Finance Minister and Deputy Premier Paula Cox faced a tough month after delivering the $1.2 billion Budget at the end of February.Especially contentious was the proposed Payroll Tax Amendment Act. Raising the tax from 14 to 16 percent and boosting the salary cap to $750,000 was an unpopular measure with many business leaders and politicians. It eventually passed at the House of Assembly with full support from Government MPs.Ms Cox took flak from business leaders at the start of the month in a question-and-answer session at the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce Power Breakfast, in which she defended the tax hike as the best source of revenue for Government.Asked by Butterfield & Vallis president Jim Butterfield how the increase could be justified, Ms Cox called payroll tax “the area where you can find some revenue and not be extortionate”.Ms Cox was hounded again for her by then infamous “cog in the wheel” remark, but defended herself as “just one of the team”.Bermuda Public Service Union president Armell Thomas subsequently declared: “The BPSU finds it hard to swallow the two percent payroll tax increase proposed in the 2010/2011 Budget” and said it appeared Government wasn’t “tightening their belts” like everyone else.A week after the Budget, Ms Cox was on the defensive against critics in her own party who said her performance as Finance Minister made her complicit in expenditures linked to Premier Ewart Brown.On March 8, the Payroll Tax Rates Amendment Act passed in the House of Assembly.Ms Cox told the House: “Government has tried to be balanced and fair, taking into consideration the situation that we must face as our economy transitions to a path to economic recovery.”She added: “There is no question that the demand for Government services is increasing and the proposed change in the cap will assist in providing the additional revenue that is required to satisfy the expanding public needs of our community.”But the naysayers didn’t go down without a fight.The Association of Bermuda International Companies chair David Ezekiel then criticised the payroll tax change as “not good for Bermuda business, and therefore in the long run not good for job creation or retention on the Island”.The threat to international business was a refrain in headlines throughout the month. The Bermuda Employers’ Council was the next to denounce increased taxes but Ms Cox said there was “nothing unique” about the criticism of the Budget and said common sense would prevail.Later in the month, with the international business industry still simmering over the payroll tax, Government backbencher Terry Lister was rumoured to be a credible alternative to Ms Cox as successor to the outgoing Dr Brown in part because of his background in accounting.At that point, neither politician was confirming their interest in taking the leadership of Bermuda.