The most important fact about Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes’s Budget is not the return to surplus; it is that Victoria has quietly become a permanently high-debt state. Symes seems to have decided that the political, economic and social risks of withdrawing support from households are greater than the risks of continuing to borrow. That is the real story of the Victorian Government’s 2026/27 Budget. Debt without repair Treasury has delivered a narrow operating surplus. [...]