A debt free council is celebrating a ‘responsible’ and ‘sustainable’ budget with a small surplus focused on renewals and maintenance.
Lockyer Valley Regional Council handed down its 2024/25 Budget at a special meeting on Wednesday, 26 June.
The $115.55M budget provides an operating revenue of $83.00M and an operating expenditure of $82.91M, with a further $32.64M earmarked for capital projects including road network upgrades.
Mayor Tanya Milligan said a small surplus of $96,000 reflected council’s efforts to keep the budget as tight as possible in tough economic times.
“The average general rate increase in this budget is 3.9 per cent, while fees and charges will increase by 5 per cent to meet the rising cost of providing those respective services,” Cr Milligan said.
“I am proud to say that council has demonstrated its financial management track record by consistently operating within its budget and keeping rate increases low.”
The average owner-occupied residential home will experience a rate increase of approximately $65 for the year and, combined with levies, have a total increase of approximately $108 for the year.
In an effort to smooth the impact of substantial increases in recent land valuations by the Valuer General, LVRC will continue to implement a three-year averaging process.
Further to this, LVRC has reviewed the rate in the dollar for each rating category and band to reduce the actual dollar impact on households.
Councillors reflected on community feedback during the 2024 elections when considering the budget.
“We’ve really tried to stay focussed on what we’ve heard over the last 12 months,” Cr Milligan said.
“Our teams have been really busy with organising and getting everything to bed with the 2022 flood event, now it’s time for renewals and maintenance and we’ve certainly heard from our community the importance of roads.
“It’s responsible, it’s sustainable, and it’s laying a really firm foundation for the councils that come after us that we don’t leave them in a really bad place.”
In February 2024 LVRC announced it had paid off its debt.
“We have paid off more than $12 million in debt in that last term of council, which feels good, but we’re also really aware of the current challenges our community is facing,” Cr Milligan said.
Having recently completed flood recovery roadworks from the 2022 severe weather events, council crews will now move their focus to more routine maintenance and resealing projects.
“There isn’t anything really shiny, sexy or new other than the Forest HIll silos, which is a great win for everyone in our region,” Cr Milligan said.
A project highlight for 2024/25 is starting work on the Forest HIll Silos Mural and Viewing Precinct, valued at $2.086M.
“This project has been through several rounds of community consultation, design and costing and we have worked hard to chase grant funding to bring it to fruition,” Cr Milligan said.
Another highlight is replacing Mahon Bridge at Carpendale to allow loaded heavy vehicles to more easily access Stanbroke, valued at $6.721M
“We have also set aside a significant budget to undertake community consultation and designs for improving flood mitigation for some of our most vulnerable communities,” Cr Milligan said.
Deputy Mayor and Finance Portfolio Councillor Chris Wilson said the budget would set council in good stead for the future.
“Now we just need to make sure we deliver on it, which we have a very good track record of… so I have no doubt we will,” he said.
Cr Wilson said a lot of work went into preparing the budget.
“The actual meeting on the day only takes about half an hour, but there’s months and months and months of lead-up work by officers, and then obviously council in the final stages to get to this point today,” he said.
“We’ve had back-to-back really good results over the best part of the last decade, so it’s good to continue to see that hard work continuing.”
LVRC CEO Ian Church said officers would closely monitor spending.
“I would like to reassure council that we will be monitoring the budget over the next 12 months very carefully and we will make sure that we achieve the surplus and that we manage our expenditure,” Mr Church said.
