A balanced budget drafted but at a cost
Published on 26 April 2024
Council is presenting a balanced draft budget focused on maintenance and renewal of Council’s current assets.
Mayor Cr Jess Jennings said while the draft 2024/25 budget is balanced, spending has been reduced in terms of what projects and initiatives have been excluded.
“Council has made tough decisions in light of the cost pressures and long-term cost-shifting on the budget, and while this may not be popular it is the financially responsible path to follow. You can’t spend money you don’t have.
“Long term projects like the Hereford St upgrade are on hold, and other projects like the Adventure Playground Stage 2, further upgrades to Centennial Park and the Carrington Park grandstand are now unfunded. We have also been unable to invest much needed additional resources into our parks and recreation services.
“In pursuing Council’s adopted Pathway to Sustainability, Council has looked at where it could find additional income this year which has resulted in a thorough review of our fees and charges, including benchmarking our services against industry standards. Moving forward our fees and charges are more in line with peer Councils and we are putting an appropriate value on various services being provided.
“Other projects and initiatives identified in the Pathway to Sustainability review have already been implemented or investigated in recent months to identify savings or productivity improvements, and this work is ongoing.
“Structurally, our budget position long term is challenging. While land sales will assist Council’s bottom line for 2024-25, this cannot be relied on moving forward. The next in-coming term of Councillors will have to look very hard at future levels of service delivery to the community to further contain costs, and/or consider future sustainable revenue sources to make ends meet.
“The 2024 – 2034 Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP), which takes a ten year view of Council’s financial position paints a similar picture. The LTFP presents three scenarios for Council’s forecasts moving forward, with the ‘planned’ and ‘conservative’ scenarios showing Council's long term financial position not achieving industry ratios.
“The ‘optimistic’ scenario, requires Council to find additional income of approximately $5 million per year over three years to build Council’s long term financial sustainability. That will be the challenge moving forward and something that will be at the heart of budget discussions for the new Council. It is important we look at bridging the funding gap to allow Council to achieve industry benchmarks and place us on the pathway to achieving financial sustainability,” Cr Jennings said.
Council will consider a report at an extraordinary council meeting on Wednesday 1 May to place the Draft 2024-2025 Annual Operating Plan, 2024-2034 Draft Long Term Financial Plan and the 2024-2025 Draft Revenue Policy (proposed fees and charges) on exhibition for community feedback. Submissions will be open for 28 days and a report to adopt the final budget will be presented to the June Council meeting.
Key dates:
1 May: Extraordinary Council Meeting – Report to place Draft 2024-2025 Annual Operating Plan, 2024-2034 Draft Long Term Financial Plan and the 2024-2025 Draft Revenue Policy on exhibition
4 May: Submissions open Draft 2024-2025 Annual Operating Plan, 2024- 2034 Draft Long Term Financial Plan and the 2024-2025 Draft Revenue Policy
31 May: Submissions close on Draft 2024-2025 Annual Operating Plan, 2024-2034 Draft Long Term Financial Plan and the 2024-2025 Draft Revenue Policy
19 June: Council meeting to adopt the Draft 2024-2025 Annual Operating Plan, 2024-2034 Draft Long Term Financial Plan and the 2024-2025 Draft Revenue Policy
ENDS
Media contact: Therese Ryan Manager Corporate Communications P: 6333 6202 M: 0437 958 478 E: therese.ryan@bathurst.nsw.gov.au