At its 7 May meeting Palerang Council approved a draft 2015-2016 Operational Plan and Budget and now invites community feedback. The plan is available from Council’s website and copies are available from the Braidwood and Bungendore offices.
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The budget provides for total income of $37.6million ($8.5million from rates), with operating expenditure of $34.2million and capital expenditure of $13million. As in previous years, Council is proposing a “break-even” cash budget but an operating deficit when taking into account non-cash items such as depreciation.
A key issue for all NSW local councils, is the on-going decline in real income. This has been the case for many years, but this year is particularly difficult because it is the second year of the Federal Government’s grant indexation freeze which means the Federal distribution to local government will remain the same as in 2012 with no increase for inflation. As in the past, Council has had to cut its cloth to match its means to ensure that it provides a balanced budget.
“There are numerous projects that Council would like to undertake but cannot afford” said Peter Bascomb, Palerang’s General Manager “Further, there are services such as support for economic development and tourism that we cannot provide without a reduction in core services such as roads” Mr Bascomb added.
The budget provides for a number of significant capital works, including a $250k reconstruction of Lascelles St, $620k on Comma Rd to add to a similar amount of work undertaken this year, $1.5million on Tarago Rd, $1.2m on Captains Flat Road and another $1.8million on a variety of projects across our local roads.
This year’s plan has been developed against the background of the State Government’s local government reform program, known as “Fit for the Future” (FFtF). The State is expecting all local governments to address their scale and capacity as well as their financial viability against a number of benchmarks. Palerang, along with many other local Councils, does not currently meet all those benchmarks. Council will shortly distribute some background material and hold community meetings to discuss FFtF on in Braidwood on Tuesday 26 May and in Bungendore on Wednesday 27 May. Council will be seeking specific comments on how best to meet the FFtF challenge.
Palerang Council invites your feedback on the published Operational Plan and Budget. All submissions received will be considered prior to Council adopting the budget at a meeting scheduled for 25 June.
