The 2007 provincial budget will help seniors, families and help keep young people in the province, said provincial Finance minister Andrew Thomson on Thursday, while the opposition Saskatchewan Party criticized the government for "reckless spending" that will add to the province's debt and drawn down the province's "rainy-day" fund.

Some of the measures in the budget including establishing the new Seniors' Drug Plan, under which the most any senior will pay for a drug prescription is $15, to take effect on July 1; and allowing income splitting for seniors.

For young people, there will be a graduate tax exemption to enable university and college graduates to earn their first $20,000 a year tax-free for five years. University tuition fees will continue to be frozen again for the third year in a row.

Health care is getting a total of $3.45 billion, with funds to also shorten wait times and increase the number of diagnostic procedures and surgeries.

Business tax cuts were introduced, including eliminating the corporate capital tax by July 2008, and cutting the corporate income tax to 12 per cent by July 2008. In addition, for property owners, the education tax will be cut from eight to 10 per cent, subject to the passage of the federal budget.

"We're concerned about Saskatchewan being an attractive place for young people, so we've increased training spaces in a significant way. For those who graduate from university, there is a strong financial incentive to stay here to work," said Government Relations minister Harry Van Mulligen, adding that the government has also invested heavily in highways and infrastructure with a 10-year $5 billion program, "which is very significant. It provides those in the industry involved in road-building some stability, so they can better respond to the construction needs that are available."

Van Mulligen noted that his department helped put together the other roads program known as the primary weight corridor program, for which $5 million has been allocated to help municipalities build up thin-membrane roads to be able to carry primary weights.

"We are very excited about this initiative," he said.

Taking the opposite view, Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Dustin Duncan said of the budget, "Overall it's quite concerning the way this government is recklessly spending," he said. "They're going to increase the debt the rainy-day fund has almost been spent and we're in an economic boom. It's quite shocking how they're spending money."

In the area of health care, he said it's concerning that for recruitment and retention the government will take 20 years to fill the vacancies that are needing to be filled at the rate that's funded in the budget.

"One area that's been neglected is a lack of a plan to ensure we have enough health care professionals in this province. There is a lack of a recruitment and retention plan in this budget, with 500 RN vacancies and close to 500 nurses eligible to retire. It's going to take 20 years just to fill this year's needs," said the MLA.

For highways, Duncan said when that $5 billion is broken down with $430 million to be used this year alone, the rate of inflation over the next decade will eat at the amounts remaining so by the eighth, ninth and tenth years there will be very little left to spend.

In the area of agriculture, the MLA said the province is fully funding CAIS, but this was a commitment already made, while the Ag and Food department will actually be getting $70 million less than last year. Moreover, he added, the drought-stricken farmers in southern Saskatchewan did not receive anything in the budget. Many of the farmers are in the southwest, but there are some in the Weyburn-Big Muddy riding who were also hit by drought last year.

Asked why the budget had nothing for these farmers, Van Mulligen said the farmers were asking for a per-acre payment that was given to farmers in the northeast where two million acres were flooded and they were unable to seed any crops. In the south, they were able to seed, but the drought then hit them, "and they do have access to program that were not accessible to those in the northeast."

In spite of this assertion, the minister said the province is in discussion with the federal government, "to see if there are ways as to how we might better respond to the drought conditions."

For the City of Weyburn, Mayor Debra Button attended the budget presentation at the Legislature, and admitted she came away from it very disappointed.

Rather than the $60 million that the city mayors' caucus was asking for, the province came back with $30 million for all municipalities, and this is to be split with the rural municipalities.

"It's certainly not what we were looking for. The analogy is like asking a friend to pick you up at the airport, and the friend comes to get you with a unicycle," said Mayor Button, adding the "Building Communities" infrastructure program would be at best "a gamble" for Weyburn.

"I don't want to begrudge any city, but it should be the same for everyone," she said.

There will be an increase in revenue-sharing monies, she said, so she won't look a gift horse in the mouth, but at the same time it's far, far short of what the city needs.

"The city mayors' caucus met with them, but I guess we didn't really make an impact on them," said the mayor.

The city mayors are meeting in Moose Jaw later this week to talk about how the monies are divided up between the cities.

For rural municipalities, meanwhile, SARM noted the budget increased revenue sharing to them by 31 per cent, and there is $5 million committed for the primary weight corridor program.

"SARM is disappointed the budget did not include immediate relief for producers affected by weather-related disasters. While we acknowledge the province's commitment to fund 10 per cent of disaster payments and are committed to working with both the federal and provincial governments towards a long-term disaster relief program, there is a pressing need to address current disaster situations," said SARM president David Marit.

As for the education tax rebate, the increase from eight to 10 per cent was welcome news. "SARM will be monitoring the rebate on agricultural land to ensure the premier's promise of 60/40 (provincial/local) funding is maintained," said Marit, adding that SARM is disappointed there is nothing in the budget to address the issue of proposed rural school closures.