Boxed in by the prolonged slump in the price of oil and its corresponding hit on provincial revenues, the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals are facing tough choices in their first budget today.

Listen live: CBC Radio will start a live 30-minute radio special at 2 p.m. NT

We will have full coverage online, on On The Go at 4 NT and Here & Now at 6 NT

Fresh off their election win in November, the Liberals are already admitting that their first budget will be a bitter pill for the province to swallow.

With a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts likely on the way, here are four numbers to keep in mind as Finance Minister Cathy Bennett delivers the news at the House of Assembly.

$2.4 billion

Premier Dwight Ball announced on Tuesday that Newfoundland and Labrador's deficit is expected to hit $1.9 billion this fiscal year. (CBC)

With revenues way down, but expenditures still constant, the Liberals projected in December that the upcoming fiscal year would run a $2.4-billion deficit, unless decisions were made.

A $2.4 billion dollar deficit would be bigger, as a portion of total spending, than the 2003-2004 deficit; It would be a bigger shortfall than the province has seen at any point in two decades.

That's the baseline to compare Thursday's budget against.

The $2.4-billion deficit is a projection without the small savings that the government has already claimed, or the bigger tax and spending changes they will likely announce on Thursday.

The administration will try to use those changes to knock that number down.

But even those aren't expected to completely erase the monster deficit. Bennett has already indicated that the path back to surplus will be a multi-year project.

20 per cent

The flow of offshore royalties that came into Newfoundland and Labrador's purse has dropped significantly in the past three years. The Province now expects to take 551 million in royalty payments, down from the near $3 billion it once saw. (CBC)

Provincial revenues from offshore oil royalties are expected to amount to about $551 million in 2015-2016.

That total represents just 20 per cent of what the province once took in from the oil fields, when royalties peaked in 2011-2012 at $2.8-billion.

In other words, for every five oil-related dollars that went into the provincial treasury five years ago, the government can now rely on only one.

The low price of Brent crude — bottoming out at about US $30 per barrel in January, toward the end of the 2015-2016 fiscal year — lower oil production and maintenance at the rigs all meant fewer dollars flowing to the provincial government.

At $551 million, the royalty take will be lower than any year since 2006-2007.

The drop in offshore oil royalties is almost single-handedly responsible for the financial gap that the province is now facing.

13 per cent

Premier-designate Dwight Ball hoists his mother's hand in the air, as he greets Liberal supporters in Corner Brook after the party won a majority government in the Newfoundland and Labrador election in November. (CBC)

Premier Dwight Ball campaigned in November on reversing a HST increase that was scheduled to kick in this year.

The former Progressive Conservative government planned to jump the sales tax rate by two percentage points, from 13 per cent to 15 per cent of each transaction in the province.

After that plan was announced, Ball — then in opposition — called the tax increase a "job killer."

Right after the Nov. 30 election, Ball cancelled that increase, at an estimated cost of $180 million to the provincial budget each year.

Liberal insiders have said the campaign promise to cancel the HST increase was a mistake. A sales tax increase is one of the province's few tools to raise revenues, and that extra $180 million would have helped knock back the shortfall.

Now, with the premier no longer categorically ruling out a HST change, a sales tax boost might be in the works on Thursday.

46,000

Along with his pledge to stop a HST increase, Ball also promised during the campaign that the Liberals would not lay off any workers from the public service.

'To say that anything is not on the table would be irresponsible' - Finance Minister Cathy Bennett

That would mean about 46,000 employees working in the Government of Newfoundland and various public agencies in the province would be secure.

However, with the increase in the forecasted deficit, Bennett isn't sounding so sure. She opened up the door to layoffs in January, saying every option was on the table.

In an interview last week with the CBC's David Cochrane, Bennett said that the budget decisions will be tough on workers — and everyone else in the province.

"Every decision we make will impact somebody somewhere and probably not in a good way," she said.

Employee salaries make up the lion's share of the government's spending. At $3.6 billion in 2014-2015, salaries and benefits make up about 45 per cent of the government's spending.

Salaries grew just as much as the government's financial health in the last decade — from $1.9 billion in 2004-2005 to $3.6 billion now. The biggest increase came between 2008 and 2010, when oil revenues were still escalating.

It would be nearly impossible to cut $2 billion in spending without taking a chunk out of that line item.