Council
27 June, 2024
Moyne approves 2024-2025 budget
MOYNE Shire Council adopted its 2024-2025 budget this week.
The budget was adopted at Tuesday’s council meeting and the changes were made following a period of consultation with nine submissions received.
It features a $62.5 million total operating expenditure with a projected operating surplus of $6.3 million.
The budget includes a capital works budget of $27.9 million, which included $7.3 million of projects carried over from last year and a $9.7 million allocation to the local road network.
Cr James Purcell questioned how much money Moyne Shire Council had received from renewable energy projects, which amounted to $3.2 million.
“What do we spend that on?” he said.
Director of corporate services Ed Small said the funds went to general revenue, which was collectively allocated as opposed to it being specifically tracked where funds generated from renewable projects went.
As mover of the motion to accept the budget, Cr Karen Foster said it had been a long seven months putting the budget together.
“There are absolutely things I would have loved to have seen in this budget that aren’t there, as I’m sure every single councillor sitting around this table would feel,” she said.
“However, I’m not about to vote against the entire $62.5 million package on that basis because I think that’s democracy.
“We’ve all worked through this over that seven months, we’ve all had opportunity for input and discussion.
“We’re doing more and more, with less and less, so the craft of putting together a budget is becoming all the more complex.”
The budget also adopts a 2.75 per cent increase in the general property rate, in line with the state government’s rate capping policy.
Other funded projects include drainage works in Campbell and James Street in Port Fairy, upgrades to the Woorndoo Recreation Reserve, and $2.4 million for further work on the Koroit Township renewal.
Cr Smith said the budget is responsible and focused on service delivery.
“Costs are rising for councils, just as they have in the supermarket and at the petrol pump,” he said.
“We were facing significant increases in costs.
“We are committed to maintaining the service levels our community expects and maintaining our infrastructure, but we are determined to do that in a way that represents best value for money for our ratepayers.”
Cr Damian Gleeson expressed frustration with the budget despite supporting it, saying he wanted to “air some frustrations” in case it was his last budget.
“Above the line we achieved two items as council – one was a flag pole, and one was some plaques in Garvoc,” he said.
“In a $62 million budget I think we were successful in achieving about $8000.
“My frustration is we constantly get told we’re the closest to the community, and the community come to us and ask us to do things, and really we get not much done.
“For the last three years we’ve had a $7 million plus carry over… we’ve never really been brave enough to say why don’t we pull a million bucks out of that carry over and let’s really get some good community things done.”
Cr Gleeson said he could not understand why Victoria Park and D.C Farran Oval received money each year, but other projects were knocked back.
He said he did not support taking money away from projects, but instead wondered why surplus took priority over others also being awarded funding.
“Nobody is giving me an explanation as to why we do that,” he said.
“I just can’t understand why we value volunteers across the shire differently.
“I just don’t get it.”
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