Barr finds $175 million under the couch

Rollersk8r said :

THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS!!! What is it about the ACT’s accounts that make them so unpredictable!?? Seriously, tell me I’m wrong, this has been happening for years and years! I distinctly remember Stanhope, Corbell and Gallagher all attempting to explain these fluke surplusses.

It’s all doom and gloom, tough budgets, working families, we’re missing out on our share of GST, can’t afford a 2% pay rise for teachers – and then whoops, here’s a great big pile of surplus that nobody thought to count!!!

All Govt accounts are unpredictable. The ACT is not special in this regard. However, the last financial year in particular will see most states and territories recieving money that had not been budgeted as the Federal Government brought forward a lot of expenditure, including payments to the States, in order to reach their surplus in 12-13. Further, the press release says that there was lower than forecast expenditure. So this means that it’s likely that in the current financial year there will be higher than forecst expenditure in order to catch up. It’s interesting that expenditure was lower than forecast last financial year given the increased costs to projects such as the Scrivener Dam.

Can’t wait to see this passed on to residents. Based on 358,000 residents a refund cheque of $488 per person would be nice 🙂

ACT Treasury fudging the numbers again?

THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS!!! What is it about the ACT’s accounts that make them so unpredictable!?? Seriously, tell me I’m wrong, this has been happening for years and years! I distinctly remember Stanhope, Corbell and Gallagher all attempting to explain these fluke surplusses.

It’s all doom and gloom, tough budgets, working families, we’re missing out on our share of GST, can’t afford a 2% pay rise for teachers – and then whoops, here’s a great big pile of surplus that nobody thought to count!!!