By Callum Ludwig and Mikayla Van Loon
Yarra Ranges Council released its draft budget for 2024-25 for community consultation at the Tuesday 23 April council meeting.
The council’s draft budget has to go out to the public for feedback each year before being adopted prior to the end of this financial year.
Streeton Ward Councillor Andrew Fullagar spoke to the motion and recommended the community take it up and read it.
“In my opinion, it’s a noticeable improvement in clarity of language to ensure that the overall picture is clear and readily readable and captured, and without the need for a deep dive into the figures, especially the opening number of pages, which read quite well on their own,” he said.
“Despite the deficit, I think residents can be confident that we remain in a strong financial position, if you look at our balance sheet and our cash flow perspectives, it’s all looking well so on that basis, I’m very supportive of this budget.”
The council’s draft budget indicates a total revenue of $253.6 million and expenditure of $235.8 million, resulting in a total $18.8 million surplus but will operate at an underlying deficit of $3.5 million with the funding related to the Council’s Capital Works Program excluded. Yarra Ranges Council estimates this will only be for the short term as their future financial projections are expected to return to positive.
Council estimates it will spend $68.3 million through the Capital Works Program, of which $25.1 million will be rates funded, $1.6 million from contributions from various sporting clubs or other community groups and the rest through borrowings and external grants.
Another significant point to notice was the adoption of a rate rise increase of 2.75 per cent, the cap for council rate rises this year set by the Essential Services Commission, which Yarra Ranges Council Mayor Sophie Todorov said was not a decision made lightly.
“The biggest one (decision) for us initially was considering the adoption of the 2.75 per cent proposed rate cap at the onset of all of this, understanding that we are operating in very tight fiscal circumstances,” she said.
“We’re all impacted by the cost of living pressures and also by increasing material costs as well and many other factors as well, and we still, despite this, need to focus on our essential services and the delivery of all those essential things that our 160,000 residents need and appreciate.”
Councils across the state are finding ways to deliver key projects with reduced support as State and Federal Government funding has been reduced at the local government level.
Speaking to the Star Mail, Yarra Ranges Council’s director of corporate services Andrew Hilson said that it all comes down to the local level at a pinch point.
“If councils need grant funding from other levels of government, and that slows down because local governments are generally much smaller when you’re not accessing grants it makes an enormous difference,“ he said.
Yarra Ranges Council estimates the reduction in funding from other levels of government to be about 32 per cent, not including the about $100 million stripped from the Roads for Community program by the Federal government.
Mr Hilson said the overall budget recommending a deficit for the next year might not sound great on the surface, but is quite appropriate given all of the pressure points on Council’s finances.
“If there are councils that are making enormous surpluses, you’d have to scratch your head and think about that, because that makes it worse,“ he said.
“It’s reflecting the story of all the pressure points that there are, with limited revenue opportunities, the cost pressures, the demands on assets and all of that stuff, so not surprisingly, that’s projecting a deficit for next year and in fact for the next couple of years, maybe two or three and to return to a small surplus in the third year.“
