IT'S not that hard to be a finance minister.
In between assignments on a busy day writing for the North Shore News, I took half an hour to fiddle with the My B.C. Budget calculator on the provincial government's website and had balanced the budget before my coffee was cold.
The tool is designed to give provincial residents a chance to try erasing the province's deficit - currently estimated to be $458 million.
The simulator has much in common with another more detailed version created by the L.A. Times for California, and allows participants to send their choices into the finance ministry as a form of public consultation.
The easiest method of balancing the budget is cutting health and education by two per cent each, which would save $450 million and leave just $8.6 million in trimmings around the edges.
That might not be popular, however, so can those funds be retained?
Increase the funds raised by taxes by two per cent across the board, from corporate and personal income tax right down to Medical Service Plan premiums, and you'll be left with just a $460,000 deficit.
That difference could be made up by cutting the salaries of MLAs and the premier, but strangely enough that option isn't available.
You can also choose a combination of cuts and taxes, and even increase budgets for certain departments or lower taxes, though that won't help the province fix the books.
Dab on some extra taxes and trim a few budgets and the books can be balanced without touching health or education, as per the provincial government's goal, but expect to pay a bit more. In this case, we wound up with a nearly $14 million surplus, and a lingering question as to what the finance minister's job entails for the other 364 days a year.
Try it for yourself at www. gov.bc.ca/mybcbudget.
