Will take time to determine if the budget was good or bad

No matter what the experts might tell you, budgets are not easy documents to figure out.

That is especially the case when it comes to the budget documents prepared by governments, such as the one provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan unveiled for us last week.

Even people with a knack for crunching numbers can get easily bogged down with the vast array of figures being presented, along with sometimes confusing and occasionally contradictory justifications for them.

Thus we are at something of a loss to determine if last week's budget will be good or bad for Ontario.

Harmonizing the provincial and federal sales taxes might make things easier for businesses, but it's almost certainly going to mean the prices of certain items are going to increase — in effect a tax hike; another tax increase from a government led by a man who promised he would never raise our taxes. But that was from another mandate, wasn't it?

One the other hand, a household with a combined income of less than $160,000 can look forward to government installments in 2010, totalling $1,000. Good conservative economic theory states that when you put money into the hands of consumers, they tend to spend it, thus boosting the economy. Besides, how many households out there couldn't use an extra grand?

And the plan to spend $32.5 billion on infrastructure spending over the next two years has got to benefit the provincial economy.

There is a considerable amount of good news in this budget. But one of the big problems is it's going to be hard to pay for. That means deficits, on the order of $14.3 billion in the first year, and $56.8 billion over the next seven years.

As we have stated many times in this spot, there are certain economic realities that have to be faced, and the fact that government is probably obliged to run a deficit during a time of recession is one of them. deficit drives us into public debt, that eventually is going to have to be paid off, usually at taxpayers' expense. That should be raising a few alarm flags among we members of the taxpaying public. Granted, these debts are a little easier to deal with when the economy is in good shape, but it's still going to be a bill that we all have to face at some point.

Another $56.8 billion in public debt over seven years. Is that a necessary evil, or is it an extravagance?

The problem is we might have to wait several years before we know for sure.