Gippsland › Latest news › Baw Baw Local News

Baw Baw Shire Council adopts 2023/24 Annual Budget ensuring it aligns with 2021-2025 strategic plans

2023/24 Annual Budget aligns with council's vision, enables service delivery and infrastructure development, tackling rate caps, economic uncertainty, and population growth in Baw Baw Shire.

By news@gippsland - 15th June 2023 - Back to News

Baw Baw Shire Council has taken prudent and measured action in response to current economic and environmental challenges, adopting an Annual Budget that delivers now, and lays down markers to ensure a healthy, thriving, and sustainable Baw Baw Shire for years to come. The 2023/24 Annual Budget was adopted at last night's Ordinary council meeting along with the Long-term Infrastructure Plan (LTIP), Council Plan 2021-2025 (Annual Review 2023/24), Revenue and Rating Plan, and Long-Term Financial Plan.

The 2023/24 Annual Budget ensures financial sustainability, supports council objectives, and funds essential services and capital works

Resourceful council plans

Together, these documents detail how the council will deploy its resources with pragmatism and purpose to ensure our residents have access to the services, infrastructure, and support they need across Baw Baw. Following a public submission process, the finalised Budget also includes an additional $460,000 allocated to fund 15 initiatives and projects specifically requested by the community.

"On behalf of council, I'm proud to present an Annual Budget that is prudent, measured and which will deliver for our residents now and into the future," says Mayor of Baw Baw Shire Cr Annemarie McCabe. "Baw Baw Shire is a big place, and there are a lot of big things in store for the financial year ahead. Our 'plan, design, deliver' approach will see $58 million of vital infrastructure delivered this financial year, and $16.8 million for road projects across the shire," says Mayor McCabe.

Community-centred budget

Ms McCabe said, "Our community is the centrepiece of this Budget and everything we do. I would like to thank everyone who provided their input in response to the draft Budget throughout April and May. Baw Baw is one of few Victorian councils to put funds aside during the annual budget process to be allocated in direct response to community requests."

"We do it because we are committed to giving our community every opportunity to advocate for what is most important to them. It is a credit to their passion and dedication to their community that our final budget includes funding for 15 new community-requested projects totalling $460,000," she said. To see the full Budget overview and highlights please visit Baw Baw Shire 2023/24 Budget page.

Annual budget 2023/24

The 2023/24 Operating Budget represents an income of $129.58 million, expenditure of $101.86 million, resulting in a surplus of $27.72million. This surplus figure is converted to an adjusted underlying result that better reflects council's level of financial stability. This result excludes grants received for capital purposes which are non-recurrent and capital contributions from other sources.

The adjusted underlying result for 2023/24 is an underlying deficit of $3.78million. This underlying deficit reflects a financial position consistent with the current rate capped environment of 3.5 per cent, and the realities of delivering services and infrastructure for a rapidly growing Shire population.

Pictures from Baw Baw Shire Council website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com