The territorial government shattered last year's record-high budget this afternoon by handing Yukoners a budget with $784 million in spending.

Premier and Finance Minister Dennis Fentie went back on his statement that last year's budget would be the largest in his Yukon Party government's mandate.

Instead, his government plans to spend close to $80 million more in the 2005-06 fiscal year than it estimated a year ago when he tabled the 2004-05 budget.

There are no tax nor fee increases or decreases in this budget.

Despite the extra spending, the government is estimating a surplus for next year of $29 million by the end of the fiscal year on Mar. 31, 2006.

The revenue for the year is estimated at $762.9 million. However, there is a surplus predicted because the government is reporting a $42.7 million-increase in the value of the government's tangible capital assets.

The government estimates there will be $16.6 million spent in 2005-06 that was in the previous year's budget but not used. However, it also expects there will be another $24.6 million that is in this budget that will not be spent, since there's always money that doesn't get used.

That will mean an extra $8 million not spent in 2005-06 that is added to the total picture to give the surplus of $29 million.

That surplus is based on the new accounting method the government adopted at the beginning of the 2004-05 fiscal year. That method takes into account the value of all of the government's assets, including buildings.

Under the old accounting method, that didn't factor in the value of assets, it's estimated the government would actually have a $13.5-million deficit.

The government is also estimating, under the new method of accounting, that the accumulated surplus is $465.5 million.

However, under the old method of accounting for the accumulated surplus (which is the total amount of money the government has), is approximately $64 million.

The biggest reason the government can spend extra cash is the $60-million boost in the territorial formula financing grant the Yukon is given by Ottawa each year.

The hike is due to the changes in the formula financing that the federal and territorial governments agreed to last year. The change brought the grant to $494.1 million for 2005-06.

When Fentie announced last year's budget, the transfer was expected to be $434.34 million, close to $60 million less than what is estimated in today's budget announcement.

In total, the new budget has $540 million in revenue from Ottawa. That's up by more than $70 million from when the budget was announced last year.

Thanks to other deals with Ottawa, there is a $21.4-million increase in health care transfers from the federal government, up to $36.4 million from $15 million in the 2004-05 budget estimate.

In terms of revenue, the government is estimating an increase in personal income tax of $2.5 million from last year up to $36.9 million.

Corporate income tax is expected to jump by $276,000.

The liquor tax is expected to make 15 per cent more, up to $2.6 million from 2.3 million. It's estimated the tobacco tax will pull in another four per cent, up to $6.46 million from $6.2 million.

The biggest spending department for 2005-06 will be Health and Social Services, which has a total budget of $186.15 million.

Of that budget, the spending for operations and maintenance will be $170.4 million, 29.5 of the total operations and maintenance spending.

The second-biggest spending department is Highways and Public Works, at $147.6 million. However, just less than half of that department's budget is in new projects. The operations and maintenance total is around $75.5 million.

The total and operations and maintenance (O&M) spending for other departments include:

ï Education $125.4 million total, $105.5 million O&M;

ï Community Services $104.1 million total, $50.2 million O&M;

ï Energy, Mines and Resources $42.6 million total, $37 million O&M;

ï Justice $39.6 million total, $38.2 million O&M;

ï Yukon Housing Corp. $31 million total, $12.8 million O&M;

ï Environment $23.1 million total, $19.7 million O&M;

ï Tourism and Culture $19.19 million total, $14.15 million O&M; and

ï Economic Development $15.9 million total, $6.6 million O&M.