The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says higher taxes are the last thing Saskatchewan needs in the provincial budget to be tabled Wednesday.
But Premier Brad Wall has said they will be there as part of the government's three-year plan to balance the books.
Todd MacKay, the federation's prairie director, says revenue is down from income, business and consumption taxes, and raising them doesn't necessarily mean more money coming in.
"The reason for that is pretty clear -- folks have less money," MacKay said Tuesday.
"So just increasing the tax burden on Saskatchewanians, when they're already down, is a pretty hazardous way to fix a deficit problem. It's not taxpayers' fault for paying too little tax."
The Saskatchewan government is facing about a $1.3-billion deficit.
Wall said Monday that some of the shortfall will be made up with tax increases. He said there will be a shift away from income taxes and toward consumption taxes. The government is also looking at the education portion of property taxes, provincial sales tax exemptions and the PST in general.
MacKay said the government should focus on spending.
"Families and businesses started trimming spending in Saskatchewan a couple of years ago," he said.
"The government hasn't done that yet. In fact, spending has continued to go up. They've got to recognize the reality: there's less money in Saskatchewan. You've got to spend less money."
For starters, MacKay said, the government should get out of the bus business and shut down the Saskatchewan Transportation Co.
But MacKay said Wall is "bang on when he's looking at wages."
Wall has said the government wants public-sector wages and benefits cut by 3.5 per cent, which could save about $250 million, although he hasn't dictated how that should be achieved.
The government is trying to save money because of a big drop in revenue from oil and gas, potash and uranium. Tax revenue is also lower than forecast and crop insurance claims are up $250 million because of a late harvest.
Saskatchewan Finance Minister Kevin Doherty said there are difficult decisions in the budget.
"We're going to set in place a plan where we're not so reliant on resource revenues moving forward," said Doherty.
"But we need to ensure that our program funding is sustainable over the long term and so we have to change course, make a bit of a shift with respect to where we derive our revenues from."
Doherty is forgoing the tradition of new shoes ahead of a budget and has instead opted to have his old shoes resoled in a symbolic gesture of the fiscal challenge ahead.
"These shoes are perfectly good to use. They just needed some tweaking, they needed some adjustments, not unlike our economy."
NDP finance critic Cathy Sproule said the Opposition is concerned about where cuts might be made and offered a pair of hip waders to Doherty.
"We thought that our finance minister's in a little bit of trouble this year with the amount of deficit that we're facing," she said.
"We thought we would be helpful and maybe provide him with these hip waders because we know he's really deep in red ink."
