Alberta is set to a record $4.1 billion surplus for 2006-07, its 13th consecutive balanced budget.

“Alberta is truly in an enviable position, with the best fiscal outlook of any province in Canada,” Finance Minister Shirley McClellan said Wednesday while tabling her budget.

Even after boosting program spending by 8%, the province’s projected surplus almost triples the one in last year’s budget.

An extra $1 billion will go into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the province’s rainy-day fund. Another $1.8 billion will go from the surplus into various savings and endowment funds.

However, the blooming surplus won’t translate into any significant personal tax breaks for Albertans. A change to personal exemptions will save the average taxpayer about $35.

Nor was there any mention of another round of rebate cheques to Albertans — something Premier Ralph Klein mused about earlier in the week.

The government did raise the ceiling on how much taxpayers can earn before they have to pay health-care premiums.

As for businesses, a corporate tax cut will leave an extra $265 million on Alberta bottom lines.

The budget will mean more money for Alberta’s transportation network, health research and post-secondary education.

Albertans will see $13.3 billion spent on infrastructure of all kinds over the next three years. That’s a 45% increase over last year’s budget.

The province is also investing more in students and research. A $500-million endowment for cancer research will be created, while an $87-million program that covers tuition increases for students will be extended to a second year.

A 28% increase in operating funds for post-secondary institutions over three years is intended to create thousands of new spaces in everything from apprenticeship programs to undergraduate lecture halls.

Increased funding for law enforcement will mean 80 new RCMP officers, as well as a new unit to fight organized crime and more money for investigators to pursue sexual predators using the Internet to lure children.

Infrastructure projects such as ring roads around Edmonton and Calgary and twinning the congested highway to Alberta’s oilsands will be accelerated.