Spending hike? No way.

The B.C. deficit still higher than promised.

Back in 2001, the Campbell government promised a 'real' balanced budget law to make deficit budgets illegal. This 'real' law flew out the window at the first sign of trouble. Although the budget deficit for 2009-10 is lower than forecast, it is still a deficit, and that was not the deal. To fulfill its promise, the government must bring the budget back into balance and to do that, it must make real spending reductions.

Deficit spending helped stimulate the province into have-not status during the 1990s and it was spending restraint that helped create a budget surplus in 2004, B.C.'s first since 1990. The economy grew and citizens prospered, but that fiscal responsibility didn't last.

B.C. government spending started to ramp up in 2005 as that dreaded second-term spending disease infected politicians looking to buy their way to re-election. Spending hovered at about $30 billion between 2001 and 2004 then soared to $39.3 billion in 2009, a 31 per cent increase. True, a few tax dollars have shifted lately out of some entitlement programs, but they've just added to the growing number of tax dollars still flowing into other programs. If we care about the well-being of our children and grandchildren and want to leave them with something other than a legacy of debt and higher taxes, we need to turn the direction of government spending around.

When Premier Gordon Campbell said, "I hate budget deficits, I think they take away from future generations," he was right. The government must regain the fiscal prudence it preached in 2001 – the one that helped them sweep into office with 77 seats. Unless the government gets a handle on spending, the deficit, debt and taxes will inevitably rise – and that, Mr. Premier, is fiscal child abuse.