Tax reform, a children's hospital and hundreds more hospital beds are on West Australian wish lists for the boom state's election-year budget to be delivered on Thursday.
Treasurer Eric Ripper lifted the operating surplus forecast for 2007-08 by almost $400 million to $1.83 billion, from $1.45 billion previously, when the state government released its mid-year financial review late last year.
The estimated operating surplus for 2008-09 was $1.87 billion.
But Mr Ripper has since warned against expectations of sweeteners in the final budget before the state election due in early 2009.
Mr Ripper says the government does not have unlimited financial resources and is facing cost blowouts in public-sector wages and capital works, driven by the state's resource boom.
"We will not be making wild pre-election budget announcements at the expense of prudent and sustainable financial management and a stable and growing economy," the treasurer said last month.
Mr Ripper has planned the 2008/09 budget around a projected $6 billion cut in GST revenue to be distributed to WA in the next five years, along with enterprise bargaining deals and offers that will add $2.4 billion to the government's wage bills in the next four years.
The state's peak business organisation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia (CCIWA), is pressing for tax reforms after accusing the government of failing to provide "real reform" in last year's budget.
In a pre-budget submission earlier this year, the chamber said the WA government provided the least competitive tax terms in Australia while proceeding with a program of rampant spending.
The CCIWA wants to see payroll tax cuts of 0.5 per cent and stamp duty rates on property transactions reduced to 2001 levels.
Opposition treasury spokesman Steve Thomas said there would be no meaningful tax relief in the budget.
"I believe there will be something of a token effort in relation to the thresholds of conveyance duty," Dr Thomas said.
He said the budget would show that the government had blown the best years of the boom in WA, with the government's expenditure growth running faster than revenue growth.
WA general manager of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Con Abbott, said it was time for the government to return a dividend to households and businesses to enable all to share in the state's prosperity.
"The areas of conveyancing stamp duty, payroll tax and motor vehicles are the three areas that have the greatest aggregate impact on taxpayers and relief in the form of reductions in the tax take is fair and reasonable," Mr Abbott said.
Australian Medical Association of WA president Geoff Dobb said a new children's hospital, 400 more hospital beds and increased graduate training places were priorities for the health sector.
"The government's huge cash surplus should enable it to finally meet its commitment to the 2004 Reid Report, which recommended co-locating Princess Margaret Hospital and King Edward Memorial Hospital on the same site," Prof Dobb said.
"With public opinion on the state of WA health waning - and an election looming - the government has all the incentive it needs to deliver on its promise nearly eight years ago to `fix health'."
© 2008 AAP
