Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas is calling his third budget "tight" and "efficient", but the Labor government is still on a building blitz and is spending big to crackdown on crime.
The state's financial blueprint will be released on Tuesday, and there's also speculation, mostly by the opposition, that Victorians could be slugged with a new tax or levy.
The past week has been a series of pre-budget infrastructure announcements; $100 million for planning the North East Link toll road, $800 million for more level crossing removals and $271.55 million for the Melbourne Park redevelopment.
Then there's a bid to fix the law and order headache.
Late last year $2 billion was committed for more police and community safety initiatives, and there's a $308 million program that will subject Victoria's most violent criminals to the same post-sentence restrictions as sex offenders.
And $81.1 million is committed for drug rehabilitation beds and Ice Action Plan measures.
On top of all this, new public sector pay deals mean recurrent costs will rise again.
To pay for it all, Mr Pallas unveiled a $2.9 billion surplus at the last budget, with more than $9 billion in surpluses across the forward estimates.
Melbourne Port's 50-year lease, announced in September, helped the surplus rise to a whopping $9.7 billion.
But by mid-year, that surplus tumbled to $1.7 billion, the forward estimates were also downgraded and it was unclear where all the port money would be spent.
In the lead up to May 2, Mr Pallas says Victoria is committed to continued surpluses.
"We will not be compromising our investment in health, in education, in infrastructure for roads and public transport, while running a tight budget," he said in a statement to AAP.
"We'll be efficient in the way we spend money and we'll assure Victorians that we'll manage debt within the levels that we've set, deliver strong surpluses and not spend any more than we earn."
But Premier Daniel Andrews held firm when pressed on Friday over whether a pre-election promise of no increase to current taxes beyond inflation increases or no new taxes, charges, fees and levies still held in this year's budget.
"We honour all our promises," he told reporters.
"We've made a number of commitments and we're about honouring all of them," Mr Andrews said.
Mr Pallas' office said it had nothing to add to Mr Andrews' comments.
But the opposition is still speculating Victorians will be slugged in the budget.
"This government's spending is out of control and we strongly believe that Daniel Andrews is going to be looking for way to try and slug Victorians more by fees and charges," shadow attorney general John Pesutto said.
"Let's remember, this government is seeing a 20 per cent increase in taxes over two years, that's an enormous slug on Victorian families."
