Saskatchewan claims a $182-million ‘operating surplus,’ even as it collected $1.3 billion in revenue — mostly from taxes — more than it expected in its budget.
A decade ago, the Saskatchewan Party government changed the way it reported budgets to better reflect the province’s finances and be more transparent.
In simpler terms, you could no longer hide major financial trouble elsewhere in the provincial realm, such as Crown corporations, by focusing solely on the operating side.
It marked a bold and honourable move by a government that was so popular at the time that it need not have made such a critical change. That’s especially true since NDP governments prior to 2007 had balanced the budget for 14 straight years using the previous method after inheriting a financial mess.
But the provincial auditor convinced the Wall government the summary approach was more honest.
This sort of dodgy terminology, particularly from a party that once pledged to end fiscal chicanery, regardless of the political consequences, will be disappointing for some and feel like an outright betrayal for others.
But adding to debt to post a surplus brings greater consequences in our current era of high interest rates.
For the previous year, despite a whopping $1.58-billion operating surplus, the province registered a $1.6-billion accumulated deficit.
This appears to be the more accurate financial snapshot the province committed to a decade ago.
But if you want to believe in the province’s surplus fairy tale, give yourself and your neighbours a pat on the back — you paid for it. Premier Scott Moe’s government is benefitting from a $1.32-billion increase in revenue over what was budgeted due to “significant increases in taxation.”
Taxation revenue in the last budget skyrocketed to $10.65 billion, an increase of 8.6 per cent over the previous year and a whopping 10.6 per cent jump over budget.
If you consider that the province collected more than $1 billion in revenue than it expected in its last budget, you’re actually left wondering why that highly suspect surplus is not much larger.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here