Electricity, Transport At Top Of Costa's List
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday June 19, 2007
THE office of the Director of Public Prosecutions faces a $5.6 million cut, and 150 police civilian workers' jobs will go in an otherwise big-spending state budget to be delivered by the Treasurer, Michael Costa, today.
Spending on infrastructure will rise by almost $10 billion - to $50 billion over the next four years, with the most spending on electricity and transport. But the Government will cut arts spending by as much as 10 per cent, and reduce the $88.2 million operating budget of the Director of Public Prosecutions by $5.6 million, a cut of 6.5 per cent. It will also cut the police civilian workers' jobs, despite an increase in frontline police of 750 over the next four years, with Mr Costa taking the razor to back office operations in an effort to cut 5000 public service jobs over four years.The Public Service Association was warning yesterday that sworn police officers would be forced to do the jobs of civilian workers because of the cuts. The Treasurer's office says it is simply applying a 1 per cent efficiency cut it demands of all departments but that the Director of Public Prosecutions has to take a bigger cut because it has not met savings in previous budgets. The budget will forecast brighter times for NSW with Treasury's economic forecasts predicting much better growth next year compared with last year, increasing the size of the surplus. The Treasurer's office said yesterday there would be an increase in transport infrastructure funding, with a total transport budget of $5 billion, including $2 billion of capital works spending. There will be a record health budget of $12.5 billion, with more than $1 billion spent on mental health, and health will rise as a component of the total budget, from 24 per cent to 28 per cent. The new Department of Environment and Climate Change, set up after the election, will have a budget of close to $1 billion. "The budget mainly is about meeting election commitments and has a focus on services," said a spokesman for Mr Costa, Mat Jones. There were predictions for growth in all parts of the economy, including housing, Mr Jones said. The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, expressed scepticism over the Government's pre-budget announcements yesterday, saying it was typical it was talking of some "grand dollar figure" while people were not seeing improvements in services.A briefing note for ministers' offices from the Treasurer, which the Herald has seen, says the theme of the budget will be "Meeting our commitments". The budget is expected to confirm a surplus for 2006-07, meaning one for every year of Labor governments since 1995-96.The NSW Business Chamber spokesman Paul Ritchie said he expected a healthy surplus, and it was time for the Government to look at stamp duty relief and other reforms. "Business groups have been told to hold off for a number of years until the budget position improves. The time's come for the Government to keep its part of the deal."
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald