Bracks Watch

REVEALED: How Bracks' Treasurer Brumby massages the numbers to hide up to two thirds of his taxation splurge.

Bracks' Treasurer Brumby is using accounting trickery to hide the real magnitude of his tax increases on Victorian families and businesses.

Read the table above, which is from the Bracks Treasurer Brumby's latest State Budget and you would get the impression that Brumby is going to all lengths to keep our taxes low - after all, taxes are up only 1.9% according to the helpfully provided calculation in the right column, despite total revenue increasing by 4%.

Yet this analysis is deceptive, as Brumby is comparing the 2006-07 "Budgeted" figures with the 2005-06 "Revised" figures. The difference is significant. Whereas "Budgeted" figures are what the government planned, the "Revised" ones are what they actually did. In 2005-06, for instance, the Bracks government took 4.5% more tax than it had "budgeted" to. So when Brumby "budgets" to increase taxes by another 1.9%, the real increase, year-on-year, works out to 6.1% - significantly less responsible than Brumby would like to appear. Even worse, that's only the "Budget", who knows what "Revisions" Bracks' bag man has in store for us this year as well.

Labels: Treasury

posted by Anonymous @ 9:01 PM