A Pegasus Economics report found while predictions of a return to surplus in the forward estimates have been a feature of ACT budgets for the past six years, this had never actually happened.

Is it a case of the government being poorly advised by the normally staid and conservative gnomes in treasury or does the fault lie with politicians and spin doctors washing down the bitter taste of the latest deficit with a Pollyanna-like vision of what may happen, in the best of all possible worlds and if all the planets align, many years from now?

The latter explanation seems most likely to be the closest to the truth.

The trouble with overworked predictions of this nature, as former federal treasurer Wayne Swan found out to his, and his government's cost, is they come home to roost in the form of public scepticism about an administration's ability to balance its books and, by implication, its fitness to govern.

Governments are bound by the same laws of economics that regulate the lives of their citizens.

The most basic of these is you cannot indefinitely spend more money than you take in.

Canberra is in roughly the same case as a household dependent on both wages and middle-class welfare, such as the family allowance, to make ends meet.

Only 32 per cent of public revenue comes from the ACT government's own sources. A very significant 41 per cent comes from the Commonwealth. It is this revenue Mr Barr, as treasurer as well as chief minister, is accused of consistently overestimating.

It would appear the failure of this income to increase at the projected levels has contributed to the budget position deteriorating from an impressive surplus in the 2011-12 financial year to a depressing string of record and near-record deficits since then.

While it is difficult to argue the government is overdoing it on core services such as health, education and roads, and developing crises including the "Mr Fluffy" imbroglio, other big-ticket items such as the Gungahlin tram are not without rubbery figures of their own.

The elephant in the room remains ACT Labor's regrettable addiction to an ongoing succession of land releases, coupled with a downsizing of "average" house block sizes and an undue emphasis on multi-storey unit blocks, to keep the economic juices flowing.

This has left key budget projections exposed to the vagaries of a property market that appears likely to move further and further out of step with some of the valuations being set by the Land Development Agency in the years to come.

Canberra's future is dependent, as it always has been, on growing new and diverse industries that create jobs, attract investment and broaden the ACT's revenue base.

Now may be a very good time for some of our leaders to book a direct flight to Singapore to see how this has worked for one of the world's most successful city states.

The plane takes off in eight weeks.