Budget
Mayor's Budget Speech 2025/2026
I am pleased to hand down the 2025/2026 financial year budget on behalf of this Council team.
The CEO, Senior staff and Councillors I think would all agree that the recent State Government revaluations have been incredibly challenging because they have been inconsistent across nearly every category of rateable land.
I am pleased to say that our wonderful General Manager of Finance and Liveablility and her team have been able to navigate this problem and I believe they have done a great job of minimising the impact on our ratepayers as much as possible.
Within the categories and across the majority of categories the rate rise will be on average 2.25% but because of the revaluations I need to emphasise that there will be winners and losers. The average residential block’s general rates will increase by approximately $45 per year.
There will be some areas across the region where ratepayers may even get a small reduction in their general rates however some landholders, because of the large fluctuations in valuations, will get a significant increase. We have used tools such as three year averaging to try to minimise the impact on these property owners.
Our rate rise is very minimal compared to some other Councils that I know have reached double digit figures. We have also kept our 10% discount that many other Councils have removed. The 10% discount for early payment not only comes off General Rates. It also includes water access, wastewater and wheelie bin collection charges. Eligible South Burnett pensioners can also receive up to $400 per annum off their annual rate fee plus 50% off recycling charges.
This Council team have made a huge effort to find savings across our organisation while still maintaining basic essential services and infrastructure. I am proud to say that in delivering this budget we have not had to reduce any of our cash and our operations are covering our costs so in real terms our books are balanced.
Wastewater and water are both separate business units and we continue to collect additional funds to ensure that we can maintain and improve these assets going forward. Waste is also its own business unit and is an increasing cost to Council because of State Government compliance. Many Councils are closing their smaller transfer stations to help reduce costs however we have chosen to keep our transfer stations as we realise that they are important particularly to our rural communities who do not have a bin collection service.
In delivering this budget we have kept a large focus on our roads and have again put the majority of capital works into our roads. We successfully air scoured the Kingaroy CBD and this year we will be air scouring the Blackbutt and Benarkin water pipes.
Our Council is very much focused on growing our own and as such have put on four biosecurity officers to spray the weeds instead of contractors. We are also training our own traffic management team and have put on two additional staff to ensure that our cemeteries are looked after in the way that everyone would expect.
I hope that everyone has noticed the presentation across our region with slashing done, guideposts straightened and the town gardens looking tidy and maintained. Our goal this term is to get the basics right so that our community feels that everything is being cared for and looked after. We have a new direction with a customer focused team and have put on additional staff to ensure that you as ratepayers are being looked after and your concerns are followed up and dealt with. In closing I would like to thank my fellow Councillors for the massive amount of work they have put into this budget, the Senior leadership team, GM Kerri, GM Aaron and your respective staff, our CEO Mark and our team in Executive Services.
Thank you everyone. I present our budget.
Mayor Kathy Duff