Council adopts 2021-2022 Budget
The Carpentaria Shire brought down its budget at a meeting held in Normanton on Wednesday 30 June 2021.
Council adopted a new Operational Plan for the 2021-2022 financial year based on the new Corporate Plan adopted at the May 2021 Council Meeting. The Operational and Corporate Plans are now more focused on strategic outcomes for Council and Departmental Plans are being developed for the “business as usual” aspects of Councils operations.
The operational budget deficit totals $5.241 million net, the Operational Projects Budget of $10.3 million which is all covered with grant funding and a small contribution from Ratepayers (made possible through work for and on behalf of Transport and Main Roads, Works 4 Queensland and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program {LRCIP} to name a few), Capital Projects budget of $16.16million (with $13.3million coming from grants and trade-ins of assets being replaced, requiring only a $2.8million contribution from the ratepayers)
Council has been very fortunate in recent years to receive grant funding to reduce the impact and burden on ratepayers to deliver necessary infrastructure. Mayor Bawden said “Council will continue to use its best endeavours to access eligible funding for projects that benefit the community and its ratepayers.”
“While this budget has been developed to identify the true costs to deliver services to our Carpentaria Community and clearly identify grant sources and grant funded projects, an increase in rates is necessary to cover increasing costs,” he said.
Mayor Bawden said “the increase for the average household ratepayer will be $2.25 per week in Normanton and a $1.00 per week increase for Karumba Residents. The lower rate increase in Karumba is due to the change in the sewerage charges levied”.
“A review of the utility service charges for Water, Sewerage and Garbage was undertaken in the lead up to the budget and changes to the charging methodology will be introduced this year. The water methodology remains the same and will be changed next year”, he said.
Information in relation to the methodology changes to the utility charges will be provided on the Council website in the coming weeks now that Council has formally adopted the Revenue Statement and adopted the charging methodology.
Rate notices are planned to be issued in August 2021 and also in February 2022.
The Capital Projects Budget of $16.16million includes some carry over from the previous financial year and new projects. Over all the projects are broken up as follows, Renewals $3.33million, Upgrades $10.98million and New $1.85million, Councils, more importantly the ratepayers, contribution towards this investment is $2.83million, with the balance coming from grants funding and trade-ins of assets being replaced. A majority of our capital investment is in upgrades and renewal of assets to increase the useful life of our assets and ensure they continue to service the needs of the community, rather than just adding new assets.
As part of the budget process a number of policies were also reviewed and updated those being, Revenue Policy, Investment Policy, Debt Policy (no new borrowings), Debt Recovery Policy, Financial Hardship Policy, Rates Based Financial Assistance for Community Organisations, Pensioner Rates Concession Policy (remains at 30% for eligible pensioners as in previous years), Concealed Water Leak Policy and Faulty Water Meter Policy. These Policies will be available on the Council Website in due course.