Budget
Mayor's Budget Speech 2026/2027
On behalf of our Council team, I am pleased to hand down the 2026/2027 financial year budget.
This budget has been extra challenging with rising fuel costs, electricity prices, insurance premiums and other costs placing more and more pressure on both our community and Council’s operations.
We recognise the cost of living pressures facing everyone, so we have done everything possible to reduce costs within our organisation and find greater efficiencies. We want to ensure that we are delivering the best value we can for our community.
I am pleased that we have kept the overall general rate increase for residential to 2.95% and commercial and industrial to 3.95%. Within the categories because of the three-year averaging and last year’s revaluations there will still be winners and losers with some going up and some going down. With service charges we continue to work towards full cost recovery with water access, wastewater, and waste services having varying increases to keep up with the rising cost of delivering these services. Waste, in particular, is a continuous issue with the cost of Government compliance causing us to have to fence some of our rural transfer stations. We continue to encourage everyone to recycle and sort waste, particularly commercial users, to help keep the costs down.
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.
In this budget there will be upgrades to some of the depots because of a change in work structure. We are empowering local teams to deliver services closer to home, reducing costs while keeping local jobs and expertise within our communities. We have kept a large focus on roads and have invested $16.56M on the total road program, with $5.4M on reseals to continue to minimise the bitumen potholes. We have budgeted $4.85M in our operational budget to be spent on our sealed roads and $2.54M on our unsealed roads and this will include drainage work. We are also investing time and effort into sourcing good quality gravel to ensure best practise with our gravel re-sheeting program. $2.6M will be spent on stormwater drainage, including kerb and channel, culverts new and renewals and $560K on footpath renewals and upgrades.
We successfully air scoured the Blackbutt and Benarkin water pipes last year and this year we will be working on Murgon and Wondai’s water pipes. Water continues to be a major focus with $2.2M dollars going to the Mt Wooroolin Reservoir and $8.5 million to the Gordonbrook off stream storage upgrade. Repairs to Kingaroy’s wastewater plant due to trade waste damage has unfortunately cost this council and our community $2.8M. Council is well advanced in our Biosecurity plans, and I am pleased to announce that we are investing funds into a feral pig subsidy program and in this budget, we are designing a weed seed wash down facility.
Council remains in a strong financial position, with a healthy cash balance, no new borrowings and a strong focus on maintaining our assets. Unfunded depreciation remains broadly consistent with last year and we are pleased to work with the community to continue to deliver on their community plans.
I would like to thank CEO Mark Pitt, our Finance General Manager Kerri , Infrastructure General Manager Aaron, my fellow Councillors and everyone who helped to put this budget together. This budget will continue to deliver the best possible outcomes for our community within the resources we have, and we look forward to a customer focused Council serving our wonderful community.
Thank you and God Bless.
Mayor Kathy Duff