Observations on the 2017 Election campaign thus far… (wha)
The 2017 Pre-Election Fiscal Update (PREFU) revealed that the Nats had achieved a respectable $3.7 billion surplus – contrasting sharply with the $1.6 billion forecasted surplus in the May 2017 Budget. How did National achieve such a remarkable feat, despite reduced revenue from tax cuts in 2009 and 2010 and the re-build after the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes?. One doesn’t have to search far to find one possible answer where cuts were made to achieve their much-vaunted surplus;