Ontario out of sync on spending: Liberal budget marks a return to tax and spend while other provinces tighten belts.

(From Financial Post)

In a year in which provinces from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island slashed spending, chopped civil service payrolls and scrimped on everything from child care to road building to wrestle their finances under control, Ontario's 2004-05 budget bucks the national trend in a grand way.

In a return to the old-fashioned tax-and-spend policies many on Bay Street thought long dead, the first budget of Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Party increases program spending by 6.7%, introduces a brand new health-care tax and keeps the province in a $2.2-billion deficit after a $6.2-billion shortfall in 2003-04.

Ontario's rise in program…