Rhetoric toned down ahead of 'business as usual' budget Last year it was "the most important budget in a generation." This year it is "business as usual." Treasurer Tim Nicholls said Cabinet had put the "final touches" on the 2013-14 state budget; a "budget that will continue to focus on the delivery of core services to Queenslanders - services that they need, at a price they are prepared to pay." This is not the budget Mr Nicholls had hoped to hand down a year ago, or even just six months ago. The government, coming off the battering which the public sector job and services cuts created, had hoped to be able to show more than just a few "green shoots" of recovery for its second budget. Instead, as Mr Nicholls has been at pains to repeatedly stress from as early as last week, it will be a budget delivered "in some challenging financial times." Revenue is down by $4.5 billion in the past 14 months, with a further $1.2 billion decrease in royalties and tax revenue ,as well as a $531 billion drop in GST receipts in the forward years. "Like all good surprises, you'll have to wait until tomorrow," Mr Nicholls said, on whether there would be any "sweeteners" included in the budget. But this budget will continue to deliver the services and it will reinvest the savings we have made from the decisions we took last year in the continued delivery of those services. Tomorrow we will be outlining a very substantial expenditure program around health, around education, around disability services, around law and order and particularly around making sure the regions are looked after, throughout the state. Despite calls for a "debate" there will be no changes to solar power schemes - at least in this budget. Debt will continue to increase over the next financial year, but the treasurer expects it to "plateau" by the end of the 2014-15 financial year. A $300 million deficit has been predicted. No "further changes over and above the changes we made last year" are envisioned in terms of service cuts. Last year's budget relief measures - car registration freezes and the halving of public transport fare hikes will remain. Subsidies for pensioners and concession card holders will increase in relation to electricity, water and rates. The emergency management fire and rescue levy (previously the fire levy) will increase by 6.5 per cent. Stamp duty insurance premiums will increase from 7 to 9 per cent to help fund the national disability insurance scheme. There will be no changes to the mining royalties. Also revealed: $25.8 million for national parks capital works, including $6.3 million for improving visitor access across the state