Bermuda Democratic Alliance accused Government of failing to follow its own advice on prudence — and hampering poor families' ability to buy essential household goods.

Delivering the BDA's Budget response yesterday, MP Shawn Crockwell told the House of Assembly Government had wasted the people's money over the past five years instead of preparing properly for the recession.

"While we needed a Budget which would be stimulus in nature to help breathe new life into our economy, the policies and plans laid out for us do the exact opposite," said Mr. Crockwell.

"This Budget does not encourage hiring, it does not encourage productivity and growth and it does not encourage development in the international business sector.

"In these economic times, we should all be decreasing expenses. However, the Government, who has been encouraging the people of Bermuda to be prudent, is not following its own advice. Spending in this Budget has increased overall and our capacity to borrow and thereby increase our already large debt has increased as well.

"Perhaps the most alarming consideration in this regard is that not only is the Government not now in the midst of an economic crisis reining in its spending, even more importantly, the Government did not heed the warning signs and cut spending several years ago which could have minimised the damage we are enduring now."

Mr. Crockwell attacked Finance Minister Paula Cox's statement that a payroll tax increase from 14 percent to 16 percent only boils down to $1 per every $100 in each individual's salary.

He said: "Using Minister Cox's mathematical analogy and taking it to the next step, it is easy to see that an individual earning $50,000 per year will then be paying $500 more to the Government each year.

"Think of all of the things that individual could use that sum of money for: that could pay for a month's groceries for a family or cover more than a month of a household's electricity bills. For the Minister to, in this economic climate, make light of that sum of money and what it could mean to the Bermudian family just goes to show how very out of touch this Government is with its people.

"It is clear that this policy will harm Bermuda's people, particularly its most vulnerable, those in lower income families who are already struggling. This is where the Government is out of touch.

"The questions that we have to ask ourselves is: where are these funds going? How are they being used? We do not believe that the people of Bermuda can have confidence that those additional funds which they will have to pay to the Government will be spent prudently, wisely and with the best interests of those same people in mind.

"The Government does not seem to understand how to manage our debt but instead seems to be relying on its people to make up the shortfall."

He said Government's way of overspending appears to be "to continue to overspend".

"If raising taxes was unavoidable at least the Government could have shown discipline and restraint and decreased its spending," said the lawyer.

He added that the impact of the payroll tax would cause businesses to think twice about taking on new staff, which is a blow to the growing number of unemployed on the Island.

And on rising public debt, Mr. Crockwell said: "Government is increasing its ability to borrow and not providing its people with an explanation of how it will deal with this debt in the future, especially when we can expect interest rates on our borrowing to increase as the economy begins to rebound.

"We wanted to see a Budget where the Government took responsibility for its past mismanagement and not increase the burden on the people.

"The Government should have done better and needs to do better."