Victoria is back in black for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with Tuesday’s state budget to deliver an operating surplus and forecasting another next financial year. The 2026-27 budget, to be handed down on Tuesday afternoon, will show the state recorded a $700m surplus in 2025-26, largely in line with December’s pre-budget update of $710m and an improvement on the $611m forecast last May . It marks Victoria’s first surplus since before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2018-19, when the state’s finances were $1bn in the black. The treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, has also projected a $1bn surplus in 2026-27, down by $943m on December’s forecast. The government has said the budget – its final before the November state election – would show average surpluses of $1.7bn projected across the forward estimates period. “Labor’s budget is in surplus while continuing to invest in the frontline services Victorians rely on,” Symes said in a statement.…