Politics & Council
29 April, 2024
Shire wants to set up 'rainy day' account
LODDON Shire Council wants to put $2.5 million into a special flood restoration fund. The “rainy day” account was being discussed by councillors yesterday afternoon as they prepared to send the 2024-2025 draft budget out for public comment...
LODDON Shire Council wants to put $2.5 million into a special flood restoration fund.
The “rainy day” account was being discussed by councillors yesterday afternoon as they prepared to send the 2024-2025 draft budget out for public comment.
A 2.75 per cent rate rise is proposed. Garbage and recycling charges will not be increased.
The farm rate will be 12 per cent below residential and commercial properties.
Corporate director Michelle Stedman told councillors funds would be allocated annually to the flood recovery kitty and be used for “unfunded flood restoration projects” by insurance, State or Federal Government.
Loddon Shire is still waiting on approval from the State Government of restoration projects from the October 2022 flood emergency. Operations director Steve Phillips said earlier this year that approvals were being bogged in four layers of bureaucracy and he doubted works totalling more than $30 million could be finished before June 2025 when government disaster funding expired.
CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald says in the draft budget that there is good news for residents.
“However, scattered underneath these positives are some ever-present challenges which the organisation and councillors continue to be mindful about in how they plan for the future,” he said.
“In the ongoing response to the October 2022 floods, the Shire is expecting to receive $20 million to contribute toward reconstruction of flood damaged assets, but the continued recovery effort from this major event puts increasing pressure on council’s financial position; resilience and betterment of dated infrastructure still comes at a cost that is not entirely met by external funding or insurance claims.
“Inflationary pressures remain stubborn across the construction sector seeing the impact of rates income lessen where we all get less for our dollar in the current financial climate.
“The pace of revenue growth for the sector is not keeping up with the growth in expenses.
“These factors combined with a large, ageing asset base make it increasingly challenging to deliver our services in the same way that we always have. Underneath council’s positive cash result of $2.91 million is an $8.59 million deficit and that is not an isolated story.
“Deficits are forecast to continue in coming years as we draw down on cash reserves to deliver projects and programs of benefit to the community.
“But these reserves are not infinite.”
He said council was committed to working towards a financially sustainable future and “we continue to advocate for increased supports being made available to rural councils from other levels of government”.
“We also look to grow efficiencies throughout our business by exploring shared services and different ways of working. Ongoing strategic work to deepen our understanding of the Shire’s asset base will allow us to identify further improvements in how we manage these important conduits for how service levels are delivered to the community.”
Loddon Shire will remain debt-free, one of the draft budget’s highlights according to Mayor Gavan Holt.
Cr Holt said community planning would receive $750,000 and there would be strong investment in road and infrastructure maintenance