A careful Jay Weatherill says his 2013 State Budget makes very little go a long way.

Public servants keep their jobs, services remain intact and a path to budget surplus remains well into the distance.

While some 2000 fees and charges will rise around 3 per cent, those with jobs can expect that to be matched by pay rises.

Deficit and debt remain as fundamentals in this budget; a choice the Premier and Treasurer said was his.

The expected deficit for this financial year is $1.314 billion, a jump on the most recent estimate last December of $1.169 billion.

The deterioration in the bottom line comes in the face of a further write-down in revenues of $532 million.

“We’ve written down gambling taxes, property taxes and had to take reductions in GST revenue from the Commonwealth,” Weatherill told InDaily before presenting his Budget to State Parliament.

“We had choices to make.

“We chose not to sell assets. We chose not to cut public services and we chose not to cut public service numbers.

“This is a careful Budget that makes the right choices.

“It makes a very little go a long way.”

Weatherill forecast a turnaround of economic fortunes from 2014-15; a forecast that holds little credibility given the innacurate forecasts of recent years in a climate of economic volatility.

The problem with the credibility of recent forecasts blew a hole in Weatherill’s claim that “the overall story of the budget is that we have lower debt at the end of the forward estimates (2017)”.

It’s a guess, and previous years guesses have been way off the mark.

Weatherill’s refusal to wield the axe leaves him with fixed expenses to deliver the current level of services, risking further debt issues if revenue declines further.

That risk is made crystal clear in the Budget’s estimate of South Australi’s economic performance.

It estimates the measure of growth (State Final Demand) for this current financial year as 1.25 per cent.

Yesterday’s official SFD for the third quarter of the year showed a third successive recession in activity making the Budget figure for 2012-13 impossible to achieve.

South Australia’s quarterly growth was -0.9 per cent and -2.3 per cent for the 12 months to the end of March.

The problem of economic stagnation is reflected in Weatherill’s decision to maintain the Housing Construction Grant and join with the Commonwealth in funding stimulus-based Affordable Housing projects.

There’s a small grab bag of new spending projects in this Budget; roundabouts, payroll tax rebates, training centres and more; far fewer, however, than you would expect to be generated by a public service that employs more than 100,000 people.

If you’re underwhelmed by this steady-as-she-goes approach, the Premier would like us all to feel part of the responsibility.

“South Australia isn’t an easy place; its an expensive place to run.

“Despite its challenges, it makes the most of what it has.

“At the heart if that ingenuity is a partnership; a collaborative culture where government, business and the community work together.

“This is a partnership.”

With little in the family bank account and having already sold the car, we are all in this together.

Make do, South Australia make do.

In a final twist, and a gentle reminder of past Treasurer’s bluster, one of the press releases today is headed:”Funding to realise the benefits of the mining boom”.

At least we have some fairy tales to read the kids before we tuck them into tonight.

More Budget Coverage:

• The Budget in Detail
• The Ratings Agency Verdict
• David Washington: The Political Strategy Behind the Budget

See the full budget papers here.