There’s a woman who’s over 90 with a razor-sharp memory and lightning quick wit who grew up in Southern Manitoba. When the Depression hit, her family was fine. Their farm was productive and paid off. But then the neighbours began demanding and pleading that her father co-sign loans to save their farms. He did and they defaulted. The years he spent working off debts he co-signed nearly killed him.

Greg Selinger’s 2015-16 budget runs a deficit of $422 million. Manitoba has a $36 billion mountain of debt. Every man, woman and child in Manitoba owes nearly $28,000 as their share of that debt. The interest alone costs Manitobans $650 per person.

This mountain of debt is not like the mortgages many of us hold. It is an unlimited and unsecured line of credit. We are merely co-signers.

Even worse, our children and grandchildren are forced to co-sign even if they are only able write with Crayons. While credit card companies won’t even take applications from people too young to vote, government debt is much less discriminating.

The budget just released by the Selinger government is likely the last opportunity to compare words and actions before the next election. This is our chance to assess credit worthiness. Given our role as co-signers, we have to take this assessment seriously.

It’s worth considering the government‘s attempt to address the province’s financial problems. The PST hike delivered $286 million in extra revenue. A lot of that money got washed out of infrastructure budgets and into general government spending. The PST tax hike doesn’t even cover a third of the $842 million the province loses to debt servicing costs every year.

Revenues are about $15 billion. Expenses are about $15.5 billion. The Manitoba government does not have a revenue problem. The government has an out-of-control spending addiction.

Surely the province could recognize its spending problem and at least make some token cuts to obvious waste. Unbelievably, the budget failed to feign even the slightest interest in reining in spending. Apparently, absolutely every dollar the province spends is utterly indispensable and cannot be cut.

Manitoba families, on the other hand, have been forced to become budgetary restraint professionals. The PST hike alone costs Manitobans about $220 per person. That means the government has forced every family of four to find almost $1,000 in their household budgets to send the government.

The government has failed to address the deficit, failed to rein in spending and failed to offer tax relief. What is their explanation?

The budget points to falling oil prices. The government complains the province’s welfare cheque from the federal government’s Equalization program is too small. They have even complained that new federal flexibility for retirement savings will mean the province can’t take as many tax dollars from seniors. The fault is with the markets, the feds and seniors, but the NDP government can’t find a single point on which it’s responsible.

What would you do if your neighbours asked you to co-sign a loan? What if they were deeply in debt and consistently out spent their income? What if they insisted in having your kids and grandkids co-sign as well?

That’s what this budget has asked you, your children and grandchildren do. Even if they have to sign in Crayon.