TORONTO--The first budget of the government elected to repair damage created by eight years of Harris/Eves cuts falls far short of what is needed to adequately respond to Ontario's public service crisis.
According to an analysis of the 2004 Ontario budget from the Ontario Alternative Budget Working Group, rather than rebuild Ontario's revenue system to support real public services renewal, the Liberals chose to impose a surtax on middle income earners in the form of an OHIP premium--the single most regressive change in the personal income tax system they could made.