THE Scottish Government’s budget Bill for next year is currently making its way through parliament.

I was pleased to see that it gained the provisional support of MSPs last Wednesday.

It’ll now be scrutinised in more detail before coming back to the full Parliament in a couple of weeks for final approval.

The spending plans touch upon the lives of everyone in Scotland – so it’s absolutely right that they are considered in the utmost detail.

And it is inevitable that our budget involves tough decisions - after all, the Tory government is reducing Scotland's funding in real terms.

But there are clear dividing lines between the parties about how we should deal with Tory austerity and what our priorities should be.

The SNP is determined to protect what matters most.

If our budget is approved, the NHS will be protected and health spending will rise to a record level of £13 billion.

We will also invest £250m in the radical reform of Health and Social Care – making our social care service fit for the 21st century.

We’ll be investing more than £5 billion in education, and seeking a deal with councils that will see the number of teachers in our schools maintained.

In addition, we will continue to invest extra resources in the schools in our most deprived areas through our Scottish Attainment Fund.

And a major priority of our budget is doing more to tackle low pay.

Over the last few years - with the limited powers the Scottish Parliament has in this area - we’ve ensured that everyone whose pay packets we directly control now receives the living wage

We’ve also taken steps to ensure that fair work practices such as paying the living wage are considered when public contracts are being handed out to private companies.

Measures like these have helped ensure that a higher proportion of the workforce in Scotland are paid the living wage than any other nation in the UK.

We’ve made a lot of progress, but low wages are still a reality for too many people in Scotland, so we want to do more – and that’s why low pay is so central to our budget.

In this year’s spending plans, we are proposing that everyone whose pay is determined by the Scottish Government and who earns under £22,000 will get a pay rise of £400 - and we are also proposing that, for the first time, the living wage will be rolled out to the social care sector.

This means that - if councils agree our promised deal - all social care workers will qualify for the living wage of £8.25.

This will make a real difference to people working in this vital sector – the vast majority of whom are women.

But it will also improve the sector that they work in - retaining their talents and laying strong foundations for the future, as the population ages and demand for services increases.

If our budget is passed, it will help ensure that over 40,000 workers will receive the living wage for the first time.

These are our priorities – and I would have hoped that all parties would sign up to them.

Unfortunately, it seems that Labour would rather put up people’s taxes than put up their pay.

Their proposals for the budget negotiations revolve around increasing income tax.

At the moment the Scottish Parliament has the powers only to vary the basic rate of income tax – not the higher rates - so Labour’s plans mean everybody earning over £11,000 would face a tax rise.

This would hit people on low and middle incomes, as any increase disproportionately affects the amount of tax they pay, compared to higher earners.

For example, under Labour’s plans the amount of income tax paid by me, as First Minister, would increase by 2.7% - but the amount paid, for instance, by a teacher or a nurse would increase by 5%.

That is not fair.

Now, I want the income tax system to be more progressive – and there are more powers proposed in the current Scotland Bill which will give us more flexibility.

But I am not prepared to see 2.2 million people in Scotland – including 500,000 pensioners as well as every qualified nurse, every teacher and every police officer - punished twice for Tory austerity.

I think most people in Scotland want a budget of wage rises – not tax rises.

That is why I hope MSPs back the SNP’s budget plans – and that’s why I’m optimistic that the people of Scotland will support the SNP in the election.