They'll pay higher household rates and fork out more money for car expenses, emergency protection and electricity.

Families will cop these downfalls as the ACT government instead looks to accommodate the capital's rapidly rising population.

Rates will rise to $2295 for houses and $1352 for apartments, car registration will jump five per cent and parking fines will see a six per cent increase. Electricity prices will hike 10 per cent, gas four per cent and the fire and emergency services levy from $42 to $294 per household.

Spending skewed towards the north will help to soften the blow of rising costs to families in the fastest-growing areas.

But Moncrieff mother Erica Mitchell said her family was a clear loser, despite living in booming Gungahlin, and would have to drastically tighten spending.

"This budget will really impact our family," she said.

"Any family with two-plus kids with a moderate income and a house would think that way. Neither my husband or I have had a pay rise in four years and yet these charges keep going up. Somehow we are supposed to compensate for that without any more money coming in."

Ms Mitchell is a public servant and her husband an electrician. She said the pair would consider moving to a smaller, cheaper town with their three children (aged two, six and nine) in the face of Canberra's increasingly expensive living.

There was some good news in the budget for families. It sought to improve travel with a focus on better roads and more public transport. It also gave $90 million of funding to school infrastructure and boosted a range of health services.

Pre-budget announcements such as a new nurse walk-in centre in Gungahlin and better access to bulk-billed healthcare got big ticks from Ms Mitchell, who was also pleased about new health and mental-health checks for all year seven students.

But while while Canberra Hospital will see a new surgical, radiology and emergency centre, she had hoped for more money for the Calvary Hospital emergency department.

"That is disappointing because the government is doing a lot for the Gungahlin community but we also need better access to emergency facilities as the population keeps growing," she said.

Many families would welcome the government's choice to make education the second largest spend in its budget. Majority of the funding will go to ongoing works with $10.5 million on new capital works and $5.8 million on public school infrastructure upgrades.

The upgrade to Amaroo School, attended by two of Ms Mitchell's children, was already announced in the 2016 budget as part of $20 million splurge on Gungahlin schools.

"I think it's fantastic that they're investing in schools," Ms Mitchell said.

"But I'm just wary about how much of it has already been announced and how long the upgrades take to come into effect. Amaroo's was announced a year ago and the bulk of it is only just starting."