The ever growing surplus

The surplus is getting so large that Cullen has ordered the Treasury to stop mentioning it in their monthly PRs, and they have tried it hide it in the crown financial accounts by sliding it down the page.

For seven months it is now at $5.3 billion. If linear (and it won’t be), then the surplus for the year could be as high as $9.1 billion. That is a surplus of over $6,000 per family, over $100 a week in over taxation. Take away the contribution to the Super Fund and one still has over $4,500 per family of over taxing.

Labour refuse to say at what level of surplus they would lower taxes. They said $3 billion is not enough, $4 billion is not enough, $5 billion is not enough. They won’t even come out and say okay at $10 billion, then we could afford to lower taxes. It’s like an alcoholic trying to have just one last drink.

The budget this year will almost be obscene with spending promises in a desperate attempt to lower the surplus. The spending of course will sound noble and good, but much of it will be very low quality such as we have seen in the tertiary sector.

A good article on Stuff also.