The folly of balanced budget legislation

In a column in The Tyee, former BC Socred cabinet minister Will McMartin reviews the ups and downs of BC’s three strikes at balanced budget legislation. Each time this legislation has been repealed, although when the latest BC legislation is “amended” next week it will mark the first time this has been done by the same government and premier that brought it in.

Basically, balanced budget legislation is a gimmick that works during good times, when revenues are robust, but fails the moment a recession rears its head. The unseemly alternative is tax increases or spending cuts precisely when they would be least welcome.

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