Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments about the committee letters. The responses have gone out. They should be available to Members. They went out this morning.
In regard to the recommendations coming out of committee, we’re also scheduled to meet with committee at the rise of the House on Monday to have further discussion about the detail.
I would point out that while we anticipate and are planning for $74 million surplus in 2012-13, the reality is we have debt of about $656 million. The majority of that, while it is self-liquidating, leaves us with about 240 to 260 million dollars of short-term borrowing that we have incurred that we’re trying to manage as we set ourselves up to be able to increase our infrastructure investments in years three and four of this Assembly.
While there was some increase in revenue, there has also been an increase in our costs as a government. There is no free money. We’re trying to practice fiscal discipline. The Member indicates it’s only, in his estimation, $15 million, $16 million. It’s only a fraction of a percent, but it’s all borrowed money. I would once again suggest we don’t want to let the public have any sense that this document is just a Cabinet document, that these main estimates here that we worked on for six months that represents $1.5 billion of government expenditures building off the priorities of the Legislature is a creature only of the Cabinet. The only way we get this is by having that discussion with Members, in agreement with Members about the amount of money and where it is going to be spent. We could always spend more, without a doubt, given the list of needs. We will have the discussion on the feedback and the final requests and recommendations from committee, and I’m sure with the goodwill and good faith of all parties, we’ll come to an agreement as we have done for 17 years that I’ve been here, and I anticipate we’ll continue to do. Thank you.