MELBOURNE (Standard & Poor's) May 6, 2003--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that election commitment spending initiatives in the budget for the Australian State of Victoria have weakened the fiscal position of the state compared with recent years. Although the government's primary fiscal target of at least a A$100 million operating surplus has been met for each of the fiscal years in the forecast period to fiscal 2007, these surpluses are significantly lower than previous estimates. Some one-off factors have contributed to this deterioration, but election-related spending commitments are the main factor. Moreover, the surpluses will not be sufficient to fully fund the government's capital program from fiscal 2005 and net debt is projected to increase by about A$0.9
