South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas has been urged to look for new revenue-raising measures rather than make cuts to vital services to fix a big budget shortfall.
The Treasurer has warned that SA's finances are facing a big hit with estimates that GST payments in 2019/20 will fall by more than $300 million.
The state government says it now expects to receive $6.94 billion compared with the $7.27 billion included in December's mid-year budget review.
"There is no question that the forecast significant cut in GST funding next year will make the task of budget repair even more challenging," Mr Lucas said on Friday.
But the South Australian Council of Social Service says the Treasurer should not look to service cuts to plug the gap.
"The community, including the business community, benefit from the services provided by the state government," SACOSS chief executive Ross Womersley said.
"We need a tax base to pay for those services and when there are blows to that tax base, we need to consider ways of restoring government income, not just cutting services that people, and vulnerable and disadvantaged people in particular, rely on."
SACOSS has suggested the government consider making changes to land tax arrangements to boost income, including closing a loophole that allows people with multiple properties to minimise their land tax obligations.
It has also suggested the government delay a plan to lift the tax-free threshold on properties that it announced in this year's state budget.
"These changes would go some way to offsetting the impact of the GST write-down but in the longer term, we need further discussion about how we will raise state revenue," Mr Womersley said.
