Finance Ministers are in an unenviable position. They tend to get all of the blame when the economy goes wrong and none of the credit when it goes well.

Still, there was a triumphant tone to Finance Minister Eugene Cox's Budget Statement as, on the face of it, he trumped the nay-sayers with a Budget in which there was no need to raise taxes, and more importantly, he could say that Government had actually managed to reduce net public when Government was expecting to add $75 million to borrowing last year.

There are three reasons for this good news. One is that Government revenue was $31.9 million higher than expected 12 months ago as the economy proved to be much stronger than anyone could reasonably have expected. The second is that Government spending did not exceed Government expectations. The third is that is that less money was spent on capital projects than expected and that expenditure will now be carried over to this year.

Mr. Cox now says he expects revenue in the next year to be about the same as this year. That gives him a cushion that means he has not had to raise taxes, a remarkable boon in an election year.

At the same time, he does not have to cut Government spending, meaning there will be no painful debates about reduced services or job losses. If anything, Government spending will now rise quite dramatically.

That is not to say that there is no risk in this strategy or that there will not be pain down the road. In effect, the $75 million that Government expected to borrow last year will now be taken on this year, with an additional $6 million tacked on.

In effect, the pain that could have been inflicted on the Budget has been postponed, although Bermuda will have to pay for this at some point.

In that sense, this is an election budget. There were other approaches that could have been taken.Mr. Cox could have raised so-called "sin taxes" without hurting a recovering economy to any great degree and could then have reduced the tax burden for the overall populace, particularly on Customs Duty.

Alternatively, he could have done more to cap spending, thus reducing Government's likely borrowing needs. To be sure, some expenditure increases are inevitable as civil servants' salaries must rise, and the teachers' arbitration award, which may not have been included in the Budget, will see spending rise. But Government employment continues to rise, with some 5,000 jobs now on the Government payroll and it is shame not to see more discipline in controlling spending.

There are few reasons to carp about this Budget; how can you complain when taxes are not going up? But one does wonder if Mr. Cox is not being overly optimistic that revenue, especially from international business, will be as strong as last year's banner figures, or that the looming war will not cause some reduction in tourism revenues.

Mr. Cox will count himself lucky if next year's revenue figures show the ame kind of increases that this year. Lightning does not always strike twice. At the same time, the pain in this year's Budget has largely been deferred until some time in the future, and there is some risk that the community will look back at 2003 with regret.