.
Paige MacPherson, Atlantic Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is praising the New Brunswick government for presenting a very balanced budget.
“This is a good news budget for taxpayers. We’re finally seeing a genuine balanced budget with actual debt reduction, which is more than a decade overdue in New Brunswick,” she said in an interview.
MacPherson says the debt is going down for two reasons.
“The government is relying on revenue projections that are going to be going up, also relying on transfers from Ottawa, But they’ve reduced spending in some areas, however spending is increasing overall,” she said.
This is part of what makes the budget balanced, but MacPherson says she is being “cautiously optimistic” for now.
“The province is heading toward a fiscal cliff, and the government has not given themselves much wiggle room. we don’t want a gust of wind to be able to knock us back into deficits.”
Budget contained no tax hikes but no broad-based tax cuts. Taxpayers in New Brunswick need tax relief today. It’s necessity – can’t just be a future consideration. We hope to see the government speed up its tax cut timeline. #nbpoli
— Paige T. MacPherson (@paigemacp) March 19, 2019
She says overall spending is still increasing, and while there were no tax hikes, she points out there were no cuts either.
MacPherson says tax cuts are crucial to increasing job growth in the province.
