Most ministries and government offices will have to work with less or the same amount of funds that they spent last year, while a huge jump in debt servicing costs and key civil servants – police and teachers – pay have eaten away $12 billion from other areas of government.

The Government tabled the estimates of expenditure for the 2009/2010 fiscal year in Parliament yesterday and revealed a total expenditure package of $548 billion, up from the $508 billion that was estimated to have been spent during the previous fiscal year that ran to March 31, 2009.

Interest payments are expected to run the Government $159 billion, $35 billion higher than the previous year, while debt repayment is expected to cost $150 billion, up $6 billion.

This means that the total debt package increased by $41 billion – already more than the increase in expenditure over last year – and at a total of $309 billion, represents 56 cents out of every dollar the Government plans to spend this year.

The police department has been allocated $24.5 billion in the recurrent budget, which is nearly $3 billion more than was spent in the previous year. Nearly half of the increase is associated with higher compensation to employees which, according to the estimates, will be $18.5 billion during the fiscal year that began April 1.

The allocation for the purchase of goods and services for the police was increased from the $2.3-billion spent last year to nearly $4 billion.

The increase in police compensation would represent an eight per cent hike in salaries, but it pales in comparison to the 18 per cent increase in teachers’ salaries alluded to in the budget. Grants for instruction at primary, secondary and all-age schools will total $34 billion this year, or $5.3 billion more than what was spent last year and which reflects a portion of the increase in teachers’ salaries.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a public sector wage freeze and it appears that the current budget reflects constant salaries for most and cuts to other expenses, given that the total increase of $10.8 billion on the police department and the education ministry (including other expenses such as cost of goods and services) and the $41-billion increase in debt service charges, means a $12-billion cut to other areas.

Fifteen of the 22 offices of government do not show an increase in estimated recurrent expenditure over last year.

One big loser is the tourism ministry, which saw $745 million axed from its promotions budget and which will have $2.78 billion to spend this year.

The Government also lowered its allocation to the National Solid Waste Management Authority by $300 million.

Yesterday, in his Throne Speech, Governor General Dr Patrick Allen spoke to plans to make a number of Government regulatory agencies and others engaged in commercial activities self-financing and taken off the national budget.

Alluding to this was the near $200-million that was taken off last year’s budget for post and telecommunication for utility services and expenditure on goods and services.

Even within the prime minister’s corporate offices the budget for human resource management was lowered from last year’s figure by $70 million. Interestingly, the office of the leader of the opposition will also see its budget cut by more than half, from $33 million to $14 million.

The total non-debt capital expenditure is budgeted to be $2 billion lower than the year before, or $34 billion.

With the Northern Jamaica Coastal Highway being 88 per cent complete, and with hurricane repairs slowing down, road infrastructure projects have been cut by nearly $3 billion. However, the Office of the Prime Minister’s (OPM’s) budget for area development projects, including the construction of sports facilities across the island, has been upped by $1 billion.

The OPM also tacked over $1 billion to its capital spending to accommodate technical and vocational training.