Big test to come for WA's budget future THE feeling was very much one of an examination day, as Treasurer Troy Buswell laid out what threatened to be Western Australia's hardest tests to come. In a hall in Perth's Constitutional Centre, reminiscent of so many school halls around Australia, the bell finally tolled on WA's mining construction boom. Unprecedented revenues from the state's underground riches are no more. In their place are realities harder than the rock those revenues have been mined from. In coming years, WA will export more from newly built mines - but build a lot fewer of them - as the resources cycle turns. But the state is left with the human legacy of the golden years - 75,000 more people to house, heat and transport than last year, and an estimated 50,000 more still to come. The cost of the huge transport schemes, schools and hospitals needed to service WA's rocketing population is massive - meaning a looming state debt of more than $28 billion by 2016/17. That is largely blamed on a doomsday scenario which has WA's share of the GST pie at just seven cents in the dollar in four years time. But even with the fiscal finger pointing at Canberra, that tiny minus symbol in WA's estimated bottomline for 2014/15 is a really big deal for Premier Colin Barnett. He has staked a big part of his political reputation on delivering surplus budgets. Indeed, Under Treasurer Tim Marney said in his pre-election figures that without a surplus of $500 million or more in the coming years, WA's rock solid financial reputation will begin to wobble. That figure now looks as distant as the Chinese development revolution that has fuelled so much of WA's wealth. Looking deeper into the crystal ball, WA's economic brains predict WA will have just $16 million in surplus at the end of 2016/17 - a sobering prospect for an economy now valued at over $250 billion. But even more of a reality check is the fact that the massive rail and road projects promised to help future-proof Perth will only be halfway to completion by then - with the bulk of the money to finish them still needing to be found. A long, hard road indeed for WA's Liberal leaders.