British Columbians don't buy balanced budget promise
Most British Columbians don’t believe the provincial government’s claim that the budget will be balanced in 2013, according to an Ipsos Reid poll.
Twelve per cent of those polled said they believed the budget would be balanced, while 72 per cent said they didn’t believe the B.C. Liberal government’s balanced budget promise.
A handful of changes announced in the budget tabled on Tuesday garnered significant support, according to the poll.
Eight-five per cent of respondents support the $2 tax increase on a carton of cigarettes, 84 per cent like the two-year personal income tax increase for those earning more than $150,000 and 78 per cent said they agreed with increasing corporate tax rates to 11 per cent.
Twenty four per cent of respondents said the budget would make them less likely to vote for the Liberals in the upcoming May election, while 13 per cent said it would make them more likely to vote for Premier Christy Clark.
However, 40 per cent of respondents said they believed the province’s financial situation would be worse if NDP Leader Adrian Dix had been running the province over the last few years. Twenty four per cent thought the situation would have been better under Dix’s leadership, and just five per cent thought finances would have been "much better" if the NDP had been running the province.
The poll of 1,200 British Columbians who said they had read, seen or heard something about the budget was conducted online between February 20 and 21.
