Tynwald voted overwhelmingly in support of the Budget following a debate lasting some five and a half hours.
Leonard Singer (Ramsey) said: ‘To the general public maybe this Budget looks bland. But that is not a criticism. No one is being particularly hit hard by any changes.’
He said lessons had to be learned about what had gone wrong during the four years of this administration including ‘non-delivery, lack of cohesiveness and policy change on the hoof, followed by enough U-turns to make us dizzy’.
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Budget coverage on iomtoday:
BUDGET 2015: We’ve balanced the books, says Minister
Eddie Teare’s Budget speech in full
Rebalancing a ‘myth’ says Cannan
Read Manx Budget Special online
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Mr Singer said the biggest disappointment had been the performance of the Cabinet Office which he said ‘seems to be floating in Never Never Land’. There was stinging criticism from Michael MHK Alfred Cannan at the £281m of reserves that have been used to shore up government spending.
He said: ‘Rebalancing is a myth – how can we be rebalanced if we are projecting diminishing reserves of £77m in the next financial year?
‘I am angry to continue to listen to messages of rebalancing that have been dispatched to the public.
‘It is misleading, it is untruthful, it is unhelpful, and it is going to land the government and the island in severe economic trouble.’
It was theme taken up by Liberal Vannin leader Kate Beecroft (Douglas South) who argued we were living beyond our means by at least £77m. But she argued an extra £60m needed to be added to cover future liabilities on public sector pensions.
Mrs Beecroft said she vehemently disagreed with the tax cap, which she claimed has not worked.
And she said she felt uncomfortable supporting a budget with little or no information on two capital projects shown in the Budget Pink Book – a new IT system for General Registry costing £2.05m and £3.4m for a combined cycle gas turbine at the power station.
She said: ‘There is over £31m worth of capital expenditure we are agreeing to, without any debate, if we vote for this Budget.’
Fellow Lib Van MHK Peter Karran (Onchan) said once again, this was a Budget ‘written by the few, for the few to have the freedom to flourish for the few to fleece the rest of the taxpayers who live in dismay at the incompetence of this administration.’
Treasury member Phil Braidwood, responding to criticisms about the level of reserves drawn down, quoted Mark Twain’s line about ‘lies, damned lies and statistics.’ He accepted there had been a significant reduction in reserves. ‘Internal reserves have gone down but we’ve not tried to hide anything.’
Health and Social Care Minister Howard Quayle said with his department now running the new shared government catering service, the cafe at the NSC turned round a loss of £150,000 and was now breaking even.
Tynwald voted 28 votes to three to support the Budget, with Mrs Beecroft and Mr Karran, and Douglas East MHK Brenda Cannell voting against.