Hawke's Bay business leaders have welcomed the 2012 Budget.
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Murray Douglas said it gave Hawke's Bay the stability to grow and an environment to help steady the dollar - vital for exporters.
"The Budget gives certainty in terms of the way the Government handles its debt - that's a really strong signal to markets," he said.
"We would all like a lower dollar - that would definitely bring in big dollars to Hawke's Bay. You can manage the dollar at almost any level but you can't manage the dollar flicking around - this Budget gives us certainty and a very clear direction."
He applauds "the shift and scale" put into Research and Development and innovation.
So, too, does Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay and national president Bruce Wills, who said the Budget should lead to better interest rates and a more favourable dollar "because they are cutting their cloth".
"We have called for a long time for Government expenditure to be capped and reduced to 30 per cent of GDP and that's the thrust that we saw in today's Budget," he said.
"We strongly support the Government's intention to reach a surplus in the Budget by 2014-15."
Changes to livestock valuation schemes, forecasted to save $275million over the next six years, had been well signalled and reasonable. "The two livestock schemes were never intended as an option for farmers to reduce tax liability - that's something we don't support at all. Our firm view is all citizens pay their fair share of tax."
EIT chief executive Chris Collins said extra funding for the Youth Guarantee Scheme would help students "falling between the cracks".
"The results we have had from the scheme have been very strong and the extra funding is very welcome."
The finer details of Government health spending have not yet been released, but Hawke's Bay District Health Board chief executive Dr Kevin Snee said additional resources to help people with disabilities, rheumatic fever, tobacco use, improve services for people with cancer or heart disease and to increase access to elective services "was good to see".
Napier partner of accounting firm PwC, Giles Pearson, said it was disappointing compliance costs and delays experienced by businesses dealing with "the multitude of local government organisations" should have been addressed.
"Hawke's Bay businesses have the entrepreneurial flair to succeed but the Government needs to minimise the roadblocks in their way," he said.
He had hoped for more in the Budget to "further disincentivise investment in property" so it could be spent in more productive parts of the economy.
But one part of the property market might receive a burst, he said.
"The Budget included changes to the tax treatment of lifestyle assets (such as baches and yachts) so costs are only deductible based on the proportion of personal use versus business use. This may lead to some good deals being available for winter breaks to Waimarama and Waipatiki as owners try to get their business use up."
Stewart Financial Group executive director Nick Stewart said there were no obvious winners or losers in Hawke's Bay but with "jittery" finance markets it was good there were no surprises.
"The big one I think people were disappointed about was that it does not address the elephant in the room - national superannuation. We all know it's there, but we're just not prepared to talk about it.
"It was a responsible Budget but I would put a caveat around that and say that the forecast in terms of the turnaround of the nation's accounts is highly dependable on some pretty bullish growth forecasts. But on the other hand there's a really tight control of Government spending through to 2016. In other words you need a tail wind and you want to keep your costs under control."