Surprise surplus built on 'gouging': Foley

NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian's first state budget has been beefed up at the expense of ordinary people and would-be home buyers, Labor says.

NSW Premier elect Mike Baird and Gladys Berejijlian smile as they arrive to a press conference at NSW Parliament in Sydney, Thursday, April 17, 2014. (AAP Image/Daniel Munoz) NO ARCHIVING

NSW Premier elect Mike Baird and Gladys Berejijlian (AAP) Source: AAP

A $2.1 billion surplus to be unveiled in Tuesday's state budget has been built on service cuts and fee increases, the NSW opposition says.

Labor leader Luke Foley says the government has tied its fortunes to the booming Sydney housing market, and that NSW finances will be in a parlous state when prices come off the boil.

"Any government can deliver a large surplus by slugging ordinary people, and that's what we're seeing here - a government that delivers a monster profit off the backs of gouging the ordinary people of this state," Mr Foley told reporters in Sydney.

Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian's first budget will include a record $68 billion over four years for state-building projects, including what has been billed as its largest public transport upgrade.

It comes after the government raked in $518 million in stamp duty in May, putting the government on track to top $5.2 billion in stamp duty revenues for 2014-15, according to figures from the Office of State Revenue.

Mr Foley wants Premier Mike Baird to spend more time lobbying his "surfing buddy" - Prime Minister Tony Abbott - to reverse massive federal cuts to health and education.

The opposition leader says with the first electricity network privatisation deal close to being hammered out, dividends from the state-owned poles and wires businesses are close to drying up, leaving the state more reliant than ever on cyclical property revenues.

"When the Sydney property boom ends, as it will, the state budgetary position will be very, very weak and will be unable to adequately fund our schools and hospitals," Mr Foley said.

Shadow treasurer Michael Daley said stamp duty bracket creep meant the million-dollar threshold - which once applied to mansions in exclusive Point Piper - was now capturing three-bedroom family homes in suburban Meadowbank.

"Taxes have to be fair," Mr Daley said.

"You can't say now of stamp duty - it has doubled in four years, it's increased 800 per cent in 20 years - that these rates are still fair."

But he wants any changes to stamp duty to be considered as part of broader tax reforms.


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Source: AAP


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