The new B.C. budget isn't balanced in the conventional sense, what with the projected $968 million in spending over revenues through the coming fiscal year.

But it's still a tense balancing act in terms of watching Finance Minister Kevin Falcon walk the high wire while waiting for an economic rebound. His budget giveth modestly - to selected groups like parents, seniors and veterans. And his budget taketh away - from everybody who pays Medical Service Plan premiums, starting next year.

Parents will get a tax break that helps cover the cost of putting kids in sport and art programs. Seniors will get a break on certain home repairs. First-time buyers of brand new homes - a thin sliver of the market - will get a bonus of up to $10,000.

On the other hand, the hot button of MSP premiums is being pushed again, starting next year when they will go up four per cent.

That's about the extent of direct street impacts on individuals. When it comes to sectors and interest groups, the B.C. Liberals traipsed randomly through the province, trying to save as much money as they can while offending as few people as possible.

Holding the line was defined Tuesday as keeping spending growth to just two per cent over the next few years. In schools, that amounts to an obvious cut. But the teachers' contract dispute provides some cover. The stalemate is as good a chance to curb spending while the government readies legislation to impose a contract with zero wage hikes.

Advanced education is being "challenged" to cut operating costs by one per cent.

The health ministry got a bigger increase, as usual, but the government claimed a victory there in "bending the cost curb" down slightly.

The seven per cent annual cost increases in years gone by are a thing of the past. The plan for the next three years is to hold the growth to three per cent. That will prompt some pitched battles over the next year, which the government will lose. But there will be a bit less blood on the floor than usual.

The goal is to get through the next year with fingers crossed and come back in a year with the billion-dollar hole filled. Then they'll hand out a new budget balanced in time for the election, which at that point will be three months away.

The clearest indication of how thin the margins are on this plan is the real-estate sale announced in the budget. Unwanted government properties - and entities like the liquor distribution branch - are going to be put on the market or privatized, in an effort to make a fast $700 million.

It hearkens back to the last Social Credit government, which tried something similar in the 1980s. Old Socreds would tell them it's a lot harder than it sounds.

Another indicator is the notice served on the business world that they should stand by for a tax hike, if the government feels squeezed.

The idea is that a "temporary" onepoint hike in the general income tax rate will kick into gear in 2014, if the fiscal situation worsens. That idea will be revisited next year, which will give the Liberals a chance to cancel a tax hike before they've even imposed it.

Nonetheless, it marks a shift in the Liberal-NDP argument. Liberals have scorned the tax increases planned by the NDP. Now they're talking about taking a baby step in the same direction.

Just So You Know: Another tax that will be on the block for the next year is the carbon tax. It will increase this summer again, adding a few cents to the per-litre cost of gas. But it is being reviewed to see where it goes from there. The emphasis will be on competitiveness of businesses - particularly food growers - given that no one followed suit after B.C. took the lead four years ago.

The options are to give up on it, keep increasing it to make it effective or freeze it at the current rate, which is considered fairly minimal. The latest report on its revenue neutrality shows people are still coming out ahead - the tax cuts that correspond to the carbon tax hikes are worth more, so it's a net benefit.

Paradoxically, that would make axing the tax an exercise in increasing taxation.

lleyne@timescolonist.com