TORONTO - More than nine in 10 Ontario workers will see an income tax cut and a new property tax credit will give money back to low- and middle-income homeowners under a range of budget measures the opposition decried Thursday as nothing more than a tax shift.

As part Finance Minister Dwight Duncan's fiscal plan to weather the global economic storm, the personal income tax rate would drop from 6.05 per cent to 5.05 on the first $36,848 earned.

A single person making $20,000 and who is currently paying $602 in income tax would instead pay $503. A single person making $50,000 would pay $251 less in income tax, while a single person making $100,000 would pay $236 less.

Among families, a double-income couple with no children making a combined $75,000 would pay $513 less in income tax and a double-income couple with two children making $75,000 would pay $769 less.

All taxpayers earning less than $80,000 would see an average 10 per cent income tax cut factoring in all the new tax measures, said Duncan, who called the policies the right steps at the right time.

"Here we are, taking what I think is a bold and the right combination of policies to get Ontario through not only the immediate challenge, but to prepare us and get us stronger for the long term," he said.

The budget includes a tax harmonization, which proposes a single, 13 per cent sales tax in Ontario. It's expected the cost of many goods will rise, except for some basic personal items which are exempted.

To soften the blow, the province has earmarked $4 billion for three cash payments -- in June 2010, December 2010 and June 2011 -- that would total $1,000 for most families and $300 for single people who earn less than $80,000 a year.

Opposition Leader Bob Runciman seized on the harmonization scheme, which he said would cost Ontario residents dearly. The tax cuts outlined in the budget are really "a tax shift that moves the money around like a game of three-card monte," he said.

"For everything you will supposedly get you will lose something of equal or greater value. So Dalton (McGuinty) giveth and Dalton taketh away."

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said behind the "veil of so-called rebates" Ontario families would be paying more.

Under the budget plan, sales tax and property tax credits, currently linked, will be split. Families would not have to wait until their taxes are filed and processed to receive a sales tax credit.

Instead, they would get quarterly advance payments of up to $260 for each adult and each child starting in July 2010.

Individuals making $20,000 or less and single parents or couples making $25,000 or less would benefit from the maximum amount.

The same holds true for the new Ontario Property Tax Credit, which would see low- to middle-income homeowners and tenants get credits based on property tax paid or 20 per cent of rent paid. Seniors would get a credit of up to $625 and others would get up to $250 plus 10 per cent of the occupancy cost -- up to a maximum of $1,025 for seniors and $900 for everyone else.

The means in the 2010 tax year a single person making less than $20,000 and paying $500 in rent each month would get $370. A couple making $25,000 or less and paying $1,500 in property tax would get $400. A senior couple making $25,000 or less and paying $4,000 in property tax would get $1,025.

Gail Nyberg, the executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank, said the measures in the budget will make a real difference for low-income residents of Ontario.

"I congratulate the government on recognizing that you can fight poverty and stimulate the economic scene at the same time," Nyberg said.

"This will make some tangible difference. An extra $100 in these folks' pockets are the difference between going to food banks and not going to food banks."

For the province's lowest earners, there is a plan to increase spending on affordable housing, with $1.2 billion earmarked over two years, including federal contributions. It will help create affordable housing and provide funds for renovations and energy retrofits to existing housing.

People on welfare will see the adult basic allowance increase by two per cent. The maximum shelter allowance will also increase by two per cent. The increases will mean a single-parent family on welfare with two children would have an income of $22,730 -- $1,100 higher than in 2008.

Michael Shapcott with the Wellesley Institute, a social policy organization, was pleased there was "a good chunk" of money for low-income people in the budget, but said the approach was too piecemeal.

"There's a few little bits here and there," Shapcott said.

"But in particular a number of groups have been saying what Ontario really needs is a universal housing benefit," which could cover gaps between what landlords charge and what tenants can afford to pay, he said.