Increased taxes or extra borrowing in today's Budget would be bad news for Bermuda, Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons warned last night.

He said: "It's important to realise that the economy is certainly not as strong now as it was a year or two ago.

"The hospitality industry and bed night numbers continue to decline -- and I have a sense the rate of growth of international business is starting to slow.

"I'm very concerned that a precipitous increase in tax on the international business sector would not be a good message.'' Dr. Gibbons said he had no idea what today's Budget would contain, but he added: "Clearly, some of the signals which have been sent over the last year are not particularly reassuring for the community and the business sector as a whole.'' And he cited last year's massive increases in land tax -- after a commitment to no new taxes -- and "a last-minute scramble'' to reduce Government departmental spending by five percent as evidence of bad management: He added: "From the perspective of the Opposition, what we would like to see... is a nicely-balanced Budget which reflects concerns like housing, public safety, the hospitality sector.

"We also want to see deals closed on these new hotel properties opening up and support for retail through tax breaks.'' But Dr. Gibbons insisted: "We would like to see this happen in a very responsible way so we don't have increases in taxes or -- perhaps worse in the long-term -- the debt level.'' He added, however: "That's not the message we have been getting so far...''