Budget boost for Qld hospital maintenance THERE will be an extra $147 million in Queensland's budget to clear a backlog of maintenance work at the state's hospitals. Treasurer Tim Nicholls will on Tuesday hand down his second budget. Most of the bad news is already out, and there'll be few sweeteners. A return to surplus has been delayed by a year to 2015-16. Revenue has dropped $4.5 billion since the Liberal National Party came to power and the deficit will be more than $7 billion. Payroll tax relief for businesses has been deferred and Queenslanders will pay more for emergency service and home and car insurance. There'll also be nothing in the budget to offset a 22.6 per cent hike in power prices from July 1. Mr Nicholls has said the budget will be focused on core services such as health and education, and strengthening the state against future natural disasters. He's ruled out further asset sales and outsourcing of services. But the government has found room to boost hospital maintenance by $147 million over four years. Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says the Newman government must make health spending a priority. Last year, Queensland was the only state not to have met baseline targets for elective surgery patients who'd waited the longest, she said. "The fact the Newman government cut $3 billion from its health budget and sacked more than 4000 health workers is having negative impact on patients," she said.