Thomas said although he had only been in post for a short time, the budget cycle “goes on pretty much from when the last budget was made”.
“Since then my predecessor, other politicians and the Council of Ministers, officers all around government and beyond have been working on preparing a budget to keep public services going,” he said.
“Treasury’s role is to finance those public services and to raise what’s necessary from the public to pay for those public services.”
Teasing a budget “for stability, for security” and of “confidence”, Thomas said while the personal tax allowance change had been well trailed there was “so much more” in the budget.
He said although the political changes had seen the minimum wage increase “slowed down” in January, and February would see the budget outlined, the delivery of the plan would look further ahead.
It would focus on a programme that was about “increasing productivity” and “dealing with the fact that we’ve got fewer reserves in real terms than we had years ago”.
He said although the island “has still got a lot of reserves”, there was an ongoing “structural financing issue”.
“The Isle of Man traditionally has earned more than it’s spent in each year and we haven’t managed that in the last few years,” he said.
“We’ve got a slight feeling of pessimism around the place,” he said, “and want to make sure that we take hold of the public mood and [show] we’re confident about ourselves and about our future because we should be.”
Thomas is set to deliver his speech outlining the Isle of Man Budget 2026-27 when the February sitting of Tynwald begins at 10:00 GMT on Tuesday.
