The upcoming NSW Labor budget is expected to balance boosting essential services and cost of living help with rising debt and interest payments.
The NSW Labor government has flagged a raft of big-ticket spending items as it prepares to hand down its first budget since 2010.
PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES
* $3.6 billion over four years will pay for lifting the 2.5 per cent cap on public sector wages
* Pay rises of 4.5 per cent, including superannuation, have been locked in with educators, nurses and prison workers
* Funding has been reprioritised from other budget areas to pay for the boost
TOLLS
* $561 million will go towards capping road tolls over two years
* Nearly three-quarters of a million motorists will have tolls capped at $60 a week from January 1
* $54 million will go to rebates for truck drivers on the M8 and M5 East
ENERGY
* $1.8 billion will be set aside to build power lines, batteries and other renewable energy infrastructure, including $1 billion to establish an Energy Security Corporation
* Coal royalties hiked in NSW for the first time in almost 15 years, forecast to leave the state budget more than $2.7 billion better off over four years
* Extra $100 million to increase electricity rebates for low income households
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
* $260 million will go towards increasing the state's uptake of the environmentally friendly vehicles
* Funding for infrastructure upgrades, prioritised for regional NSW, renters, apartment dwellers and people who don't have access to home chargers
* Projects include fast chargers on commuter routes, more kerbside chargers near apartment blocks and upgraded grid capacity to support fleets
* EV rebates and stamp duty exemptions scrapped from January 2024
HOUSING
* $224 million to strengthen housing safety net
* Initial investments in the next 12 months will go towards new social housing supply and getting people off housing waitlists
INTEGRITY
* Additional $228.6 million over 10 years for multiple integrity agencies including the audit office, anti-corruption commission (ICAC), law enforcement commission, NSW electoral commission and ombudsman's office
* The agencies have been permanently removed from the premier and cabinet department financial management processes to ensure they are at arm's length from government
* NSW Treasury will have a specialist integrity agency unit to manage representations of funding needs and provide agencies with information
EDUCATION
* A $3.5 billion boost for more than 60 schools either being built or upgraded over the next four years in Sydney's west and southwest
* Additional $1.4 billion to upgrade or build regional public schools
* Teachers will receive a big pay rise, with some becoming the best paid in the country
* Parents of three-year-olds in pre-school will receive $500 subsidies using money from a fund established by the former coalition government
HEALTH
* Four hospitals will share in $3 billion to improve services in western Sydney, including more than $1 billion to rebuild the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on a new site
* Healthcare study subsidies worth $4000 a year for new students and a one-off $8000 for existing students will cost $121.9 million over five years
* Women's health centres will receive $34.3 million to help increase staff numbers and reduce counselling waitlists
TRANSPORT
* $1.1 billion diverted from within the transport budget to convert the Bankstown rail line into a driverless metro by October 2025
* The state-owned Transport Asset Holding Entity of NSW will become a not-for-profit entity, estimated to reduce state debt by more than $4 billion over four years
* Fares across the Opal ticketing system will be hiked from October 16 by an average of 3.7 per cent to help fund rail service upgrades
REGIONAL
* The NSW Reconstruction Authority will get $115 million to help prepare for and clean up in the wake of natural disasters
* $438.6 million pledged for 500 additional paramedics in rural and regional areas to help improve ambulance response times
* Plans to raise the wall of Wyangala Dam, near Cowra in the state's central-west, by 10 metres are scrapped
SOCIAL SERVICES
* $200 million to sustain out-of-home care throughout 2023/24, supporting vulnerable kids who can no longer live at home
INVESTMENTS
* An overhaul of how NSW manages $108 billion of public money in investment funds could reduce budget contributions by $1.1 billion over four years.
GST
* Budget will be based on planning that the "no worse off" guarantee will made permanent
* Guarantee established after the GST floor was introduced
* Ensures all states and territories receive a guaranteed minimum 70 per cent share of GST revenue with Commonwealth to compensate for shortfalls
* NSW expected to receive around $3.8 billion in payments in 2023/24 and 2024/25
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