Finance Minister Eugene Cox has described yesterday's Budget Statement as a "sweetheart Budget" and at first glance there is good reason to do so.

Most taxes - everyone's first concern - are not going up, and in some cases, are being cut, and rightly so. Restaurants are getting some relief on renovation projects and the payroll tax relief given to tourism-related businesses is being extended. That is good news for these sectors, that are still struggling to recover from September 11.

The only tax increase that will affect the man on the street is on Government fees for items ranging from driving licences to work permits, and these increases are only by rising by five percent and were not increased at all last year.

For smokers, drinkers and car buyers, there are no increases, which is somewhat surprising given that these are reasonably easy targets for revenue raising. But they took a significant hit last year, so the "sinners" can rest easy.

Having said that, it is impossible not to view this Budget, the Progressive Labour Party's fourth, without some disquiet.

If taxes are not going up, spending, both for current account spending and capital projects is, in some cases quite dramatically.

While many of the spending items, taken on a case by case basis, have merit, taken together they mean that Government spending is up significantly, as is Government hiring.

While some of the increases are inevitable - if some people are struggling, that will mean increased demand for social services - there seems to have been little restraint in other areas and the one area where a spending increase might have been expected - tourism - has gone down, suggesting this Government has given up on the Ministry.

The net result is a current account Budget surplus of $37.4 million , compared to $45.5 million last year which was down from an estimated $55.8 million.

What is worrying about this is that the smaller the current account surplus, the more money Government has to borrow for capital projects and that is exactly what has happened this year as borrowing has ballooned from $160 million last year to $235 million this year - an increase of almost 50 percent.

Mercifully, interest rates are low, so that the amount of interest to be paid this year is virtually the same as last year. But interest rates go up as well as down, and the Island may find itself in a difficult position in the years to come.

Equally, no new taxes this year may well mean plenty of new new taxes next year, because that is the way of the world. You always have to pay the piper in the end.

It has been suggested that this is an Election Budget and it could well be that the Government wish to pass a kind Budget, push the changes to the electoral boundaries through and call an election by the end of the year.

If that is true, the voters should remember that there is no time like the first year of a government's new term to really sock it to the voters in the hope they will have forgotten by the time the next election comes around.