At the end of her Budget Statement, Premier Paula Cox turned a statement of John F Kennedy’s around when she quoted him saying that the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.“What he didn’t say was that if you wait too long for it to stop raining, a leaky roof will be the least of your problems,” she added.What seems to have escaped Ms Cox is that if she had fixed Bermuda’s economic roof as to stretch the metaphor to its limit the economic clouds were darkening two years ago, she would not have to be clinging on to the roof to fix them now. Still, Ms Cox is now trying to fix it. And she seems to have delivered on one promise (although the proof will come at the end of the financial year) and has also shown that she has listened.She said she would find $150 million in cuts in the Budget, and she did, so give her credit for that. And she was urged to roll back last year’s job-killing increases in payroll tax and she has. She also said a good deal about the need to create jobs, and to get the economy going again, showing that the Government is finally recognising the scale of the Island’s economic problems. And she has trimmed a good deal of the bloated Government consultants’ payroll, which will be welcomed by most.Nonetheless, Ms Cox is taking some risks, and it is not clear that she has fixed the real problems facing the economy. She explained, for the first time, that payroll tax had to be hiked last year to afford Government’s expenditure plans. Not doing so, would have cost Bermuda internationally. But the simpler expedient would have been to have spent less last year. This was an expensive mistake, and the rollback should be seen as an admission of that.Ms Cox also talked a good deal about job creation and creating opportunities for young people. It is hard to disagree with that, although the details are scanty. And care needs to be taken not to create “any job”, but the right kinds of jobs. Although it is impossible to argue with the idea of reducing the cost of Government, and no one wants to see anyone out of work, this newspaper is not certain that all of the spending cuts will be realised, while some are also unwise.Cuts in other social programmes and grants may also fail, or leave people in real need without financial support. Some programmes, like financial aid are to be cut on the assumption that fraud will be detected and stopped. That would be welcome, but what happens if more people seek assistance, as seems likely?Government also hopes to realise a reduction in personnel expenses of some $23 million when the number of public service jobs held is projected to rise marginally. Ms Cox hopes to do it through attrition and limits on overtime, but this is harder than it looks.At the same time, spending cuts in some areas seem unwise. Business Bermuda and the Department of Tourism are both facing cuts at a time when they should be out doing everything they can to generate business for Bermuda.Similarly, the Small Business Development Corporation, the one organisation tasked with incubating new businesses, is having its budget slashed to almost nothing.This is shortsighted and unwise.Ms Cox’s main gamble is that the roll back in payroll tax will act as a stimulus for the economy by putting around $50 million back in the hands of employers and employees. The hope, then, is that the employers will hire and the employees will spend or invest their money in Bermuda.That may be so, but it may not be enough.More worrying is that the tax cut is essentially being funded by borrowing (and Ms Cox will only avoid breaching the statutory debt ceilings by changing the rules governing it). If the economy does not respond, Government’s debt, which will now cost $70 million a year to service, will grow further, and burden the Island’s ability to operate.It is to be hoped that this is not the case, and that the economy will start to recover, but even Ms Cox does not expect that to happen for another nine months, and historically she has been among the optimists.