Only a minority are impressed by Government?s Budget.

Just one person ? taxi-driver 40 ? felt the 2006/2007 Budget announced by Finance Minister Paula Cox last Friday was a sweetheart.

?I really feel that it is a very fair Budget,? Mr. Fox said on Thursday. ?There is no major increases. It?s a sweetheart Budget. I think they are hoping they will win the next election, so I guess that?s why we got a sweet Budget.?

Twenty-four-year-old musician said the Budget did not help him.

?Sponsorship-wise from the Government or from anybody else is hard,? he said. ?They are always quick to down somebody young and Bermudian, black or white, its not even a racial thing to me. It?s just hard. They give us no help.

?The Budget that the Government always talk about doesn?t help the average man. It is always for themselves. The opinion that the average man gives them, they might take it in or whatever but you don?t see anything come out of it for the average person, for the average Joe, for the average Bermudian. And if anything else, the Budget is helping foreigners more than anyone else!?

Senior corporate administrator said the PLP should have the Budget under control after seven years.

?There needs to be some answers as to why the Budget is as far as it is in debt. And why are they continuing to spend millions? I mean I think the bus station is great but I don?t think it was necessary to have that at this time. That was not a priority at the moment.

?Our priority are the youth and what we can give to our youth, financially through programmes, because our youth are our future and if they are more concerned about restructuring Bermuda it is not going to restructure unless we become more concerned about where the youth is.

?So they need to get themselves together and figure out how they can stop spending so much on projects that are unnecessary.?

Photographer said his first reaction about last Friday?s Budget was that Government was in a holding pattern.

?I am just still concerned about how much we are in debt. That?s my big thing,? Mr. Outerbridge said. ?Basically, the programme with the traffic with the cameras has been totally left out. I do not have too much argument with tourism. Tourism needs all the help it can get as long as we get that real marketing out there and don?t use Hawaiian beaches to advertise Bermuda.?

, 45, a painter, said he liked Government?s plan to streamline the Customs procedure at the Airport by charging a flat rate of 25 percent on items purchased abroad, but a drop in duty on electronics from over 33 percent.

?If you get a TV or a computer they will allow you to come in with that,? Mr. Tucker said. ?But somehow or the other we are going to pay for it. We might win one way but then we have to pay in another way.?