Now that Warrnambool City Council has adopted its budget for the next year, we unpack some of the changes you can expect.
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After last week's fiery council budget meeting, we now know rates are going up by an average of $69 which will make the average rates bill $2029.
Included in the rates bill is a $34 increase for waste management which, the council's director of corporate strategies Peter Utri said was to helo cover additional costs of recycling and the introducition of the FOGO service across the municipality.
With a forecast rise of 4.5 per cent next year and 2.5 per cent CPI rise every year after that, the average rates bill is expected to be $2228 by 2022-23 and $2583 by 2029 when rate and waste revenue jumps to $54 million.
About $40.6 million in rates and charges will help prop up the $92.4 million 2019-20 budget which includes $19.4 million of infrastructure spending.
Employee costs are expected to jump from more than $33 million in 2018-19 to $34.26 million this year and by 2022-23 will be almost $38 million.
With council struggling to cover costs, it made the controversial move to seek permission from the Essential Services Commission to raise rates above the State Government-imposed cap.
Despite applying for three years worth of extra rises, the commission only granted permission for two years and told the council it need to do more to get its finances under control.
Staff would continue to look at all the levers that are available to it to ensure the ongoing sustainability of council.
New path for extra rates
With the extra $655,000 the council is collecting, courtesy of the commission's approved two per cent increase above the cap, Warrnambool will see:
- $494,000 worth of repairs to 40 sections of footpaths around the city;
- $106,000 for playgrounds at W.P O'Sullivan Reserve in Dennington and Wesak Drive and
- $55,000 for bridge renewal, mainly targeted at the Hopkins Road bridge.
The budget also includes a number of other footpaths which will come out of its small infrastructure fund.
A new $24,000 path from Cannon Hill to the RSL precinct will be built as well as another $15,000 section on Jamieson Street opposite the power sub-station.
Out of that same fund, $12,000 will be spent on an all-abilities picnic table at the Koroit Street playground.
User fees, fines on the rise
Fees are going up and, according to Mr Utri, the majority will be in-line with CPI increases. But others will be higher.
Parking fines went up on July 1, increasing from $70 to $80 which is expected to tip $680,000 into the budget.
Mr Utri said parking fines had not increased for three years, "so it's really a bit of a catch up".
Fees for some sportsgrounds have jumped as much as 25 per cent, Mr Utri said. He said the increases would allow the council to recoup about 15 per cent of the costs of maintaining the reserves and pavilions.
"It's costing us about $750,000 to maintain the reserves and pavilions, and so we're recouping around $140,000-odd from the clubs," he said.
Seasonal user fees at sportgrounds for Hampden football league games will jump 25 per cent to $10,084 - up from $8067 last year and $6454 the previous year.
For the district league, seasonal fees are $5041 - up from $4034 last year and $3226 in 2017-18. Fees for football practice matches, finals and preseason training are among other costs to rise by up to 25 per cent.
It will now cost as much to register a cat in Warrnambool as it does a dog, with fees for a sterilised cat jumping from $59 to $70. An unsterilised cat will now cost $210, up from $177.
A $600 annual itinerant trading fee has been introduced which sees operators of markets hit with a 12-month fee rather than individual stallholders - an idea that sparked major backlash after it had been floated in the original policy.
The hike in fees comes after recent advice from economics group Deloitte which suggested that to lift Warrnambool's financial performance, the council needed to make further improvements such as increasing user charges, reviewing service levels and lifting overall efficiency.
Keeping the city sustainable
Mr Utri said staff would continue to look at all the levers are available to it to ensure the council's ongoing sustainability.
"That includes internal costs, looking at fees and charges, looking at taxation around rating and income sources," he said. They're all the things that we've got available to us, and that's the things we have to do.
"When people talk about 'why don't you', they've conveniently discounted the fact that we've identified several million dollars in efficiency savings over the last couple of years because it doesn't suit the purposes of some of their other arguments."
No vote, no problem
Hidden among some of the budget's income figures is $55,000 that the council received from those who failed to vote in the last council elections. "It's much better to vote," Mr Utri said. "We actually got $2000 last week from the Australian Electoral Commission for people not voting in the 2016 election, so it's still trickling through."
Mr Utri said it was not a Warrnambool City Council law, but state and federal regulations which determined that fines be directed back to council coffers.
Wollaston Road earmarked for major repairs
The council will spend $4.1 million on fixing and upgrading roads across the municipality, which is partially funded under the state government's Roads to Recovery money.
The big ticket item among dozens of roads earmarked for upgrades is a $596,400 plan for major patching to Wollaston Road.
The budget also allocated $1.4m to be spent on low energy street lighting which is expected to pay for itself in five years. After that it is expected to bring savings for the council.
Caravan parks' bumper summer
The council is expecting to bring in $2.78 million from its caravan parks which, after expenses, leaves a healthy $865,000 profit.
It is however a drop of $74,000 on last year, but Mr Utri said that was on the back of a bumper summer and the council was being conservative in its forecast.
Back in 2017-18, the caravan parks made $1.15m profit while last year they made $939,000 profit.
Stairs repairs after storm hits
Stairs washed away during a storm at Point Ritchie are expected to be replaced under a $190,000 council plan. Mr Utri said the stairs were damaged about 18 months ago.
He said that area's cultural heritage was significant and any works would need to be done in consultation with the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning.
"The funding is there and the intent is there, we just have to make sure we go through the right processes to enable that to occur," Mr Utri said.
"It's a fairly significant place."
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