Draft Council budget gets on with the job

Orange City Council’s draft budget for the next financial year aims to deliver the infrastructure needed to meet the demands of a growing regional city, while demonstrating evidence of the Council’s sound fiscal management.

The 16 May Council meeting decided to put the draft 2023/24 spending and income plans on exhibition for community comment for 28 days.

The Council’s sound fiscal management can be seen in:

• a reduction of the operating deficit from $2.4 million last year to $500K this year, a move towards balanced budgets in the years ahead
• interest income growing from $2 million last year to $8.9 million this year through agile negotiation.

Orange Mayor Jason Hamling said the budget would continue to face serious challenges.

“We know that residents and businesses are already facing tough times with their own cost-of-living challenges, but the alternative of not increasing rates would be to rob the community of the projects and services that a viable local council can offer,” Cr Jason Hamling said.

“The most serious task is the decision to limit proposed rate increases to the state government mandated cap of 3.7% and keep increases in fees & charges for Council services to 5%, all against an expected inflation backdrop of over 7%.”

Council too is facing cost-of-living questions, including:

• A 34% rise in electricity costs with gas prices also up
• The elimination of the former rebate from the NSW Government to cover the Emergency Service Levy. This is expected to lead to a $170K shortfall.

The NSW Government’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) have set the maximum allowable rate increase at 3.7%. This rate cap means:

• average residential rates in Orange will increase by $2.09 per week or $109.19 per year
• average business rates in Orange will increase by $2.57 per week or $133.64 per year.

At the 16 May meeting, as well as making the decision to put the draft budget on exhibition, Council made one change on the night to spend $600K, (up from $408K) on footpaths. Accordingly, these budget documents you can download here don’t reflect that change. The extra footpath spend will be from capital, so it won’t change the draft budget’s operating deficit.

Orange City Council’s Finance Committee Chair Cr Kevin Duffy said he was pleased the budget was in good shape.

“Despite spending on a number of capital projects in the coming year, it’s a good sign that the bottom line for the Council’s consolidated funds, which includes water and sewer funds as well as the operating fund, has a projected surplus of $6.4 million,” Cr Kevin Duffy said.

With this budget, the Council will begin on continue to work on projects including:

• Sporting Precinct development $60m*
• Orange Regional Conservatorium $25m*
• Footpath rehabilitation and construction $600k
• Huntley Road further upgrades $1.1m
• Shiralee water supply expansion $6.9m
• Lake Canobolas upgrade $1.3m
• Sewage Treatment Plant Inlet works $8.3M