A sampling of the local media’s reaction to the new provincial budget announced Tuesday, February 2nd by Liberal Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

We traverse the spectrum of quality and perspective:

The Georgia Straight

The Straight offers up a spate of editorial coverage, covering the gamut from critical to outraged:

The new B.C. Liberal budget is another step in the wrong direction for this government, in a series of wrong steps dating back to 2001.

Zing!

A sampling of the opinions on offer:

• Marc Lee: B.C. budget offers inaction on climate change
• Dean Skoreyko: A budget that benefits nobody but the B.C. Liberals
• Bruce Ralston: B.C. Liberal budget fails to offer real economic plan
• Ujjal Dosanjh: Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s deficit of hope
• Jane Sterk: B.C. Liberal budget takes us back to the future in 2010

The Tyee: ‘Hangover Budget’ Pleases Few

Another decidedly cynical reception, leading off with a quote from opposition leader Carole James, and moving quickly to the shedding of 4,000 jobs from government.

“I didn’t see the government come forward with a strategy around jobs, a strategy around investing in people, putting resources that we need to in research and development, in post-secondary education in making sure we’re providing for the people who are going to help us get through this economic recovery.”

Isolating the section headings provides a high-level picture of how the Tyee feels:

• Revenues down, spending up
• Many missed opportunitues
• Environmental contradictions
• Not enough for health, education
• Cuts to resource ministries

The Vancouver Sun: B.C. budget keeps tight lid on all spending except health and education

The Sun chooses to focus on the return to a balanced budget, not straying from the words of Finance Minister Colin Hansen, and others who proclaim the budget ‘prudent’, until half-way through the piece. Still, criticism is measured, and mention of spending cuts and layoffs are made only after those detailing the increased spending on health care and education.

“Unlike other provinces that, in these past few months have seen their budget deficits increase significantly, we have approached the development of this budget with the determination that we are going to get this province back out of the red ink at the earliest opportunity,” Hansen said Tuesday.

The day after the budget was released, the Sun’s legacy print publication ran a similar article, titled: ”PRUDENT’ B.C. BUDGET BOOSTS SPENDING, DEBT’

Metro News: Budget Unveiled

Metro news lead with their budget story March 3rd, focused entirely on cuts to the public sector. Information is at a premium: pictures, titles, and block quotes account for over half of the real-estate reserved for the piece.

The province will cut roughly 3,500 full-time jobs, reducing its public service down to 27,700 in 2012/13, from its current level of 31,300.

The Province: The 2010 B.C. budget in pictures

Every person’s income taxes will be reduced by about $80. The basic personal exemption is being increased by $1,627 to $11,000.

The Province provided us an alternative view of the latest provincial budget, summed up in 11 pictures and 243 words.

Anyone doing a round-up on my round-up might point out that they had several other articles on the topic, but they were limited to bullet points or narrowly-focused editorials.

Decide for yourself:

• Budget 2010: The full details
• Use our Olympic brainpower to balance provincial budget
• BC gov’t shouldn’t be tax sneaks
• BC poised to perform better

CBC: B.C. budget offers few surprises

B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen unveiled his post-Olympic budget in the legislature on Tuesday in Victoria, and there were few surprises in the economic blueprint intended to pull B.C. out of the recession.

For the most comprehensive and balanced coverage, we have to step outside of the local media and look to the CBC, who presents a fact-based comparative of the changes year over year along with a diverse sampling of expert opinion.